不存在的耶穌?

末日就在眼前



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Kenneth Humphreys
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13.09.10


This article and over fifty others are now available as a book. For your copy order here.
 

 

 

 

Jesus? No, the Sun-god Sol.

Mosaic, Italica, Seville, Spain. 2nd century AD.

From 'House of the Planetarium.'

The 7 planetary divinities on the mosaic gave their names to the days of the week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Professor Speaks

"His birth-date should be reassigned to 6 or 5 or 4 BC, though some prefer 11 or 7...

His birthplace was not Bethlehem ... this was only asserted in order that an Old Testament prophecy could be fulfilled ...

Jesus Christ was probably born at Nazareth ... or perhaps some other small place."

Michael Grant (Jesus, p71,171)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

History bears grim witness to the fate of brave thinkers who dared to question the dogmas of the Church.

 

 

 

The Real Martyrs

1546 Etienne Dolet, French printer and bookseller and passionate advocate of learning, was imprisoned several times for his outspoken criticisms of the Church.

Dolet was condemned for atheism and burnt at Lyons, along with his books, leaving his family destitute.

 

 

 

1553 Michael Servetus, the Spanish physician who discovered pulmonary blood circulation (an advance upon Galen) fled the Inquisition and thought himself safe among Protestants.

Big mistake.

John Calvin, the puritanical "Protestant Pope" of Geneva proved his Christian credentials by having Servetus burnt at the stake for heresy. Servetus had criticized the Trinity and infant baptism.

 

 

 

 

 

"The Dutch Radicals did not forget to question, when questioning had gone out of fashion for the rest of theology."

– Albert Schweitzer, Geschichte der paulinischen Forschung, 108.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1589 Francis Kett, a tutor at Bene't (Corpus Christi), Cambridge, expressed doubts that JC may not have been the great moralist Christians believed.

For his audacity the professor was burnt to ashes.

 

 

 

 

1600 Giordano Bruno, Italian philosopher who taught in Paris and Wittenberg, paid the ultimate price for thinking for himself.

After languishing for 7 years in a dungeon of the Inquisition, where he was subjected to repeated torture, he was condemned and burned at the stake.

Bruno had had the audacity to suggest that space was boundless and that the sun and its planets were not unique.

 

 

 

 

1619 Lucilio Vanini (aka 'Giulio Cesare' - 'Julius Caesar').

Philosopher, teacher and freethinker, in 1616 the ex-Carmelite monk Vanini imprudently published his thoughts in “De admirandis naturae reginae deaeque mortalium arcanis” (“of the marvelous secrets of the queen and goddess of the mortal ones, nature."

His ideas included the possibility of human evolution from apes and the denial of an immortal soul.

Vanini rejected Christianity as a fiction invented by priests and argued for natural explanations for miracles. As a result he had to flee from place to place to avoid Catholic persecution.

But he was taken at Toulouse, condemned, his tongue cut out, strangled and burnt.

 

 

 

 

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) – revolutionary champion of liberty.

"I detest the Bible as I detest everything that is cruel."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bruno Bauer (1809-1882) – the original iconoclast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kersey Graves (1813-1883) – Quaker who saw through the Jesus fraud.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The End is Nigh

"Not only has the divinity of Christ been given up, but his existence as a man is being more and more seriously questioned.

Some of the ablest scholars of the world deny that he ever lived at all.

A commanding literature dealing with the inquiry, intense in its seriousness and profound and thorough in its research, is growing up in all countries, and spreading the conviction that Christ is a myth.

Jesus ... will have to take his place with the host of other demigods whose fancied lives and deeds make up the mythology of the world."

– Marshall J. Gauvin (Did Jesus Christ Really Live? 1922)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dead Sea Scroll Scholar

In 1970 biblical scholar and Dead Sea Scroll expert John Allegro argued for the non-existence of Jesus Christ.

Allegro's thesis associated notions of the godman with narcotic-induced visions.

The hallucinatory plant in question was Amanita Muscaria (Fly-Agaric), the phallic mushroom, arguably used by early Christians and interpreted as a virgin (i.e. seedless) birth and "God come in the flesh."

Allegro was subjected to acrimonious fury and ostracised. He died in 1988.

 

High on Jesus?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Born Again Atheist

Evangelist who "threw out the bath water and discovered there was no baby there."

“There is not a single contemporary historical mention of Jesus, not by Romans or by Jews, not by believers or by unbelievers, during his entire lifetime.

This does not disprove his existence, but it certainly casts great doubt on the historicity of a man who was supposedly widely known to have made a great impact on the world. Someone should have noticed.”

