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Welcome to
Enlightenment!
Religion the Tragedy
of Mankind - Articles
by Kenneth
Humphreys

INDEXES

/time.html

Jesus Never Existed Time Line
Chronological Index - Articles by
Kenneth Humphreys
/country.html

Jesus Never Existed Index by
Country, Region - Articles by Kenneth
Humphreys
site map Jesus Never Existed

BOOK
/book.html Jesus Never Existed: The Book
/bookcontent.htm

The Tragic Fabrication of a Saviour of
the World
/book-review.html Jesus Never Existed: The Book
- Reviews - Purchase
http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/article-list.html (1 de 15)01/01/2014 20:28:13

/q&a.html

Q and A with Kenneth Humphreys -
Interview with Metafysiko, Greece
/nailing.html

Nailing Jesus Demolishing the
Messiah Myth

BOOK & WEB
REVIEWS

/ehrman.html

Bart Ehrman: Did Jesus Exist? Popular
scholar recoils from the abyss
/newapologists.html

A rescue mission for the "Jesus of
history" The New Apologists

MAJOR SECTIONS

/imagine.html Jesus the Imaginary Friend
(SECTION INDEX)
/creation.html Godman - Gestation of a
Superhero (SECTION HEAD)
/belief.html What DID the Early Christians
Believe? (SECTION INDEX)
/source.html The Syncretic Heritage of
Christianity Sources (SECTION
INDEX)
/chosen-people.html The Jewish Inheritance
Racism and Intolerance
(SECTION INDEX)
/fabrication.html Fabrication of the Jesus Myth
Introduction (SECTION HEAD)
/dogma.html Dogma The endless revision of
God's Word (SECTION INDEX)
/paul.htm The Apostle Paul. Rabbi Saul
Could it all be a fabrication? -
(SECTION INDEX)
/darkness.html Christianization of the Roman world
The Criminal History of the
Christian Church (SECTION
INDEX)
/cruelty.html The Christianization of Europe
(SECTION INDEX)
/jihad.html Desert Storm The challenge of
Islam(SECTION INDEX)
/america.html The Christianizing of Americas
(SECTION INDEX)

THE CAST

/surfeit.htm A Surfeit of Jesuses! But No
"Jesus of Nazareth"
/mary.htm The Mythical Virgin Mary
/peter.htm Saint Peter Fabricated
Apostolic commander-in-chief
/apostles.html The 12 Apostles Fabricated
followers of a fabricated
Saviour Ken Humphreys
/mark.htm Fabricating the Jesus Story -
Mark: From Future to Past,
from Sky to Earth
/matthew.htm Matthew - A Gospel for
Messianic Jews
/luke.htm Luke - A Gospel for Credulous
Pagans
/john.htm John - A Gospel to Silence the
Gnostics
/james.html James Radical Jew Sanitized
into Pious Christian Martyr

ORIGINS

/godman.html Christianity Without Jesus - 1
Gestation of a Superhero
/saviour.html Christianity Without Jesus - 2
Profiting from the Prophets
/myth.html Christianity Without Jesus - 3
Myth of a composite hero
/hero.html Christianity Without Jesus - 4
Hero of the People
/glory.html Christianity Without Jesus - 5
The Greatest Man Who Never
Lived
/beginnings.html What DID the Early Christians
Believe? 1 Bizarre Prophets of
Doom
/gnostic.html What DID the Early Christians
Believe? 2 Nice Gnostics,
Christian Mystics of Knowledge
/apology.html What DID the Early Christians
Believe? 3 The Second century
Apologists
/orthodoxy.html What DID the Early Christians
Believe? 4 Orthodoxy and the
Early Church

