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Deconstructing Jesus Hardcover – March 1, 2000

by Robert M. Price (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 56 ratings
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  1. Print length
    284 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Prometheus
  4. Publication date
    March 1, 2000
  5. Dimensions
    5.35 x 0.81 x 8.42 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1573927589
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1573927581
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"...this is a book I can recommend. It raises many legitimate issues..." -- Internet Bookwatch, July, 2001

From the Inside Flap

In DECONSTRUCTING JESUS, author Robert M. Price argues that liberal Protestant scholars who produce reconstructions of the "historical Jesus" are, as Albert Schweitzer pointed out long ago, creating their own Jesus icons to authorize a liberal religious agenda. Christian faith, whether fundamentalist or theologically liberal, invariably tends to produce a Jesus capable of playing the role of a religious figurehead.

In this way, "Jesus Christ" functions as a symbolic cloak for several hidden agendas. This is no surprise, Price demonstrates, since the Jesus Christ of the gospels is very likely a fictional amalgam of several first-century prophets and messiahs, as well as of purely mythic Mystery Cult redeemers and Gnostic Aions. To show this, Price follows the noted scholar Burton Mack's outline of a range of "Jesus movements" and "Christ cults," showing the origins of each one's Jesus figures and how they may have finally merged into the patchwork savior of Christian dogma.

Finally, Price argues that there is good reason to believe that Jesus never existed as a historical figure, and that responsible historians must remain agnostic about a "historical Jesus" and what he stood for.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Prometheus; First Edition first Printing (March 1, 2000)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 284 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1573927589
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1573927581
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.35 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.35 x 0.81 x 8.42 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 56 ratings

About the author

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Robert M. Price

Robert M. Price

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Robert M. Price (Selma, NC), professor of scriptural studies at the Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary, is the editor (with Jeffery Jay Lowder) of The Empty Tomb: Jesus Beyond the Grave and the Journal of Higher Criticism. He is also the author of Top Secret: The Truth Behind Today’s Pop Mysticisms; The Paperback Apocalypse: How the Christian Church Was Left Behind; The Reason-Driven Life: What Am I Here on Earth For? and many other works.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
56 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the book very informative, scholarly, and interesting. They describe it as an important and persuasive work that deserves serious attention. Readers also praise the writing as wonderful, clear, and well-done.

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4 customers mention "Scholarly content"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book very informative, readable, and interesting. They say it presents a whole load of material from the ancient world. Readers also appreciate the analytical rationality, eloquent clarity, and comprehensive scope.

"...And of course backs up what he says. This is a very important book and 1 that can make Christians seriously doubt the way their religion was..." Read more

"One of the single best books I've ever read on this topic! Scholarly and readable--an amazing feat!..." Read more

"...He makes no claims to have all the answers, and presents a whole load of interesting material from the ancient world that will at the very least..." Read more

"...eloquent clarity, and comprehensive scope makes this another persuasive work that deserves serious attention by those interested in the origins of..." Read more

3 customers mention "Readable"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the book highly readable, wonderful, and well-written. They appreciate the analytical rationality, eloquent clarity, and comprehensive scope.

"...Scholarly and readable--an amazing feat!..." Read more

"...Highly readable, highly recommended, and another in a lineup of good books to consider for your bookshelf." Read more

"...The analytical rationality, eloquent clarity, and comprehensive scope makes this another persuasive work that deserves serious attention by those..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

Brent Waterbury
5.0 out of 5 stars 'Minimalist' outlook
Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2024
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Love Robert Price's outlook on early Christianity just like Bart Ehrman's. Although Price is more a 'minimalist' in that he feels early Christianity began in the 2nd c. rather than the 1st. And of course backs up what he says. This is a very important book and 1 that can make Christians seriously doubt the way their religion was constructed.
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BGN
5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulously and wonderfully written!
Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2024
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One of the single best books I've ever read on this topic! Scholarly and readable--an amazing feat! A fabulous job of meshing "canonical" with historically comparative and contemporaneous documents and documentation. Loved every word of it. Very informative!
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T. K. Mikkelsen
4.0 out of 5 stars An Different Look at Jesus
Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2013
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I believe this is one of the first books where Robert M. Price touches on the subject of the historicity of Jesus. Price does a very good walk through the different aspects of evidence for a historical Jesus and shows how all the evidence slowly fades away. He does not yet come to the conclusion that Jesus is pure myth in this book, the is for later books, but he does say that we can know next to nothing about the historical Jesus from the evidence we have.
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KJ
5.0 out of 5 stars Will make you think
Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2011
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Robert M. Price has a knack for coming up with intriguing hypotheses when it comes to Biblical criticism. He makes no claims to have all the answers, and presents a whole load of interesting material from the ancient world that will at the very least throw some much needed doubt onto the field of historical Jesus research. I wouldn't say that this book is aimed at the average layman, but rather at those who have done a fair amount of reading on this topic already. There are a few long portions of the book that present the traditions of Jesus from non-biblical sources and I could imagine that the average reader would become disinterested. For those looking to expand their knowledge on the historical Jesus I recommend this book very highly.
3 people found this helpful
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Aaron
5.0 out of 5 stars Well-researched
Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2017
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Price has done amazing research of extra-biblical sources to cast doubt on the traditional view of Jesus' uniqueness. Virtually nothing he said was not said by others, whether the Cynics or even much-maligned Jews of the first century who were teaching the same things. Even the uniqueness of the crucifixion and resurrection was preceded by identical myths or even novels of the time. Price is sympathetic, as he came from an Evangelical background and you can see an evolution of thought in his writings. After exposing the idea of originality in the gospels he reaches a point of agnosticism about whether we can know that there ever was a man named Jesus of Nazareth at all.
4 people found this helpful
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Rick Theis
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Deconstruction
Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2016
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I can only say, "he's done it again!" It's another really good read, and recommended to anyone looking to put another lid on the discussion. Well done, and written in a way I like to see reasoned arguments. You either wind up agreeing or disagreeing, although the latter would be unreasonable. Highly readable, highly recommended, and another in a lineup of good books to consider for your bookshelf.
2 people found this helpful
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Will F.
3.0 out of 5 stars Thanks be to Dr. Price!
Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2008
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This is another indispensable contribution from Dr. Price. Here he traces the lines of evidence back to a plurality of preorthodox Christian sociological and cultural phenomena that later converged into what we recognize as Christianity. Dr. Price is honest enough with the evidence to avoid the trap, that many Jesus scholars fall prey to, of building a "Jesus" out of some axiomatic theological or historical agenda. He shows a depth and sensitivity to the data which free him from the group-think constraints of many other academics. The analytical rationality, eloquent clarity, and comprehensive scope makes this another persuasive work that deserves serious attention by those interested in the origins of Christianity and "historical" Jesus studies.
5 people found this helpful
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Lacey Macfee
5.0 out of 5 stars More excellence from the bible geek.
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2014
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Superb stuff, blissfully untainted with the brush of bias so understandably prevalent in orthodoxy.