Dan Barker, Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist (1992, p. 360).

 

 

 

 

 

Historian comes off the fence

"I have come to realize that mythicism is significantly more probably true than historicity. This I consider as radical a departure from my previous agnosticism as my agnosticism was from my previous historicism."

– Richard Carrier, Editor-in-Chief, Internet Infidels, July 18, 2005

 

耶穌從來沒有存在過-瘋子的想法?


在一個以基督教為基礎的文化裡,否認耶穌的存在乍看之下似乎是荒謬的甚至愚蠢至極的。 回到原來的論點,究竟來說,”主流學術成果” 承認史學上的耶穌,即使是截至目前為止有關於他真正是誰、或更精確地說他何時存在、他曾做過或說過什麼都尚未有任何的協議。

 

事實和想像

今天,新約派的學者遵循著兩個方向前進,其中一項是神學上的耶穌(上帝神聖之子) 這個理論是目前的焦點中心,但是這樣的耶穌概念被公認為只是一項信仰,另一項是史學上的耶穌。

在詳細地、細膩地研究巴勒斯坦第二聖殿時期的歷史、文化及政治後,產生了一個權威的歷史背景。在這個背景之下,微薄的耶穌概念像鬼魅般地存在。

但也是史學脈絡的本身允許這鬼魅救贖者”活著” 、 ”死去” 和"復活” ,並因此把那虛假的幻影丟擲於歷史中。

我們確信耶路撒冷、 希律王、 法利賽人、 羅馬人都曾存在過,但為何偏偏唯獨耶穌?探索頻道紀錄片的線索中發現:

"這些種類的涼鞋耶穌可能曾經穿過,耶穌可能曾經在這種樹下休息過。"

 

慣性的軟性選擇

專業史學家不一定要從事任何特別關心耶穌議題的研究,而且他們都非常清楚它具爭議性的本質。宣稱根本就沒有史學上耶穌的學者,可能會因為他的坦率面臨譏笑甚至辱罵。

因此大部分在基督教文化中被教養的學者不是甘願於相信耶穌存在過,(並聽從以信仰為主的聖經專家的意見)就是對史學上的大人物缺乏證據,用"很可能"為他們的不確定性作開端。堅稱"耶穌是傳說背後可能性人物"比起爭論層層包覆下模糊不清探討關於耶穌的神話要來得安全多。

這種"安全"和沒有膽識的選擇同時地保持了一個來自遠古、窮鄉僻壤木匠的"模糊性"(缺乏證據並不是沒有證據 )和學術上因"信仰問題"由假定、模糊的精神導師到一個聖像地位而引發的分道揚鑣。

 

個有缺陷的方案

然而,一個世界性的信仰有可能由一個無足輕重的人所引起嗎?而且他終其一生沒有被任何人注意到嗎?一個流浪沒有寫下隻字片語的拉比, 在一個充滿苦行者、預言家及驅魔法師的失敗者,有可能下這樣的魔咒並對整個時代造成回響會是一件多麼令人讚嘆的事呢?

事實上,”極簡耶穌”比起根本沒有耶穌的說法更不令人滿意,因為仍然需要往其他地方尋找新宗教根源。而且如果這個根源在某處被找到,那麼 這位模糊的大人物在那裏有什麼需要呢?

非常令人質疑的是基督教信仰是否有可能依據史學耶穌的基礎而建立…他充其量只是一個實踐哲學的老師

– J. Macquarrie (An Existential Theology, p23)

如果我們同意一個沒有任何被注意到歷史紀錄的、漫遊的、激進的拉比稱為耶穌的話,那麼基於相同的標記或甚至數個耶穌的存在也不是那麼令人無法置信的。

他們之中我們將推選誰成為基督教信仰的基礎"上帝獨生之子"?如果都有可能的話,那麼代表都不是他們。

JC不是具有神性選擇使一大群人困惑但卻沒有留下任何遺跡,就是計謀不是影響猶太人而是影響少數虛幻的虔誠信徒,他們的後繼者迅速地分裂成無數敵對的宗派。或者JC是由人類所虛造, 在每個矛盾或遺漏的轉折中所洩漏出的概念。

 

救世原因

諷刺的是,毀壞那個榮光虛構的耶穌 、上帝之子、世界的救世主的工作,是開始於一些自由派神學家 ,而不是自由思想家。

教會”公認的智慧”第一次被挑戰是在歐洲宗教改革時期,這帶來教皇制度正統性的批評聲浪 。在打開批評閘門之後,所有宗教的權威和聖經本身都受到質疑, 並浮現出各式各樣不同的新教教派 。但歷經教會千年強制實施無知”學人教育”的努力,也僅累積少量真正的知識

身為有給薪的聖職教士,這些學者努力地使用重新發現的邏輯方法來捍衛基督教的教條, 無論是羅馬天主教或是新的、"純粹的"各種改革的新教。

但是在兩個世紀之後, 隨著啟蒙運動的展開 ,勇敢的神學家開始注意明顯的錯誤和所接受聖經中不一致的地方 。他們詢問為什麼新約中對大部份耶穌的生活保持沉默?為什麼保羅對耶穌的生活幾乎沒有任何談論 ?

