Rating: 
Summary: Excellent tie-in to my current historical/scripture studies.
Review: I'm an amateur scholar and Kimball's book was the glue for my current readings including; "the Last Day," "Conversations with Nostradamus" Edgar Cayce readings and my own metaphysical journeys. I intend to read all his works for I believe they will strengthen my daily trek to satisfying spiritual accomplishment.
Rating:
Summary: Enlightenment
Review: It is rare for something to come along that truely opens the mind and expands it. You do not have to agree with everything the author says to still be inspired. This book, along with 'Life and Death on the Internet' by Keith A Schroeder are 'must-read'. Both belong in everyones library. Both enlighten the mind.
Rating: 
Summary: A Load of B.S.
Review: Kimball explains the orgin of the Holy Bible in a clear, consise manner. It made me understand what many years of Sunday school classes never taught me. He has well documented research to support his information. And he translates some early documents to "fill in" gaps Jesus' childhood. If you have any interest in Christianity, you should read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A well researched must read for Christians and historians
Review: Kimball explains the orgin of the Holy Bible in a clear, consise manner. It made me understand what many years of Sunday school classes never taught me. He has well documented research to support his information. And he translates some early documents to "fill in" gaps Jesus' childhood. If you have any interest in Christianity, you should read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to read . Wonderful guidelines to conduct research.
Review: Kimball presented a "tour through history" for the modern man into the many stories not included in the current Bible. His easy to read research guide is meant to help anyone find out the truth for themselves. He does not attempt to influence your thinking in any way; but rather, provides you with the results of some of his many years of research and then sets you loose with suggestions and guidelines.
Rating:
Summary: Good book for the money!
Review: Lots of neat questions answered about the early days of Jesus. Back half of book is wonderful with all the little stories. This book really complaments the Bible--fills in some valuble blanks. Thank you Mr. Kimball for your insite!
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Summary: A fascinating must-read book!
Review: The Hidden Stories of Jesus childhood answer so many questions that have been left unanswered in the organized religious realm - questions that one might be afraid to answer in the dogmatic belief system of most religions. I am now in a search for Kimball's book on the hidden politics of Jesus's Crucifixion. Anyone who can help can contact me at ctuttle@iwinet.com.
Rating:
Summary: A 'Must Read'for those seeking truth without Excuses.
Review: The Hidden Stories was much more than I would expect to be published openly. A lot that I read was 'common knowledge' to me but I was not able to bring it together. Now there is a series that not only give much needed facts, but also gives many references for us to go and research it for ourselves.I admire the boldness and straight-forward approach to get us to think about the life of Jesus and to reject traditions of men. In this time much is now coming to light that have been hidden from the masses.
Rating: 
Summary: Enthusiastic? Yes. Scholarly?
Review: The two stars are for enthusiasm, of which the thor certainly has an abundance. However, like St. Augustine, he is a very "credulous child of faith." The texts in question are not "hidden." They are known fictitious forgeries, which is why they have not been given much credence over the centuries, except by the gullible, naive and childish, to whom this book evidently appeals. These particular texts being hyped in this book, as well as in Mr. Kimball's other book, are called "apocrypha," which means not only "hidden" but "spurious," as in false. They are also "pseudepigraphia," {false writings}" i.e., not written by those in whose name they appear. Many of them were written centuries after the purported event. As the Catholic Encyclopedia among the Jews in the two centuries before Christ and for some time later. The attribution of a great name of the distant past to a book by its real author, who thus effaced his own personality, was, in some cases at least, a mere literary fiction which deceived no one except the ignorant. This holds good for the so-called 'Wisdom of Solomon,' written in Greek and belonging to the Church's sacred canon. In other cases, where the assumed name did not stand as a symbol of a type of a certain kind of literature, the intention was not without a degree of at least objective literary dishonesty." The Catholic Encyclopedia also calls a number of the texts that Kimball promotes "puerile" and "fantastic." therefore, enterprising spirits responded to this natural craving by pretended Gospels full of romantic fables and fantastic and striking details, their fabrications were eagerly read and largely accepted as true by common folk who were devoid of any critical faculty and who were predisposed to believe what so luxuriously fed their pious curiosity. Both Catholics and Gnostics were concerned in writing these fictions. The former had no other motive than that of a pious fraud." The forgery in the early Church was so rampant that this term "pious fraud" was coined to describe it. The story of Jesus Christ as found in the gospels is also "pious fraud." Not only is this fable not found in any history of the day but it is a rehash of the myths of many other deities of the ancient world. Some of these stories are virtually identical to that of "Jesus Christ." The reason for this similarity is not because the tales represent swarms of "real people" but because they constitute personifications of the sun god or solar hero, worshipped for millennia by millions of people worldwide, long prior to the Christian era. This fact is the REAL hidden story. It would be very beneficial is the human species could wake up to this reality and become mature, not credulously buying into every fairytale palmed off on it. Acharya S; Archaeologist, Historian, Mythologist, Linguist; Member, American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Greece; Associate Director, Institute for Historical Accuracy; Director, Center for the Greatest Story Ever Sold"
Rating:
Summary: If you love children, I highly recommend it!
Review: This book is a must. Easy to read go with you anywhere book. This book brought me closer, and on a more personal basis with Jesus.
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