Jesus: Neither God Nor Man - The Case for a Mythical Jesus

818 Pages·2009·7.48 MB·English

by  Earl Doherty

JESUS: NEITHER GOD NOR MAN
From reviews of Earl Doherty's Challenging the Verdict: A Cross-Examination
of Lee Strobel's 'The Case for Christ'
"Well-intentioned people like Lee Strobel and his 'expert witnesses' in The Case
for Christ have been inspired to speak half-truths, misrepresentations, and plain
absurdities in defense of Christian doctrine. Earl Doherty confutes Strobel and
his theologians point for point so thoroughly and convincingly that one is left
wondering, how did I not see that before? Christian apologetics' faith-based
thought processes contrast with Doherty's reasoned refutation and clearly reveal
how intellectual integrity is sacrificed at religion's altar of 'believe at any
price'."
LEE SALISBURY, a former evangelical church pastor 1978-1988;
writer and speaker for atheist groups and publications from 1992.
"In his systematic refutation of Strobel's book, Earl Doherty takes on not only
Strobel but the many prominent apologists Strobel interviews and quotes
throughout the book... .Doherty performs a great service by taking on the new
generation of slingers of the same old hash. His book is a great tool. When
someone says, 'Here, read Strobel, and your skeptical questions will all be
answered!' we may hand them Doherty's counterblast... .Doherty's chief goal is
not to argue the Christ Myth theory, but neither does he soft-pedal it, since it
often simply pops up as the glowing alternative once one sees the preposterous
nature of the apologists' arguments."
ROBERT PRICE, author of Deconstructing Jesus and The Incredible
Shrinking Son of Man; from a review appearing in Free Inquiry
magazine, Summer 2002.
Some reviews of the original The Jesus Puzzle:
"This is one of the most exciting and liberating books I've read in years.
Doherty has written a potential modern classic, which deserves to be widely
read and discussed."
JAN KOSTER, Professor of Linguistics, Groningen University, The
Netherlands
"A great book! I can only say I felt like the disciples on the road to Emmaus:
'Did our hearts not burn within us as he opened the scriptures to us?' "
ROBERT M. PRICE, author of Deconstructing Jesus and The
Incredible Shrinking Son of Man
"This is a great personal achievement, and I think your work will make a
substantial impression on New Testament scholarship. A sunburst over the
lingering gloom of the quest for the historical Jesus."
ROD BLACKHIRST, Professor of Religion, Latrobe University,
Australia
"I have never read such scholarship in so easy a style! You have a wonderful
way of conveying quite complex ideas in an easy to understand manner. I've
read a great many books challenging (Jesus') historicity, but nothing as 'dead
on' as your book."
JUDITH HAYES, author of In God We Trust.. .But Which God?
"This is the most compelling argument ever published in support of the theory
that Jesus never existed as an historical person. Doherty's thorough command
of the Pauline corpus, the pseudepigraphic and apocryphal literature, the
mysteries, and turn-of-the-era philosophical and theological movements is
masterful. This is a superb book."
FRANK R. ZINDLER, Editor, "American Atheist," a Journal of atheist
news and thought
The Jesus Puzzle website: www.jesuspuzzle.com & www.jesuspuzzle.org
AGE OF REASON PUBLICATIONS
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and to entering upon an age of reason in our individual lives.
<www.AgeOfReason.org>
JESUS
NEITHER GOD NOR MAN
The Case for a Mythical Jesus
Earl Doherty
Age of Reason Publications
Ottawa Canada
iv
To Julian
for his support and encouragement
and for a cracking good title
Copyright © 2009 by Earl Doherty. All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, in any form or by any means, except for review purposes or in a
"fair use" context, without the prior written permission of the author or publisher.
Published in 2009 by Age of Reason Publications
A revised and expanded version of The Jesus Puzzle
First printing September 2009
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Doherty, Earl, 1941-
Jesus: neither God nor man: the case for a mythical
Jesus / Earl Doherty. - New ed., rev. and expanded
Originally publ. under title: The Jesus puzzle.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-9689259-2-8