在美國和法國革命期間,自由思想家走得更深入,質疑整個聖經的真實性並譴責基督教是一種造假的迷信和一種壓制的工具 。 "自然神論"一種新的極簡信仰因而誕生,這種信仰認為身為造物者的上帝在人類的事務上沒有扮演直接的角色。

 

高等批評

在一個信奉激進少數派的世紀--特別顯著的是,在19世紀中期杜賓根學校的學者及 20世紀後期德國和荷蘭激進派的批評者,持續地極力勸說基督教的上帝和救世主概念是一個敬虔的虛造,耶穌的整個"生命" 審判和十字架是由猶太教經文中拼貼的混合曲。

對那些看得深入超出基督教狹隘眼光的人來說, 顯而易見的是,很多耶穌的故事跟更古老的寓言有相似之處,其中有完全相同的主角配角,完全相同的故事情節和相同的道德目的。 非常清楚可見的是基督教並沒有從天而降而是一種人為的產品。

在20世紀期間 ,儘管在宗教狂熱上的週期性高張,理性主義、 考古學和科學調查的新技術迫使信仰捍衛者的緊縮。 為了調和累積和不可否認有證據的聖經錯誤,充滿雜色色彩的耶穌"生命”像海藻般在陽光充足的的池塘中擴散。

很多"主流"新約學者為他們基督徒身分找到一個新家,一個模糊不清"耶穌的歷史"在公認和累積層層以信仰為基礎的捏造下而存在。

由於害怕承認他們的信仰和領域是建立在一個巨大的誤解上,他們臆測各種充滿幻想的想法--一個激進的拉比耶穌、 地中海農民耶穌 、一個擁有妻子和家庭的耶穌、 一個曾到英國、 印度和日本旅行的耶穌、 思多葛或犬儒學派的哲學家耶穌-- 一個符合各種時節和口味的耶穌 。 數以百計關於耶穌的"傳記文學"因而產生,每一個故事都計畫避免明顯的事實性,都是沒有真正事實基礎支撐的神聖寓言。

 

結束之期

在21世紀,我們所面臨的矛盾是,雖然聖經騙局的揭露已比以往更進一步,但是全球地緣政治資金、重申聖經基要主義正確性的喧鬧支持者和龐大錯誤訊息逆流的威力勢不可檔。

大多數的人既沒有時間也沒有意願深入鑽研大量的證據和論證, 基督護教者已經準備好要告發"基督神話者"只是一個在正常狀態邊緣被孤立的怪人,根本不值得認真考慮。

但是他們刺耳的敵意隱藏著超級英雄垮台的害怕可能並不遙遠 ,而且他們再也不能否認或壓制"耶穌基督"的存在是虛造的事實, 這並非是狂熱追求的瘋子作為而是已被全世界絡繹不絕有能力的學者所接受並認可。

 

 

從歷史拆除耶穌之謎

一群少數有勇氣的學者敢於質疑耶穌故事已超過200年,儘管人身攻擊的風險、 專業領域的損害及社會的譴責,但他們還是很認真地質疑福音傳說的真實性,他們已經揭發層層的騙局和欺瞞並最終達到挑戰耶穌是否存在的事實。


Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694-1768).1778, On the Intention of Jesus and His Teaching. Enlightenment thinker and professor of Oriental languages at the Hamburg Gymnasium, his extensive writingspublished after his death rejected 'revealed religion' and argued for a naturalistic deism. Reimarus charged the gospel writers with conscious fraud and innumerable contradictions.

Francois Marie Arouet (Voltaire) (1694-1778) The most influential figure of the Enlightenment was educated at a Jesuit college yet concluded, "Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd, and bloody religion that has ever infected the world ... The true God cannot have been born of a girl, nor died on a gibbet, nor be eaten in a piece of dough." Imprisoned, exiled, his works banned and burned, Voltaire's great popularity in revolutionary France assured him a final resting place in the Pantheon in Paris. Religious extremists stole his remains and dumped them in a garbage heap.

