Incredible Shrinking Son of Man: How Reliable Is the Gospel Tradition?

Rating:
Summary: Incredibly shrinking shallowness
Review: The author is an intellectual adolescent who knows one thing for certain, that he is more intelligent and clever than "bible believers". After cultivating this personal self-devotion for decades, he now wants everybody to take him seriously. Rest assured, Robert will keep on piping and wailing, even though nobody's dancing or mourning. Highly recommended for every other seething ex-evangelical or pouting scholarly wanna-be.

Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: This fascinating, scholarly book dissects the aspects of the Christ myth, searching for an historical Jesus. Guiding us through the birth narratives, early childhood fables, Jesus' time of teaching, his betrayal, death and resurrection, Price finds that the evidence for validity is scant. The most damning evidence against historicity, and clearly outlined in this book, is the fact that every part of the Jesus story is lifted from another source. The idea that Jesus was god, born of a virgin, a miracle-worker, teacher, died on the cross and resurrected is told to us, not in any original words, but by simply cutting and pasting earlier testimonies of other gods and other events into the Jesus narrative. If Jesus really did walk the earth and do all he is purported to do, why did his chroniclers explain him only in borrowed words? Highly recommended reading.

Rating:
Summary: Scholarly and thought provoking
Review: Unfortunately, those who can most profit from exposure to this book are the ones least likely to read it. Lacking a thoroughgoing familiarity with both the Old and New Testaments, the reader will need to keep both a Bible and the OED handy while poring through these pages. Needless to say, those who are best acquainted with scripture will not be easily lured into reading a book which does a remarkable job of unraveling the myth of Jesus. In it, there is a painstaking comparison of Bible passages, particularly the synoptic gospels, and well-documented arguments showing surprising discrepancies and extensive contradictions. But this is no Age of Reason. Price goes beyond picking apart passages by giving explanations about how the various Christian groups-particularly the Jewish Christian vs. the Gentile Christian ones-of the second and third centuries molded the New Testament to fit their sectarian views. Has Price demonstrated that there never was some sort of Christ figure alive and preaching around 30-40 A.D? Not really. But if a Jesus did in fact exist back then, Price has produced an avalanche of evidence to show that an even approximate record of that figure's life is not to be found in the gospels or in the other New Testament writings.

For those willing to wade through the obscurities of truly higher biblical criticism, to bear with Price's peculiar mix of scholarly language sprinkled with frequent colloquialisms and to unravel occasional typographical errors, this book will be a revealing and rewarding experience.


Rating:
Summary: You call this "scholarship"?
Review: Why would anyone writing on the historical Jesus ignore B. F. Meyer, N. T. Wright, E. P. Sanders et al.? I can think of two reasons; either their reading is thirty years behind, or else they wish to avoid the inescapable conclusions that follow from their work in re-judaizing Jesus. With Price it appears to be both. Don't waste the time or money with this one.

Rating:
Summary: You call this "scholarship"?
Review: Why would anyone writing on the historical Jesus ignore B. F. Meyer, N. T. Wright, E. P. Sanders et al.? I can think of two reasons; either their reading is thirty years behind, or else they wish to avoid the inescapable conclusions that follow from their work in re-judaizing Jesus. With Price it appears to be both. Don't waste the time or money with this one.