1. Jesus Christ—Historicity. I. Title.
BT303.2.D64 2009 232.9'08 C2009-905338-1
Printed and bound in Canada
CONTENTS
Preface vii
About Translations / Glossary and Abbreviations x
THE TWELVE PIECES OF THE JESUS PUZZLE ix
INTRODUCTION 1
I : THE JERUSALEM TRADITION 13
PART ONE: Preaching a Divine Son
Chapter 1: A Heavenly Christ 15
Chapter 2: A Conspiracy of Silence 25
Chapter 3: A Thirst for the Irrational 35
Chapter 4: Apostles and Ministries 41
Chapter 5: Apocalyptic Expectations 51
PART TWO: A Life in Eclipse
Chapter 6: From Bethlehem to Jerusalem 57
Chapter 7: The Passion Story 71
PART THREE: The Gospel of the Son
Chapter 8: The Word of God in the Holy Book 83
Chapter 9: The Intermediary Son 91
PART FOUR: A World of Myth and Savior Gods
Chapter 10: Who Crucified Jesus? 97
Chapter 11: The Mystery Cults 127
Chapter 12: Conceiving the World of Myth 145
Chapter 13: Dancing with Katie Sarka under the Moon 157
Chapter 14: Paul and the "Heavenly Man" 179
PART FIVE: Views through the Window in Scripture
Chapter 15: "Born of Woman"? 197
Chapter 16: A Sacrifice in Heaven 213
Chapter 17: The When of Christ's Sacrifice 251
PART SIX: A Riotous Diversity
Chapter 18: The Birth of a Movement 267
Chapter 19: The Johannine Community 281
Chapter 20: The Gnostic Phenomenon 285
Chapter 21: Ignatius on the Threshold 295
II : THE GALILEAN TRADITION 305
PART SEVEN: Preaching the Kingdom of God
Chapter 22: The Nature and Existence of Q 307
Chapter 23: Excavating the Roots of Q 325
Chapter 24: The Gospel of Thomas and Q 355
vi
PART EIGHT: An Emerging Founder
Chapter 25: Introducing Jesus to Q 365
Chapter 26: Sectarian Developments in Q 379
Chapter 27: Mark and Q: The Origin of the Gospels 387
III : A COMPOSITE CHRISTIANITY 405
PART NINE: The Evolution of Jesus of Nazareth
Chapter 28: The Gospels as Midrash and Symbolism 407
Chapter 29: A Tale from Scripture 439
PART TEN: The Second Century
Chapter 30: The Remaking of Christian History 461
Chapter 31: Jesus in the Christian Apologists 475
IY : THE EXTERNAL EVIDENCE 503
PART ELEVEN: The Non-Christian Witness to Jesus
Chapter 32: Jesus Among Pagan and Jew 503
Chapter 33: Flavius Josephus 533
Chapter 34: A Roman Trio: Tacitus, Suetonius, Pliny 587
Chapter 35: A Minor Trio: Thallus, Phlegon, Mara 643
APPENDICES
No. 1: Two Interpolations in the New Testament Epistles 657
No. 2: A Conversation between Paul and some New Converts 662
No. 3: Jesus and the Savior Gods: The Question of Parallels 664
No. 4: Dating Hebrews and the Authenticity of the Postscript 668
No. 5: The Gospel Chicken or the Epistolary Egg? 674
No. 6: The Gospels in the Valentinian "Gospel of Truth" 677
No. 7: The Redeemer in the Gnostic "Paraphrase of Shem" 679
No. 8: The Absence of an Historical Jesus in the Didache 681
No. 9: The Date of Minucius Felix 685
No. 10: Minucius Felix's Rejection of the Crucified Man 687
No. 11: The Curious Case of the Apology of Aristides 691
No. 12: Trypho and the Denial of an Historical Jesus 696
No. 13: John the Baptist in Josephus: An Interpolation? 699
No. 14: Robert Eisler and the Portrait of Jesus 701
NOTES 713
BIBLIOGRAPHY 781
INDEX OF NAMES, SUBJECTS AND BIBLICAL
PASSAGES 791
vii
PREFACE
During the 2007 season of the television series "Bones," its brainy heroine, a
forensic anthropologist cum homicide detective Dr. Temperance Brennan, made
a reference to the founder of Christianity with this passing comment: "Christ, if
he existed..." A similar remark was heard later in the episode, both spoken
tangentially during discussions among the characters, forensic scientists at the
Smithsonian Institute trying to solve the latest foul-play case of unearthed bones.
This was on a major U.S. network in prime time. How many viewers caught it,
or what their reaction was, is not recorded. But it may well have been the first
time any of those viewers had heard such a radical idea floated in popular
entertainment beamed into North American homes following the supper hour.