Dr. Price will not waste your time, agree with him or disagree, but you will learn something and that is a wonderful thing in the age of spin.
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Top reviews from other countries

A.
5.0 out of 5 stars A respectful investigation into the range of possibilities about Jesus
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 15, 2012
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I think this is another great work by Robert Price. If you are in a fearful muddle about Christianity then maybe you just want someone to say, " Don't worry the Bible is all fiction, not reality ". Well there is a gradient between total fiction and total reality. Price gives evidence from the Bible Vs external evidence that the events written in the Bible were not eye witness accounts but rather what people decades after the event thought maybe happened, or what they thought Jesus & other characters should have said. There are clues which point to the authors of Acts having used material from writings of the historian Josephus for their story. There are examples of where people have used Jesus as a folder heading and ascribed their own doctrines to him. Price shows examples of anachronisms which are evidence that the N.T. was written in the second century, for instance Rabbi and Synagogues are late first century ideas. Once you have read books like 'Deconstructing Jesus ' the Bible becomes much more fun and much less threatening. There are many reasons to support the view of the Bible as a solely human endeavor. I see this work as a postmortem autopsy on Jesus.
Another super book by Price is " The pre Nicene New Testament " which has insightful footnotes. For instance on p 592 about Acts 10 & 11 [ which has Peter wondering if the gospel is just for the Jews ] Price asks ' How was this dispute possible if the parting words of the risen Son of God were," to make disciples of all nations ": Matt 28v19 and Luke 24v47-49. Peter shows no knowledge of The Great Commission and also that there was no habit of looking through written records of the sayings of Jesus. The account is an attempt to settle a long standing disagreement on the issue '. A modern author of Acts 10v 15 might be more likely to have the angel say, " Peter, the gospel is for everybody, why else do you think Jesus told you to make disciples of all nations, duh ! "
First century writers imagined heaven was just above the sky or just behind the tiny stars so it made sense to them writing Jesus as ascending up into the clouds as in Acts 1v9 but with our modern knowledge we see that makes no sense. A modern writer would be more likely to have Jesus just disappear through to another dimension.
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Atomboy
4.0 out of 5 stars Really well researched
Reviewed in Japan on January 26, 2015
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This book is pretty heavy ~ so you really need to be up on your biblical criticism to appreciate it!
Still, even for neophytes like myself, there's a lot to take away from this one.

The bookseller, Powells, is one of my favorites in the US. The book was in excellent condition (though used) and they shipped it promptly and it arrived in good order!
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daisycow
5.0 out of 5 stars Deconstructing Jesus - the real facts
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 25, 2016
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excellent book which deconstructs the many myths around Jesus and the passages about him
in the New Testament - revealing that we really know nothing about him for certain after all the contradictory statements, even whether he was really a historical person.
Price as always presents all this is his inimical even-handed way, just presenting the evidence without attempting to twist it into a pet theory and such speculation as there is is clearly marked and leans both ways - this is very rare these days.
He demolishes the arguments of many other evangelists and biblical scholars in the nicest possible way when they go out on a limb making unsubstantiated claims, pointing out clearly the clear facts.
A brilliant read
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Peter Marchant
4.0 out of 5 stars ... dazzle with his vast cross cultural knowledge and his easy, affable style
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 23, 2015
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Price continues to dazzle with his vast cross cultural knowledge and his easy, affable style. This is no mere re-run of The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man.
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Christian Friedl
4.0 out of 5 stars Well-Written Starter In Jesus Myth Theory
Reviewed in Germany on August 8, 2015
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The book gave me a good idea about how the creation of the new testament might actually have taken place. Though it largely builds on the works of one other scholar, Burton Mack, Price by and large keeps in mind that everything we can say about that period is conjecture and, at best, a convincing hypothesis. The book actually helped me read the new testament without feeling like I don't have a clue what the writers are trying to tell me.
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