Count Constantine Volney, 1787, Les Ruines; ou, Méditation sur les révolutions des empires (Ruins of Empires). Napoleonic investigator saw for himself evidence of Egyptian precursors of Christianity.

Edward Evanson, 1792, The Dissonance of the Four Generally Received Evangelists and the Evidence of their Respective Authenticity. English rationalist challenged apostolic authorship of the 4th Gospel and denounced several Pauline epistles as spurious.

Charles François Dupuis, 1794, Origine de tous les Cultes ou La Religion universelle. Astral-mythical interpretation of Christianity (and all religion). “A great error is more easily propagated, than a great truth, because it is easier to believe, than to reason, and because people prefer the marvels of romances to the simplicity of history.” Dupuis destroyed most of his own work because of the violent reaction it provoked.

Thomas Paine, 1795, The Age of Reason. Pamphleteer who made the first call for American independence (Common Sense, 1776; Rights  of Man, 1791) Paine poured savage ridicule on the contradictions and atrocities of the Bible. Like many American revolutionaries Paine was a deist:

"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of ... Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all." The Age of Reason.

Robert Taylor, 1828, Syntagma Of The Evidences Of The Christian Religion; 1829, Diegesis. Taylor was imprisoned for declaring mythical origins for Christianity. "The earliest Christians meant the words to be nothing more than a personification of the principle of reason, of goodness, or that principle, be it what it may, which may most benefit mankind in the passage through life.”

Godfrey Higgins (1771-1834)
. 1836, AnacalypsisAn Attempt to Draw Aside the Veil of the Saitic Isis; or an Inquiry into the Origin of Languages, Nations and Religions. English pioneer of archaeology and freemason.

Bruno Bauer, 1841, Criticism of the Gospel History of the Synoptics. 1877, Christus und die Caesaren. Der Hervorgang des Christentums aus dem romischen Griechentum. The original iconoclast. Bauer contested the authenticity of all the Pauline epistles (in which he saw the influence of Stoic thinkers like Seneca) and identified Philo's role in emergent Christianity. Bauer rejected the historicity of Jesus himself. "Everything that is known of Jesus belongs to the world of imagination." As a result in 1842 Bauer was ridiculed and removed from his professorship of New Testament theology at Tübingen.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841, Essays. One time Trinitarian Christian and former Unitarian minister held Jesus to be a "true prophet" but that organised Christianity was an "eastern monarchy".

"Our Sunday-schools, and churches, and pauper-societies are yokes to the neck."

Mitchell Logan, 1842, Christian Mythology Unveiled. “Reigning opinion, however ill-founded and absurd, is always queen of the nations.”

Ferdinand Christian Baur, 1845, Paulus, der Apostel Jesu Christi. German scholar who identified as "inauthentic" not only the pastoral epistles, but also Colossians, Ephesians, Philemon and Philippians (leaving only the four main Pauline epistles regarded as genuine). Baur was the founder of the so-called "Tübingen "

David Friedrich Strauss, 1860, The Life of Jesus Critically Examined. Lutheran vicar-turned-scholar skilfully exposed gospel miracles as myth and in the process reduced Jesus to a man. It cost him his career.

Charles Bradlaugh, 1860, Who Was Jesus Christ? What Did Jesus Teach? Most famous English atheist of the 19th century, founded the National Secular Society and became an MP, winning the right to affirm. Condemned the teachings of Jesus as dehumanizing passivity and disastrous as practical advice. Bradlaugh denounced the gospel Jesus as a myth.

Ernest Renan, 1863, Das Leben Jesu. Trained as a Catholic priest, Renan wrote a romanticised biography of the godman which was influenced by the German critics. It cost him his job.

Robert Ingersoll, 1872, The Gods. Illinois orator extraordinaire, his speeches savaged the Christian religion. "It has always seemed to me that a being coming from another world, with a message of infinite importance to mankind, should at least have verified that message by his own signature. Is it not wonderful that not one word was written by Christ?"

Kersey Graves, 1875, The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviours. Pennsylvanian Quaker who saw through to the pagan heart of Christian fabrications, though rarely cited sources for his far-reaching conclusions.


Allard Pierson, 1879, De Bergrede en andere synoptische Fragmenten. Theologian, art and literature historian who identified The Sermon on the Mount as a collection of aphorisms from Jewish Wisdom literature.The publication of Pierson's Bergrede was the beginning of Dutch Radical Criticism. Not just the authenticity of all the Pauline epistles but the historical existence of Jesus himself was called into question.

Bronson C. Keeler, 1881, A Short History of the Bible. A classic exposé of Christian fraud.

