Rating: 
Summary: Stripping away the glitter
Review: As part of a new wave of biblical commentary, Helms provides readers with an overview of the Christian gospels' origins and production. The opening chapter sets the tone by referring to the gospels as "theology as fictional narrative". Fiction, of course, is a departure from "journalism" or "history" as has been taught for almost two millennia. Designed as an introduction to the topic, "Gospel Fictions" isn't an academic study, although it's built from a solid text analysis and historical base. Hopefully, it's not a bad joke to refer to this book as "synoptic".
Opening with a reminder that "divine origins and powers" for certain individuals were common myths in the Near East of two millennia ago, Helms notes that many of the gospel texts were based on widespread oral traditions. Incorporated into written accounts, sometimes bodily, legends were given greater substance by appearing in written form. Add some further authenticity by seeming to record actual dialogue, and a "gospel" is thus given an easy birth. While Helms offers the usual disclaimer that he intends no "quarrel with Christian faith", it's clear that by the time he's finished, divine "origins" or "inspiration" for these writings will have no basis.
Helms asserts that understanding these books must begin with the order of the writings. Mark, not Matthew, should be the first in the stack. Both Matthew and Luke [and possibly John] directly derived their stories from his. Helms notes how many "standard phrases" in the Roman world were adopted into Gospel writings, later to be mistakenly viewed as from divine origins. Mark, Helms notes, "did not have to work in an intellectual or literary vacuum". Greek philosophy, Roman poetry, Jewish tales and, of course, legends from Egypt, Persia and Assyria all provided material for someone constructing a narrative.
Instead of a strict stanza by stanza analysis of Mark and his followers, Helms uses a topical approach. After explaining "How to Begin a Gospel", he then analyses the Nativity Legends, the miracle fictions and the use of a heroic death and resurrection to enhance the protagonist. Mark, who left the "rising from the dead" issue hanging, is improved by his two followers who fleshed out the story with more detail - yet another two generations after the fact. It made thrilling reading, of course, when the final product was launched. One assumes that the original Markan text was discussed over dinners, debated in congregations and disputed by scholars. How many notes, commentaries and proposed changes were disposed of before "the bible" was put together two centuries later will likely remain unknown.
One thing remains clear, the "gospels" can only be fictional accounts given the distance in time from the events. These fictions are clearly derived from many sources and skillfully assembled into readable narratives by their putative authors. Taught as dogma, the stories have had immense impact on Western society. Reading Helms may be a start in the process of dismantling the thrall our culture is held in by how these stories are imparted. Try him and see if you don't agree. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Rating: 
Summary: Misses the point entirely.
Review: Helms begins with the pre-supposition that the Gospels are fiction then uses minor variations in wording among the Gospels or similarity in wording to the Old Testament to conclude what he already believes - that the Gospels are fiction. Whether you do or do not believe that Jesus was the son of God, Helms' arguments do not follow logic and reason. Literary techniques do not belie the events. If you want a book that supports a lack of faith and you don't care if it is substantive, this is your book. For everyone else, it is a waste of time to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Condensed and to the point..
Review: Helms wastes no words in this short but thought provoking book that details the motives and literary devices of the gospel writers. With clarity of purpose and dead accurate analysis, Helms presents an overwhelming argument as to the fabrication of much of the gospels and why the writers went to the fictive extent they did to boster their case of Jesus' divinity. Helms also successfully shows how the gospels were "stitched" (one upon the other) into a literary case for Jesus' messiahship by their use of old testament writings in the septuagint (LXX), thus guaranteeing a self fulfilling prophesy.
