Books refuting the Jesus Myth

M

Medicine*Woman

Jesus: Mythstory--Not History!
Valued Senior Member
Here is a list of books that address the myth of Christianity. This is not my bibliography but one that was sent to me from a email membership on the subject. I have put an asterisk by the ones I recommend.

THE PAGAN JESUS

The Jesus Puzzle. Did Christianity Begin with a Mythical Christ?
:Challenging the Existence of an Historical Jesus
Earl Doherty
Canadian Humanist Publications; October 19; 1999
ISBN: 0968601405 (Paperback)

*The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold
Acharya S
Adventures Unlimited Press; September 1999
ISBN: 0932813747 (Paperback)

Pagan Christs: Studies in Comparative Hierology
John M. Robertson
Kessinger Publishing Company; August 2003
ISBN: 0766180190 (Paperback)

*Jesus Mysteries: Was the "Original Jesus" a Pagan God?
Timothy Freke; Peter Gandy
Crown Publishing Group; September 2001
ISBN: 060980798 (Paperback)

World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors
Kersey Graves; Foreword by Paul Tice
The Book Tree; July 1999
ISBN: 1585090182 (Paperback)

Aryan Sun-Myths the Origin of Religions (1889)
Charles Morris
Kessinger Publishing Company; April 1996
ISBN: 1564598934 (Paperback)

Jesus: Pagan Christ or Jewish Messiah?
Laurence E. Dalton; Shirley Strutton Dalton
Xlibris Corporation; December 2000
ISBN: 073883369X (Paperback)

The Book Your Church Doesn't Want You to Read
Tim C. Leedom (Editor); Bill Jenkins (Introduction)
Truth Seeker Company Inc; July 1993
ISBN: 0939040158 (Paperback)

Astrological Foundation of the Christ Myth; Vol. 2
Malik H. Jabbar
Rare Books Distributors; August 1997
ISBN: 1571540032 (Paperback)

The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets
Barbara G. Walker
HarperCollins Publishers; November 1983
ISBN: 006250925X (Paperback)

HISTORACITY OF JESUS & ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN BIBLE

You Take Jesus, I'll Take God: How to Refute Christian Missionaries
Samuel Levine
Hamoroh Press; June 1980
ISBN: 0960475419 (Paperback)

Judaism's Truth Answers the Missionaries
by Beth Moshe
Bloch Pub Co; May 1997
ISBN: 0819705152 (Paperback)
ISBN: 0819705209 (Hardcover)

Antisemitism in the New Testament
Lillian C. Freudmann
Rowman & Littlefield; December 1993
ISBN: 0819192945 (Hardback)
ISBN: 0819192953 (Paperback)

Who Wrote the New Testament?: The Making of the Christian Myth
Burton L. MacK
HarperCollins; November 1995
ASIN: 0060655178 (Hardcover)
Harper San Francisco; September 1996
ISBN: 0060655186 (Paperback)

Faith Strengthened: The Jewish Answer to Christianity
by Isaac Troki (Author), Moses Mocatta (Translator)
KTAV Publishing House; June 1974
Out-of-Print
ASIN: B00005VV74

The Jesus Myth
George Albert Wells
Open Court Publishing Company; October 1998
ISBN: 0812693922 (Paperback)

Did Jesus exist?
George Albert Wells
Elek; 1975
ASIN: 0236310011 (Paperback)

The Jesus of the Early Christians: a Study in Christian Origins
George Albert Wells
Pemberton; 1971
ASIN: 0301710147 (Unknown Binding)

Forgery in Christianity: A Documented Record of the Foundations of the Christian Religion
Joseph Wheless
Kessinger Publishing Company; March 1997
ISBN: 1564592251 (Paperback)

Putting Away Childish Things: The Virgin Birth, the Empty Tomb, and Other Fairy Tales You Don't Need to Believe to Have a Living Faith
by Uta Ranke-Heinemann, Peter Heinegg (Translator)
Publisher: HarperCollins; May 1994
ASIN: 0060668601 (Hardcover)