Abraham Dirk Loman, 1882, "Quaestiones Paulinae," in Theologisch Tijdschrift. Professor of theology at Amsterdam who said all the epistles date from the 2nd century. Loman explained Christianity as a fusion of Jewish and Roman-Hellenic thinking. When he went blind Loman said his blindness gave him insight into the dark history of the church!

Thomas William Doane, 1882, Bible Myths and their Parallels in Other Religions. Outdated but a classic revelation of pagan antecedents of biblical myths and miracles.

Samuel Adrianus Naber, 1886, Verisimilia. Laceram conditionem Novi Testamenti exemplis illustrarunt et ab origine repetierunt. Classicist who saw Greek myths hidden within Christian scripture.

Gerald Massey, 1886, Historical Jesus and Mythical Christ. 1907, Ancient Egypt-The Light of the World. Another classic from an early nemesis of the priesthood. British Egyptologist wrote six volumes on the religion of ancient Egypt

Edwin Johnson, 1887, Antiqua mater. A Study of Christian Origins. English radical theologian identified the early Christians  as the Chrestiani, followers of a good (Chrestus) God who had expropriating the myth of Dionysos Eleutherios ("Dionysos the Emancipator"), to produce a self-sacrificing Godman. Denounced the twelve apostles as complete fabrication.

Rudolf Steck, 1888, Der Galaterbrief nach seiner Echtheit untersucht nebst kritischen Bemerkungen zu den Paulinischen Hauptbriefen. Radical Swiss scholar branded all the Pauline epistles as fakes.

Franz Hartman, 1889, The Life of Johoshua: The Prophet of Nazareth.

Willem Christiaan van Manen, 1896, Paulus. Professor at Leiden and most famous of the Dutch Radicals, a churchman who did not believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. After resisting the argument for many years van Manen concluded none of the Pauline epistles were genuine and that Acts was dependent on the works of Josephus.

Joseph McCabe, 1897, Why I Left the Church. 1907, The Bible in Europe: an Inquiry into the Contribution of the Christian Religion to Civilization. 1914, The Sources of the Morality of the Gospels. Franciscan monk-turned-evangelical atheist. McCabe, a prolific writer, shredded many parts of the Christ legend – "There is no "figure of Jesus" in the Gospels. There are a dozen figures" – but he continued to allow the possibility for an historical founder, nonetheless.

Albert Schweitzer.1901, The Mystery of the Kingdom of God. 1906, The Quest of the Historical Jesus. The famous German theologian and missionary (35 years in the Cameroons) ridiculed the humanitarian Jesus of the liberals and at the same time had the courage to recognize the work of the Dutch Radicals. His own pessimistic conclusion was that the superhero had been an apocalyptic fanatic and that Jesus died a disappointed man. Famously said those looking for an historical Jesus merely found a reflection of themselves.

Wilhelm Wrede, 1901, The Messianic Secret. Wrede demonstrated how, in Mark’s gospel, a false history was shaped by early Christian belief.

George Robert Stowe Mead, 1903, Did Jesus Live 100 BC? A discussion of the Jewish Jeschu stories which moves Jesus back to an earlier time.

Thomas Whittaker, 1904, The Origins of Christianity. Declared Jesus a myth.

William Benjamin Smith, 1906, Der vorchristliche Jesus. 1911, Die urchristliche Lehre des reingöttlichen Jesus. Argues for origins in a pre-Christian Jesus cult on the island of Cyprus.

Albert Kalthoff, 1907, The Rise of Christianity. Another radical German scholar who identified Christianity as a psychosis. Christ was essentially the transcendental principle of the Christian community which aimed at apocalyptic social reform.

Gerardus Bolland, 1907, De Evangelische Jozua. Philosopher at Leiden identified the origin of Christianity in an earlier Jewish Gnosticism. The New Testament superstar is the Old Testament 'son of Nun', the follower renamed Jesus by Moses. The virgin is nothing but a symbol for the people of Israel. From Alexandria the "Netzerim" took their gospel to Palestine.


In 1907 Pope Pius X condemned the Modernists who were "working within the framework of the Church". An anti-Modernist oath was introduced in 1910.


Prosper Alfaric (1886-1955)   French Professor of Theology, shaken by the stance of Pius X, renounced his faith and left the church in 1909 to work for the cause of rationalism.

Mangasar Magurditch Mangasarian, 1909, The Truth About Jesus. Is He a Myth? Erstwhile Presbyterian Minister who saw through the fabrication.

Karl Kautsky, 1909, The Foundations of Christianity. Early socialist interpreted Christianity in terms of class struggle.