For those wanting an expanded companion to this book, I would recommend Robert Funk's "Honest To Jesus", or Burton Mack's excellent "Who Wrote the New Testament?". Both of these books essentially back up Helms conclusions with excellent scholarship and insight.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful explanation of the New Testament myth
Review: I found this book outstanding for two simple reasons. One, it explains the origins of a great number of the myths we find in the gospels as being anti-types of Old Testament stories that conform quite convincingly to their previous models. And secondly, it is short and easy to read; it can be read in a few hours. Helms doesn't just point out the sometimes obvious and sometimes not-so obvious contradictions among the gospels, but he explains where the myths most likely originated and WHY the details of the individual stories change from one gospel to another. I didn't agree with him on a few of his explanations, as I was not completely convinced; however, on the whole his arguments are extremely persuasive and very logical. I had become aware of the absurdity of the stories as well as the contradictions, but only wondered how they had come about. Now I know, thanks to this book. I now understand what Paul means when he says in 1 Corinthians that he is revealing the gospel "according to the scriptures". The book covers the nativity legends, numerous miracle stories, the crucifixion stories, and the resurrection myths. Things I had not seen before became obvious to me thanks to its elegant explanation. I rate this book up with Thomas Paine's Age of Reason. If you find a copy, by all means purchase it.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful explanation of the New Testament myth
Review: I found this book outstanding for two simple reasons. One, it explains the origins of a great number of the myths we find in the gospels as being anti-types of Old Testament stories that conform quite convincingly to their previous models. And secondly, it is short and easy to read; it can be read in a few hours. Helms doesn't just point out the sometimes obvious and sometimes not-so obvious contradictions among the gospels, but he explains where the myths most likely originated and WHY the details of the individual stories change from one gospel to another. I didn't agree with him on a few of his explanations, as I was not completely convinced; however, on the whole his arguments are extremely persuasive and very logical. I had become aware of the absurdity of the stories as well as the contradictions, but only wondered how they had come about. Now I know, thanks to this book. I now understand what Paul means when he says in 1 Corinthians that he is revealing the gospel "according to the scriptures". The book covers the nativity legends, numerous miracle stories, the crucifixion stories, and the resurrection myths. Things I had not seen before became obvious to me thanks to its elegant explanation. I rate this book up with Thomas Paine's Age of Reason. If you find a copy, by all means purchase it.
Rating:
Summary: A Book So Good I Had Trouble Finishing It!
Review: Let me explain the odd title of my review...
Randel Helms makes his case in a compelling manner, and does it so clearly and effectively that before I was halfway through the book, I figured that he'd already completely vanquished the delusion that the New Testament is a history text.
While some parts are open to debate, the preponderance of evidence would be utterly devastating to Biblical literalists who actually read "Gospel Fictions" instead of tossing it aside the moment it makes them uncomfortable.
And it will indeed make them uncomfortable. In the course of the exposition, Helms provides examples of blatant contradictions in the gospels, doing so in an disarmingly off-hand manner, since that's not his main focus. (When I was younger, I studied the Bible intensely for nearly a decade and somehow missed all those contradictions. I wasn't looking for them; I wasn't told they were there; and above all I didn't WANT to see them.)
Before reading this book, the few Biblical criticisms I'd read struck me as somewhat circular. For example, "So-and-so must have written this after the fall of Jerusalem because the text predicts it will happen." That presupposes that the text is NOT inspired, so that line of reasoning did not strike me as rigorously logical.
However, when Helms demonstrates how the gospels took much material from the Septuagint -- including mistakes contained therein -- he takes things to a whole new level. He also clearly illuminates the themes that each gospel writer strove to emphasize -- and de-emphasize. This makes the provenance of each story much easier to understand. (I particularly enjoyed Helms's comment that Mark liked emphasizing the inadequacy of the disciples. Even when I was a Christian it struck me that those guys seemed like the stupidest people on the face of the planet. How many miracles do you have to see before you "get" that Jesus isn't just some guy?)
This book is not a easy, breezy read, but it is well worth the effort. Just as "Who Wrote the Bible" (by Richard Elliott Friedman) helped me understand the provenance of the Old Testament, so too does this book help me understand the evolution of the New Testament.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Place To Start For Inter-Faith Reconciliation!