WHO WAS THE REAL PAUL

*The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity
Hyam Maccoby
Barnes & Noble; February 1998
ISBN: 0760707871 (Hardcover)

Paul and Hellenism
Hyam Z. Maccoby
Trinity Press International; February 1991
ISBN: 1563380145 (Paperback)
ASIN: 1563380145 (Paperback) (Out-of-print)

Paul: Follower of Jesus or Founder of Christianity?
David Wenham
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co; April 1995
ISBN: 0802801242 (Paperback)
 
"Many non-Christians seem to believe that, in order to be true, Christianity must be unique. This is utterly fallacious - if anything, the precise opposite is the case. If Christian doctrine were strange and deviant and had no similarities at all to that of other religious systems, it would be more likely to be a weird, aberrant construct, not less. To take one obvious example, a simple and economical explanation for the widespread human tendency to posit supernatural figures who, like Christ, mediate between man and God, is that humans correctly realise that we do need such a mediator. Hence, ironically, some of the scholars most eager to prove the existence of dying-rising gods in the ancient Near East and elsewhere were Christians"
- Christianity and paganism​
The list of books also make it very clear that you read them selectively. For instnace, at a recent talk, GA Wells made very clear that Paul believed Jesus had been a real Jewish man put to death by crucifixion. This contradicts people like Earl Doherty, who believes Paul made no reference to a real person, and who you also cite. Whom do you believe?
 
From what I've heard (not read directly), Acharya S. uses unconfirmed and sloppy sources, and she is generally an irresponsible author. Doherty, on the other hand, is highly recommended.

The rest, I don't know about.
 
Jenyar said:
The list of books also make it very clear that you read them selectively.
Click to expand...
Actually, it implies only that our dear friend is capable of generating a selective bibliography, and offers no assurance that she has read any of them. It is a particularly childish and intellectually disingenuous argument. :rolleyes:
 
Jenyar said:
"Many non-Christians seem to believe that, in order to be true, Christianity must be unique. This is utterly fallacious - if anything, the precise opposite is the case. If Christian doctrine were strange and deviant and had no similarities at all to that of other religious systems, it would be more likely to be a weird, aberrant construct, not less. To take one obvious example, a simple and economical explanation for the widespread human tendency to posit supernatural figures who, like Christ, mediate between man and God, is that humans correctly realise that we do need such a mediator. Hence, ironically, some of the scholars most eager to prove the existence of dying-rising gods in the ancient Near East and elsewhere were Christians"
- Christianity and paganism​
The list of books also make it very clear that you read them selectively. For instnace, at a recent talk, GA Wells made very clear that Paul believed Jesus had been a real Jewish man put to death by crucifixion. This contradicts people like Earl Doherty, who believes Paul made no reference to a real person, and who you also cite. Whom do you believe?
*************
M*W: At this point, I tend to believe that Jesus did, in fact, exist, because I believe Mary Magdalene existed, and she was Jesus' wife and the bearer of his children. I haven't read all these books. In fact, they are new to me, except for the one's where I've placed an asterisk. I also don't believe everything I read. I try to formulate my own opinions. I still believe Jesus escaped the crucifiction, although many references to MM consider him to be crucified. I think you already know how I feel about Paul and anything he might have said. Paul never knew Jesus. It's as simple as that. The proponents of Jesus never having existed make their point, too. The discrepancies in the Bible speak loudly that Jesus was not the messiah. I believe there may have been a Rabbi Jesus in the 1st century, but he died for no one, if he died at all. Remember, I've been there, done that, and sent the postcard. Christianity is about Paul, and not about Jesus.
Click to expand...
 
DoctorNO said:
Man cannot prove the existence or non-existence of Jesus.
*************
M*W: True, but those who don't search for the truth, won't find it. They only believe what they've been programmed to believe for 2000 years.
Click to expand...
 
ConsequentAtheist said:
Actually, it implies only that our dear friend is capable of generating a selective bibliography, and offers no assurance that she has read any of them. It is a particularly childish and intellectually disingenuous argument. :rolleyes:
*************
M*W: Yeah, and I hesitated to post this list since I hadn't read most of the books. This bibliography came from the JDStone.org, a Jewish educational website which is quite informative. I published it on the forum in case others wanted to refer to it. However, I'm not sure I would waste my time on any of the non-asterisked books listed.
Click to expand...
 