John E. Remsburg, 1909, The Christ: A critical review and analysis of the evidences of His existence. Gospels rife with contradictions. Doubtful that Jesus existed and a supernatural Christ is certainly Christian dogma.

Arthur Drews, 1910, Die Christusmythe (The Christ Myth). 1910, Die Petruslegende (The Legend of St Peter). 1924, Die Entstehung des Christentums aus dem Gnostizismus (The Emergence of Christianity from Gnosticism). Eminent philosopher was Germany's greatest exponent of the contention that Christ is a myth. The gospels historized a pre-existing mystical Jesus whose character was drawn from the prophets and Jewish wisdom literature. The Passion was to be found in the speculations of Plato.

John Robertson, 1910, Christianity and Mythology. 1911, Pagan Christs. Studies in Comparative Hierology. 1917, The Jesus Problem. Robertson drew attention to the universality of many elements of the Jesus' storyline and to pre-Christian crucifixion rituals in the ancient world. Identified the original Jesus/Joshua with an ancient Ephraimite deity in the form of a lamb.

Gustaaf Adolf van den Bergh van Eysinga, 1912, Radical Views about the New Testament. 1918, Voorchristelijk Christendom. De vorbereiding van het Evangelie in de Hellenistische wereld. Theologian and last of the Dutch radicals to hold a university professorship.

Alexander Hislop, 1916, The Two Babylons. Exhaustive exposure of the pagan rituals and paraphernalia of Roman Catholicism.

Edward Carpenter, 1920, Pagan and Christian Creeds. Elaborated the pagan origins of Christianity.

Rudolf Bultmann, 1921, The History of the Synoptic Tradition. 1941, Neues Testament und Mythologie. Lutheran theologian and professor at Marburg University Bultman was the exponent of 'form criticism' and did much to demythologise the gospels. He identified the narratives of Jesus as theology served up in the language of myth. Bultmann observed that the New Testament was not the story of Jesus but a record of early Christian belief. He argued that the search for an historical Jesus was fruitless: "We can know almost nothing concerning the life and personality of Jesus." (Jesus and the Word, 8)

James Frazer, 1922, The Golden Bough. Anthropological interpretation of man's progress from magic, through religion to science. Christianity a cultural phenomenon.

P. L. Couchoud, 1924, Le mystère de Jesus.1939, The Creation of Christ. Couchoud espoused an historical Peter rather than an historical Jesus and argued that the Passion was modelled on the death of Stephen.

Georg Brandes, 1926, Jesus – A Myth. Identified the Revelation of  St John as the earliest part of the New Testament.

Joseph Wheless, 1926, Is It God's Word? An Exposition of the Fables and Mythology of the Bible and the Fallacies of Theology. 1930, Forgery in Christianity. American attorney, raised in the Bible Belt, shredded the biblical fantasy.

Henri Delafosse, 1927, Les Lettres d’Ignace d’Antioche. 1928, "Les e'crits de Saint Paul," in Christianisme. Epistles of Ignatius denounced as late forgeries.

L. Gordon Rylands, 1927, The Evolution of Christianity.1935, Did Jesus Ever Live?


John G. Jackson, 1933, Was Jesus Christ a Negro? 1937, Introduction To African Civilizations. 1941, Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth. 1970 Man, God, and Civilization. 1985, Christianity Before Christ. Most influential Black Atheist drew attention to the Ethiopian and Egyptian precedents of Christian belief.

Edouard Dujardin, 1938, Ancient History of the God Jesus.

Alvin Boyd Kuhn, 1944, Who is this King of Glory? 1970, Rebirth for Christianity. Jesus was never a person, but a symbol of the divine soul in every human being.

Herbert Cutner, 1950, Jesus: God, Man, or Myth? Mythical nature of Jesus and a summary of the ongoing debate between mythicists and historicizers. Mythic-only position is continuous tradition, not novel. Pagan origins of Christ.

Georges Las Vergnas, 1956, Pourquoi j'ai quitté l'Eglise romaine Besançon. 1958, Jésus-Christ a-t-il existé?
Vicar general of the diocese of Limoges who lost his faith. Argues that the central figure of Christianity had no historical existence.

Georges Ory, 1961, An Analysis of Christian Origins.

Guy Fau, 1967, Le Fable de Jesus Christ.

John Allegro, 1970, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross. 1979, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Myth. Jesus was nothing other than a magic mushroom and his life an allegorical interpretation of a drug-induced state. Not jail for Allegro – but professional ruin.