Review: Randel Helms has written a very good book detailing how scriptures in the New Testament are often contradictory among themselves as well as those in the Old Testament. This not only occurs in a religious basis but in historical context. He points out that the Gospels were not written until 40 to 100 years after the death of Jesus Christ. There can be no question based on the scant detail of written historical evidence that indeed much of the New Testament has been misinterpreted by men, scholars and religious zealots. The same can be said of the Old Testament as well. For example, in Genesis XLII 33 the story of Joseph, Joseph orders his brothers to take corn for their house in the days of famine. Yet, we now know that could not have happen at all, why? Because Corn was only found in the New World and not discovered until 1492 by Columbus at El Salvador. Does this error in Jewish Scriptures make the Torah a flawed document too? This is just one example of misinformation in the Old Testament similar to what is pointed out by the author in the New Testament. Another example is in Exodus XXV 2-11, where Moses insist on pure gold to surround the Ark of the Covenant, among fine blue, purple and scarlet linens and valuable oil, spices and incense. Why would a God so powerful who performed so many miracles and deeds need opulent garments, precious metals and other riches to be on display before the people? The sanctuary was to be the fountain for the congregation of Israel not a dwelling place of a God in need of having to be surrounded in wealth. Even seal skins were ordered to be dyed red, yet where did seal skins come from in that time? Seals live in cold seas not the climate of the Middle East! It is just as obvious that these instructions were man made based on the same logic Mr. Helms uses in his book. Men interpreting God's words in error and with consequences that forced Sons and Daughters of Abraham to be hounded, crucified and killed throughout history. This is why this book is not just worth reading, but a must read for all regardless of faith. Too often men of God claim they know God's ways through their interpretation of God's words and then determine destiny regardless how such scriptures are used against people instead of helping them. The author has researched this area of mistranslation well and you won't regret spending the time to read it. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Sharp and Concise
Review: Randel Helms' book is an excellent response to claims of gospels' historicity. It clearly shows how most of the gospel "events" were invented by the evangelists to draw a parallel with established OT myths. These, indeed are facts which have been pointed out by many authors, and in fact any unbiased reading of the NT narratives makes them quite obvious. Helms points out how the vigin birth narrative in Matthew and Luke is based on a misunderstanding of the OT passage from Isaiah. Another fact is that the evangelists' source was the Greek version of OT, Septuagint, where the passage is mistranslated to refer to "virgin", while the Hebrew original uses the word "almah", meaning maiden or a young woman. Another case in point is that the entire episode of Jesus' 30-year exile in Egypt is invented to justify Hosea's "prphecy", "...and from Egypt I called my son". However, Hosea reads: "When Israel was my child, I loved him, and from Egypt I called my son", clearly speaking of the exodus of Jews from Egypt.
As I said, such misunderstandings are very well known by now, so what's the point of another book elaborating on them? Well, at times when the evangelical psychopaths are waging a deepening culture war at home, any well-written challenge to the basics of their ideology is, in my opinion, welcome. I did not agree with Helms on all issues. Helms believes that there still existed a historical Jesus, based on the fact that the stories of his crucifiction as well his baptism by John the Baptist were too inconvienient to early Christians to be invented. This is very doubtful, and I refer the reader to the excellent works by G. A. Wells, particularly the book "Did Jesus Exist?", for an alternative view. As Wells shows, Jesus crucifiction stories were based on doctrinal statements by Paul in his epistles (the earliest NT documents), and parallel with Jewish Wisdom or Logos mythologies, according to which Wisdom incarnate was sent down to earth in human form, lived a life of obscurity, suffered a shameful death and returned to heaven. Now, to early Jews there was only one "shameful" way to die, - being hung naked on the tree in front of God,- in short, cricifiction. Contrary to what many today believe, such execution was not introduced by Romans but had long been practiced by Jews against the worst violators of the Mosaic law. Dead Sea scrolls, in particular, contain writings of the Essene community in Qumran (quite possibly the early originators of the Jesus myth), referring to their enigmatic Teacher of Rigteousness (possibly a leader of their community of around 80 B.C.) being executed in such a manner by his equally enigmatic arch-rival The Wicked Priest (possibly the ruthless Maccabean king and High Priest Alexander Janaeus). G. A. Wells shows that Paul's complete lack of knowledge of and his utter disinterest in the historical facts surrounding Jesus' ministry and execution are very difficult to explain if one's starting assumptions is that they were in fact recently occured factual events. Paul may well have been the original source of the crucifiction ideology, basing it on pre-existent messianic and apocalyptic ideas of certain Jewish sects, and the gospel histories were, like all others, invented later on to give substance to these myths.