When The Jesus Puzzle was published in 1999, the theory that no historical
Jesus ever lived was still generally regarded as a fringe idea. Although a small
minority of scholars had championed such a conclusion for almost two centuries,
it had achieved little traction among the public or in New Testament scholarship.
Now a decade later, the idea is beginning to poke a tentative head out of parts of
the mainstream scholarly landscape. Yet this has already been overtaken by a
growing segment of the general public, especially among those plugged into the
Internet, where presentation and debate on websites and discussion boards has
increasingly intrigued and even won over many to the idea.
The advent of the Internet has introduced an unprecedented "lay" element of
scholarship to the field. The vastly accelerated dissemination and exchange of
ideas, the easy availability of ancient texts and works of modern scholarship only
a click away, the absence of peer pressure and constraints of academic tenure,
has meant that the study of Christian origins is undergoing a quantum leap in the
hands of a much wider constituency than traditional academia. While the latter
has always been centered in university Religion departments, the field is now
open to dedicated 'amateurs,' the latter being a technical term for those who
undertake private study outside an official educational setting.
Mainstream critical scholarship's ongoing quest for "the historical Jesus" is
yet to arrive at any secure or consensus result. Agreement on what Jesus said and
did, on whether he was a Jewish wisdom teacher, an apocalyptic prophet, a
revolutionary, a Cynic-style sage, or any of a number of other characterizations,
is as far from being achieved as at any previous stage of the perennial attempt to
separate the glorified Jesus of faith from the elusive Jesus of history. It remains
to be seen how soon traditional academia will overcome its reluctance to take the
plunge into the New Testament's final, uncharted territory. It has become known
on the Internet as "Jesus mythicism"—the theory that no historical Jesus worthy
of the name existed, that Christianity began with a belief in a spiritual, mythical
Vlll
figure, that the Gospels are essentially allegory and fiction, and that no single
identifiable person lay at the root of the Galilean preaching tradition.
There is one rebuke regularly leveled at the proponents of Jesus mythicism.
This is the claim—a myth in itself—that mainstream scholarship (both the New
Testament exegete and the general historian) has long since discredited the
theory that Jesus never existed, and continues to do so. It is not more widely
supported, they maintain, because the evidence to the contrary is overwhelming,
and this evidence has been presented time and time again. It is surprising how
much currency this fantasy enjoys, considering that there is so little basis for it. I
recommend my three-part website article "Alleged Scholarly Refutations of
Jesus Mythicism," a rebuttal to a century of works—rather few in number, in
books and parts of books—seeking to refute the case for mythicism. It begins at:
http://jesuspuzzle. humanists.net/CritiquesRefutl.htm.
In the early 20lh century there were a number of efforts to counter the strong
current of Jesus mythicism at that time, but the works on both sides of that
debate are long outdated. There has been in recent times no major published
work from mainstream scholarship dedicated to disproving the mythical Jesus
theory. This alone is critical, since significant advances have been made in New
Testament research over the last quarter century, such as the new perception of
the high midrash content of the Gospels, advances in Gnostic studies based on
the Nag Hammadi documents, new insights into the Q document's layering and
evolution, and so on. The case for Jesus mythicism has kept pace with these
developments and has strengthened itself accordingly, yet virtually none of this
has been answered by today's historical Jesus defenders. When modern scholars
have commented on Jesus mythicism (as a part of books or articles devoted to
other aspects of New Testament study), it has generally been a superficial affair,
repeating old objections that have long been dealt with by mythicism's advocates
and betraying an inadequate understanding of the depth and character of their
case. It has been amateur Internet apologists, usually faith-driven, who have
stepped into this vacuum and offered web-based articles attempting to refute the
mythical Jesus position. These have attracted rebuttals by mythicists, including
several by myself.
The original The Jesus Puzzle book has had a substantial impact, and is
generally regarded as the leading and most persuasive publication in recent years
in support of the mythical Jesus theory. It is regularly being cited, supported and
attacked. This impact has been achieved in conjunction with The Jesus Puzzle
website which predated the book by a few years. The primary purpose of both
site and book was to reach the open-minded 'lay' audience and only secondarily
to invite consideration or challenge by established academia—something that has
so far not been offered. With this new and expanded edition of my work, I hope
to appeal to an audience in both mainstream academia and the general public.
Partly because I intend to keep the original book in circulation as a simpler
version of the case, I have given this expanded offering a new title. Perhaps an
apology for the length of the new book is in order, but over the years I have been