George Albert Wells, 1975, Did Jesus Exist? 1988, The Historical Evidence for Jesus. 1996, The Jesus Legend. 1998, Jesus Myth. 2004, Can We Trust the New Testament? Thoughts on the Reliability of Early Christian Testimony. Christianity a growth from Jewish Wisdom literature. Later books concede possible influence of a real preacher.

Jean Magne, 1975, Christian Origins, I-II. 1989, III, IV. 1993, From Christianity to Gnosis and From Gnosis to Christianity: An Itinerary through the Texts to and from the Tree of Paradise.

Max Rieser, 1979, The True Founder of Christianity and the Hellenistic Philosophy. Christianity started by Jews of the Diaspora and then retroactively set in pre-70 Palestine. Christianity arrived last, not first, in Palestine – that's why Christian archeological finds appear in Rome but not in Judea until the 4th century.

Abelard Reuchlin, 1979, The True Authorship of the New Testament. Conspiracy theory par excellence: Roman aristocrat Arius Calpurnius Piso (aka "Flavius Josephus") conspired to gain control of the Roman Empire by forging an entirely new religion.

Karlheinz Deschner, 1986-2004, The Criminal History of Christianity, Volumes 1-8. A leading German critic of religion and the Church. In 1971 Deschner was called before a court in Nuremberg, charged with "insulting the Church."

Hermann Detering, 1992, Paulusbriefe ohne Paulus?: Die Paulusbriefe in der holländischen Radikalkritik. German minister in the Dutch radical tradition. No Jesus and no Paul.

Gary Courtney, 1992, 2004 Et tu, Judas? Then Fall Jesus! The Passion is essentially Caesar's fate in Judaic disguise, grafted onto the dying/resurrcting cult of Attis. Jewish fans of Caesar assimilated the sacrificed 'saviour of mankind' into the 'Suffering Servant' of Isaiah.

Michael Kalopoulos, 1995, The Great Lie. Greek historian finds strikingly similar parallels between biblical texts and Greek mythology. He exposes the cunning, deceitful and authoritarian nature of religion.

Gerd Lüdemann, 1998, The Great Deception: And What Jesus Really Said and Did. 2002, Paul: The Founder of Christianity. 2004, The Resurrection Of Christ: A Historical Inquiry. After 25 years of study German professor concluded Paul, not Jesus, started Christianity. Lüdemann was expelled from the theology faculty at the University of Göttingen for daring to say that the Resurrection was "a pious self-deception." So much for academic freedom.

Alvar Ellegard, 1999, Jesus One Hundred Years Before Christ. Christianity seen as emerging from the Essene Church of God with the Jesus prototype the Teacher of Righteousness.

D. Murdock (aka 'Acharya S') 1999, The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold. 2004, Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled. Adds a astro-theological dimension to christ-myth demolition. Murdock identifies JC as a composite deity used to unify the Roman Empire.

Earl Doherty, 1999, The Jesus Puzzle. Did Christianity Begin with a Mythical Christ? Powerful statement of how Christianity started as a mystical-revelatory Jewish sect – no Jesus required!.

Timothy Freke, Peter Gandy, 1999, The Jesus Mysteries. 2001, Jesus and the Lost Goddess : The Secret Teachings of the Original Christians. Examines the close relationship between the Jesus Story and that of Osiris-Dionysus. Jesus and Mary Magdalene mythic figures based on the Pagan Godman and Goddess.

Harold Liedner, 2000, The Fabrication of the Christ Myth. Anachronisms and geographic errors of the gospels denounced. Christianity one of history's most effective frauds.

Robert Price, 2000, Deconstructing Jesus. 2003 Incredible Shrinking Son of Man: How Reliable Is the Gospel Tradition? Ex-minister and accredited scholar shows Jesus to be a fictional amalgam of several 1st century prophets, mystery cult redeemers and gnostic 'aions'.

Hal Childs, 2000, The Myth of the Historical Jesus and the Evolution of Consciousness. A psychotherapist take on the godman.

Michael Hoffman, 2000, Philosopher and theorist of "ego death" who jettisoned an historical Jesus.

Burton Mack, 2001,The Christian Myth: Origins, Logic, and Legacy. Social formation of myth making.

Luigi Cascioli, 2001, The Fable of Christ. Indicting the Papacy for profiteering from a fraud!

Israel Finkelstein, Neil Silbermann, 2002, The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts. Courageous archaeologists who skillfully proved the sacred foundational stories of Judaism and Christianity are bogus.

Frank R. Zindler, 2003, The Jesus the Jews Never Knew: Sepher Toldoth Yeshu and the Quest of the Historical Jesus in Jewish Sources. No evidence in Jewish sources for the phantom messiah.

