The Fabrication of the Christ Myth

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best and Most Interesting Christ Myth Books!
Review: 4.5 Stars

If this book were somewhat larger and more encompassing, I would easily give it five stars, because it possesses not only quality but also some unique insight into the centuries-old Christ myth studies. As an expert on mythology, religion and the Christ myth in particular, I found this book to be surprisingly eye-opening--surprising because I have studied hundreds of books and articles on the subject dating back centuries.

Leidner's uniqueness can be found in his approach in discussing the infamous Josephus passage called "the Testimonium Flavianum," which has been demonstrated--nay, PROVED--for centuries to have been a forgery. Leidner lists the some 20 Jesuses Josephus DOES discuss, most of them very insignificant yet nevertheless meriting far more attention by Josephus than "Jesus of Nazareth."

Highly significant is Leidner's epiphany regarding the use of the Greek Old Testament ("Septuagint") by the New Testament writers, an insight I have never encountered before but that is absolutely critical to the Christ myth position. To wit, the writers of the New Testament were so incompetent and removed from the alleged events they were writing about that they made gross errors in the geography of what is essentially a tiny region, because they used the outdated text of the Septuagint as the basis for their historical fiction. A 90-mile span from Capernaum to Jerusalem comprises the entire area for the drama unfolded in the gospel fable. In this area, there was "a common language, Aramaic, and the customs and usages were known to all." Nevertheless, the gospel authors are blatantly unfamiliar with the territory, and their descriptions are entirely anachronistic. For example, this small area had been urbanized for decades and centuries; yet, the gospel writers discuss shepherds and large areas set aside for sheep--sheep that had no place in first century Judea, Samaria and Galilee. In response to the gospel claim concerning the Baptist's "preaching in the wilderness," Rev. Robert Taylor appropriately asked, "And what wilderness was that?"

Josephus's description of Galilee in his "Wars of the Jews" (III.III.1) names "204 villages and 15 fortified towns" and--while perhaps overstated ("the cities lie here very thick; and the very many villages there are here, are everywhere so full of people...")--makes it clear that the placement by the gospel writers of the Jesus myth in wild badlands is completely erroneous and fictitious. Another humorous, anachronistic error in "God's infallible word" occurs with the parable of the sower, the narrator of which is unfamiliar with the plow, while the parable itself is "told to 'great multitudes' who have taken time out from sheep-herding and stone age agriculture."

Leidner also points out that while Josephus describes the Galileans as hardy people, the gospel writers have leper colonies and sickly people all about. In addition, the gospel writers use names from the Greek Old Testament for places that had been designated otherwise for centuries. Using the Septuagint for the fable's topography is equivalent to an American writer erroneously placing a modern tale in 12th century Europe.

Overall, Leidner's work is not only interesting but also important.

Acharya S
Archaeologist, Historian, Mythologist, Linguist
Author, "The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold" and "Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled"

Rating:
Summary: Dud
Review: The writer of this book is a person who is a well red amateur in the field rather than being a specialist. He is a free thinker who tries to suggest that the Gospels are not based on historical truth but are fictitious. The broad method is to suggest that a number of things suggest that the gospels are not historical. These relate to a lack of knowledge about Jewish customs and some other issues such as the geography of the area.

It is then suggested that different parts of the gospels are a transcription of some aspects of the story of Joshua and that other parts are a reworking of the fate of the Jewish community in Alexandria under the Romans. (Some prominent Jews were crucified)

The book is a rather plodding read. The main problem however is that the book simply relies on assertion to suggest the central thesis rather than anything else. There is no real explanation of who is meant to have written the material, their social background and the motives and mechanics of the process.

Rating:
Summary: The Invention of the Christian Religion
Review: This is well-researched book by a laymen who is uniquely qualified to undertake the topic by virtue of his background as both a lawyer and patent research attorney and his life-long dedication to the topic. The author convincingly proves his thesis that the Christian Gospel scriptures are invented. Without deprecating Mr. Leidner's fine study, and without arguing with the substance of his reasoned conclusions, one might however disagree with his methodology and interpretive paradigm. For those interested in books that also utilize the "invention" hypothesis but come to a different conclusion, they might read Saint Saul: A Skeleton Key to the Historical Jesus (Oxford University, 2000) and Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds (Harcourt & Brace, 1998), both by Dr. Donald Akenson, Guggenheim Fellow, Rockefeller Foundation writer in residence, and Trillium Book Award winner. And perhaps Mr. Leidner's conclusions can be interpreted differently by use of the "Hellenization paradigm," discussed in Leidner's book but put into an entire contextual framework in Plato's Gift to Christianity: The Gentile Preparation for and The Making of the Christian Faith by Dr. Jerry Dell Ehrlich (2001). For other books of this genre see: Albert Schweitzer, The Quest for the Historcial Jesus (1907), Lionel M. Jensen, Manufacturing Confucianism (Duke University, 1997), Ibn Warraq, The Quest for the Historical Muhammed (Prometheus, 2000), The Invention of Religion ed. by Derek Peterson and Darren Walhot (Rutgers University 2002), Wesley P. Marquardt, Inventing Mormonism (Books West, 1998), Nachman Ben-Yehuda, The Masada Myth (Univerity of Wisconsin, 1995), Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Sacrificing Truth: Archaeology and the Myth of Masada (Prometheus, 2002), and Sharada Sugirthrajah, Constructions of Hinduism (Taylor and Francis, 2003). The Fabrication of the Christ Myth is highly commended.