Man cannot prove the existence or non-existence of Jesus.
Click to expand...

Yep, that's what I was gonna say.

The list of books also make it very clear that you read them selectively. For instnace, at a recent talk, GA Wells made very clear that Paul believed Jesus had been a real Jewish man put to death by crucifixion. This contradicts people like Earl Doherty, who believes Paul made no reference to a real person, and who you also cite. Whom do you believe?
Click to expand...

This just goes to show that we'll never be able to know the truth about events in the past. Even if someone is correct in their theory, there is no way to prove it because with as much evidence as that correct person may have, another will have just as much proof to refute them. Hell, even if one was there in the past to see Jesus, all that means it the person saw Jesus so that at least confirms his existance but that person still doesn't understand Jesus if he wasn't one of his disciples. And even if we talked to a disciple today, there may have been things Jesus hid from others and didn't share so next we'd have to have Jesus here, lol.

When it comes to the past, all there is is probability. We will never know the truth but can only assume because of the things that point towards a certain way of thought. Heck, I can send you a blank white image of something and you would think it was just blank. Then all of a sudden you decode it and see that it's a polar bear in a snowstorm but then I still say you're wrong. It's actually a giant albino sloth in a snowstorm. Weee, close but no cigar! :p

Neva eva eva gonna know the truth.

- N
 
Jesus was real enough but was the leader of an organisation dedicated to putting him on the throne of a roman free Judea. He only became the "son of god" 400 years after his death in a decree issued by the church in Rome. 40 gospels went missing in a massive re-write, in true hollywood fashion, by the church of Rome.
 
Neildo said:
Neva eva eva gonna know the truth.
Click to expand...
It disturbs me to see you so happy and content about it.

Red Devil said:
Jesus was real enough but was the leader of an organisation dedicated to putting him on the throne of a roman free Judea. He only became the "son of god" 400 years after his death in a decree issued by the church in Rome. 40 gospels went missing in a massive re-write, in true hollywood fashion, by the church of Rome.
Click to expand...
Care to back any of that up? Bear in mind, the earliest surviving manuscript, which dates to around 125 AD reads:
Therefore Pilate said to him, "Then you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into society: to witness to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth hears my voice." Pilate said to him, "What is truth?" After he had said this, he went out to the Judeans again, and he told them, "I find no crime in him."
- KC Hanson and P52​
Also note that some texts referring to Jesus as the "Son of God" dates to at least 200 AD as well: Matthew 26 contains this:
"The high priest said to him, "I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied."", (p64, which is dated c.200).
And so is John 1-21 (p66), which contains John 1:34 "I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God." and John 20:31 "But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."
 
I was venting at Red Devil. I find it hard to stay silent in the face of such obvious ignorance. But I didn't say anything about Paul and John - except that they were writing about a real person, and not a fictive one.
 
ConsequentAtheist said:
But you have not shown that they were "writing about a real person", only that they were writing.
Click to expand...
Red_Devil wasn't claiming that Jesus wasn't real, just not the son of God.

Jenyar was pointing out that they pre-date Red_Devil's claim that no one claimed he was the son of God until 400 years after his death.
 
Anyway, I think you'll agree that if relevance was any criterium at all, this thread shouldn't have existed in the first place.
 
Jenyar, be careful here of believing translations "literally". The son of god can also be translated to read "son or follower of kings". Jesus was the direct descendant of David & Solomon, therefore royal blood, or sang real in french. His wife, Mary Magdelene was also of royal blood, being the daughter of a high nobleman. My point is that he was not made "the SON OF GOD" until 400 years later when the bible, and quotes contained therein, were amended, altered, deleted, added. In fact, the chruch in Rome REWROTE the entire damn thing!
 
Let's not forget Jesus Himself "admitted" to being God Red Devil ;)

or was that the Church rewriting "the entire damn thing" just so they could fool themselves..?
 
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