Jesus Legend
1st Edition
Published on 1. December 2013
321 pages
978-0-8126-9872-5 (ISBN)
Description
In The Jesus Legend, G. A. Wells shows how the story of Jesus developed through telling and re-telling, from an early version in the letters of Paul (who does not mention Jesus in connection with any specific time or place) to the more elaborate and detailed picture later presented in the gospels.Wells discusses the earliest pagan and Jewish references to Jesus, the dating of the various New Testament documents and the contradictions among them, the authorship of documents as indicated by stylometric analysis, the influence of antisemitism in early Christianity, and the various stratagems resorted to by apologists to deflect historical criticism.
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G.A. Wells
The Jesus Legend
Book
01/1999
Open Court Publishing Co ,U.S.
€35.00
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Content
- Intro
- Contents
- Foreword by R. Joseph Hoffman
- About the Notes and Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: The Making of a Legend
- 1. The Commentator's Task
- i. Motivation and Bias
- ii. Guidelines for Hostile Writing and Illustrations of Their Use
- 2. 'Catholic Truth' on the Historicity of Jesus
- i. The Earliest References to Jesus
- ii. The 'Brethren of the Lord'
- iii. Words of the Lord
- iv. The Inconsistent Voices of the New Testament
- 3. Pagan and Jewish Attitudes to Jesus
- i. Suetonius, Pliny, and Tacitus
- ii. Thallus and Phlegon
- iii. The Talmud
- iv. Josephus
- v. A Modern Jewish Scholar Concedes the Historicity of the Resurrection
- 4. Hard-Line Protestantism: The Case of J.W. Montgomery
- i. Protest Against Critical Theology
- ii. The Testimony of Papias
- iii. Paul, the Pastoral Epistles, and the Gospel Jesus
- iv. Eyewitness Testimony?
- v. Agreements and Discrepancies between the Synoptic Gospels
- vi. The Fourth Gospel in Relation to the Others
- vii. Discrepancies, Doubts, and Damnation
- 5. The Gospel of Mark: History or Dogma?
- i. William Wrede's Epoch-Making Book
- ii. Mark and Community Tradition: K.L. Schmidt and Form-Criticism
- iii. The Trial of Jesus and Persecution of Christians
- iv. Recent Defence of Mark's Reliability
- 6. The 'Sayings Gospel' Q
- 7. Are the Gospels Anti-Semitic?
- i. Matthew and the Pharisees: Chapter 23 and its Lucan Parallels
- ii. Matthew's Relation to Jews and Gentiles
- iii. Similarities and Differences between the Gospels Concerning the Jews
- 8. Ethics and Religious Belief
- i. The Sermon on the Mount
- ii. Marriage and Divorce
- iii. General Considerations
- Epilogue: the Scholar and the Preacher
- Notes
- Index of New Testament References
- General Index