Daniel Unterbrink, 2004, Judas the Galilean. The Flesh and Blood Jesus. Parallels between the tax rebel of 6 AD and the phantom of the Gospels explored in detail. 'Judas is Jesus'. Well, part of Jesus, no doubt.

Tom Harpur, 2005, The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light. Canadian New Testament scholar and ex-Anglican priest re-states the ideas of Kuhn, Higgins and Massey. Jesus is a myth and all of the essential ideas of Christianity originated in Egypt.

Francesco Carotta, 2005, Jesus Was Caesar: On the Julian Origin of Christianity. Exhaustive inventory of parallels. Alarmingly, asserts Caesar was Jesus.

Joseph Atwill, 2005, Caesar's Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus. Another take on the Josephus-Gospel similarities. Atwill argues that the 1st century conquerors of Judaea, Vespasian, Titus and Domitian, used Hellenized Jews to manufacture the "Christian" texts in order to establish a peaceful alternative to militant Judaism. Jesus was Titus Flavius? I don't think so.

Michel Onfray, 2005, Traité d'athéologie (2007 In Defence of Atheism) French philosopher argues for a positive atheism, debunking an historical Jesus along the way.

Kenneth Humphreys, 2005, Jesus Never Existed. Book of this website. Draws together the most convincing expositions for the supposed messianic superhero. The author sets this exegesis within the socio-historical context of an evolving, malevolent religion.

Jay Raskin, 2006, The Evolution of Christs and Christianities. Academic and erstwhile filmaker Raskin looks beyond the official smokescreen of Eusebius and finds a fragmented Christ movement and a composite Christ figure, crafted from several literary and historical characters. Speculates that the earliest layer of myth-making was a play written by a woman called Mary. Maybe.

Thomas L. Thompson, 2006, The Messiah Myth. Theologian, university don and historian of the Copenhagen school who concludes Jesus and David are both amalgams of Near Eastern mythological themes originating in the Bronze Age.

Jan Irvin, Andrew Rutajit, 2006, Astrotheology and Shamanism: Unveiling the Law of Duality in Christianity and other Religions. Explores astrotheology and shamanism and vindicates John Allegro's work with psychoactive substances.

 

 

 

Home

MAJOR SECTIONS
Do you really think it all began with a sanctimonious Jewish wonder-worker, strolling about 1st century Palestine? Prepare to be enlightened.
  Jesus – The Imaginary Friend

Still holding to the idea that some sort of holy man lies behind the legend? Better check out...
Godman – Gestation of a Superhero

A closer look at the glib assertion that the Jesus story "got off the ground quickly and spread rapidly."
What DID the Early Christians Believe?


Many currents fed the Jesus myth, like streams and tributaries joining to form a major river.
Sourcing the legend – The Syncretic Heritage of Christianity


Much of the mythology of Christianity is a rehash of an older and even more transparent fabrication – Judaism.
Jew Story – The Way of the Rabbi


Human ingenuity and cunning is matched by mankind's equally monumental credulity and wishful thinking.
Christianity's Fabrication Factory


Church organisation, authority and membership preceded rather than followed the justifying doctrine. As the organisation and its needs changed so has the ‘Testament of God’ adapted accordingly.
Dogma – The Word in all its Savage Glory

From religious policeman to grandee of the church, from beast fighter in Ephesus to beheading in Rome, Paul's story has more holes than a swiss cheese.
 St Paul the Apostle – Dead in the water?


Orchestrated by ambitious Christian clerics, a cancer of superstition, fear and brutality was imposed across Europe.
Heart of Darkness – The Criminal History of the Christian Church


The Christian Heaven may have been a vain folly but the Christian Hell has been real enough.
Hell on Earth – A Brutal Superstition Spreads Across the World


Raised to the status of State religion the Christian Church reigned over the destruction of civilization. As the centuries passed religious barbarism grew ever more vicious.
Winter of the World – The Terrible Cost of "Christendom"

For two millennia Christianity's anti-sexual, puritanical doctrines have inflicted untold damage on the mental, emotional and physical lives of countless millions of people.
Those SEXUALLY hung-up Christians – Loved-up for Jesus


With a Jewish father (stern patriarch) and a Christian mother (obsession with guilt and heaven) it is not surprising that Islam grew up a bit of a tartar.
Islam's Desert Storm – 'Christendom' Reaps a Whirlwind

Heaven help us. The richest, most powerful nation in history has a psychotic infatuation with Jay-a-sus the Lawd!
The Christianizing of the Americas
 

 

 

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Copyright © 2007 by Kenneth Humphreys.
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