As for Jesus' baptism, it is now widely accepted that the (very numerous) followers of John the Baptist during the second half of the 1st century were initially at odds and in an ideological conflict with the early Christians. The baptism stories, then, were invented by the evangelists in order to smooth these differencies and bring the Baptist followers into the mainstream Christianity. The oddity and inconsistency of gospel accounts of the baptism (first John annoints Jesus and declares him to be the messiah whom he is unworthy of baptising, then later (!!!) he sends his disciples to Jesus to find out whether Jesus is indeed The One), can only be explained by the fact that these are clumsy insertions into the original narrative.
All that being said, Helms' book is highly recommended as an excellently written account of mythmaking and its role in the sotry of Jesus.
Rating: 
Summary: Hanging on one method not a good exegetical advice
Review: Scholarly written in a readable style, Helms's book offers the reader a sound insight on objections non-believers might make in assessing the thruth about the historical validity of the gospels. Helms' depends in his effort to rid the gospels of historical value, too much on one method, namely showing where Old Testament parallels to gospel-narratives occur. He does not seem to be aware of the fact that Old Testament parallels alone do not explain the existence of gospel narratives, nor of the unlikelyhood of ever coming into existence for stories that had little theological meaning. So in the end, all Helms does is show how certain events told in the church (regardless of wether they happened or not) derived their meaning from the Old Testament in various senses, which is perfectly sane, but does, of course not prove that these stories were fictitious. Where Helms does give historical (instead of exegetical) data, he seems to handle the material in a somewhat biased way. He recollects for instance the old historical difficulty about Luke writing that Quirinius was in command of Syria at the time of the census, devised by Emperor August Caesar. Helms note that Quirinius did not order a census 6 a.d. Helms does not note however, that Quirinius had in fact been military commander in chief over Syria from 10 B.C. onward up to the birth of Christ. All in all, an interesting book, but not compelling in its purposes.
Rating:
Summary: A microscopic dissection of the Gospels....
Review: The first of the Gospels (Mark) was written some 40 years after the death of Jesus (about 70 A.D.). Some thirty years later, Luke and Matthew separately updated, expanded, and edited the first document (using another unknown source as well). And after that, an anonymous writer put together the "Fourth Gospel", that of John. In Gospel Fictions, Randel Helms painstakingly, parable-by-parable, verse-by-verse, even word-by-word, analyzes the four Gospels. His thesis is: "The Gospels... are largely fictional accounts concerning an historical figure, Jesus of Nazareth, intended to create a life-enhancing understanding of his nature," A simple instance: After reading this work, one will not only be reminded that each Gospel quotes Jesus's last words on the cross differently, but -- one will have a better idea why each writer put different words into His mouth. This book will disturb those (like myself) who assumed that the Gospels were substantially historical, with minor differences of fact and emphasis. Helms paints a compelling picture of the exact opposite: almost none of the parables happened in fact, many stories were borrowed from the Old Testament, and the authors had little interest in leaving any record of facts. The only way to grasp the scope of Helm's challenge is to read this book. It will leave you a more informed person, if a somewhat disillusioned one.
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