BACKGROUND

/syncretism.html Preparing the Ground for
Christianity "Pick'n'Mix" of
the Ancient World
/egypt.htm Egypt and the Patriarchs No
"Israelites in Bondage"
/templemount.htm Temple Mount 1 from
"Threshing Floor" to "Noble
Sanctuary"
/templemount2.htm Temple Mount 2 Persians and
Greeks bearing gifts to
Jerusalem
/assyria.htm Israelites and the Assyrians
On the Margins of Empire
/babylon.htm Babylon Nurtures the Jewish
Priesthood
/roman-greek.htm Greek & Roman World Culture
Confounds the Jews
/jews.htm Just Who Were the Jews?? First
invent your Jew, then invent
your Christ
/brutal.htm Yahweh - Brutal God of War
/david.htm King David The Boy Wonder
/solomon.htm King Solomon? The Emperor
with No Clothes
/invincible-mithras.html The Invincible Mithras
/gospel-mithras.html The Gospel of Mithras
/companions-mithras.html The Companions of Mithras
/buddha.html Buddhist Influence in Christian
Origins

FAKING IT

/melange.html From Apollo to Jesus Christ! A
Picture Essay
/genealogy-matthew.html Genealogy How the godman
was given a bogus pedigree
Matthew's yarn
/genealogy-luke.html Genealogy How the godman
was given a bogus pedigree
Luke's yarn
/virginity.html
The Birthing of a Godman -
Elaboration of a myth
/nativity.html
Unbelievable in Every Word
/nazareth.html Nazareth The Town that
Theology Built
/galilee.html The 'Galilean Ministry' of Jesus
Examined
/sepulchre.html The many tombs of Jesus and
all empty
/tombs.html The Sepulchres of Deceit -
Signs and wonders to impress
the brethren
/undead.html Waking the Dead? - Signs and
wonders to impress the brethren
/dolorosa.html The Via Dolorosa A Comedy of
Errors
/James-box.html Brother James and his Box of
Tricks
/resurrection1.html Resurrection of the Lord The
Hole in the Christian Doughnut
/emmaus.htm The Emmaus Encounter
Further fiction from the Biblical
Book of Fables
/shroud.html Turin Shroud - Shrouded in
Deceit Leonardo's Last Laugh
/caesarea1.htm Caesarea in the Acts of the
Apostles Christianity's
Fabrication Factory
/revelation.htm Revealing Truth behind The
Revelation of St John
/lying.htm Lying for God - The Christian
Way
/siloam.htm Siloam Negating Jewish magic
/bethesda.htm Bethesda miracle? Jesus
steals the magic of Asclepius!
/frocks.html Men in frocks God's curious
fashion foibles

THE ROMAN
CONTEXT

/militant.htm Militant Tendencies - Jewish
Resistance to Roman Rule
/trajan.htm Trajan Conquers the East
"Wars & Rumours of Wars"
/hadrian.htm The Piety and Vengeance of
Hadrian
/caesarea3.htm Caesarea City of Hadrian
/herods-temple.html Temples of Herod and Hadrian -
"Temples on the Mount" Part 3
/herod-vs-hadrian.html Herod versus Hadrian -
"Temples on the Mount" Part 4
/aelia.htm Aelia Capitolina City of the
Evangelists

MISSING
WITNESSES

/philo.html Witness to Jesus? - Philo of
Alexandria
/seneca.html Witness to Jesus - Seneca and
the Stoics
/josephus-etal.html Non-Christian Testimony for
Jesus? From the authentic
pen of lying Christian scribes !!
/exist.html Did Julius Caesar Exist? Yes
But No evidence of Jesus Christ

PAUL

/saul-paul.htm

St Paul the Apostle Two Different
Pauls in Epistles and Acts, plus an
Extra, Saul
/apostle.htm

Paul in Cyprus and Galatia? First
Mission
/galatians.html

Galatians Barbarians, Settlers or
Jews?
/philippi.htm

Philippi First Church in Europe or an
origins myth?
/corinth1.html
Corinth Rome's imperial command
post in Greece. But was it Paul's?
/greek-odyssey.htm

A Greek Odyssey? Second and Third
Missions
/ephesus.html

St Paul at Ephesus Derring-do or
hocus pocus?
/paul-in-jerusalem.html

Paul in Jerusalem An Unbelievable
Yarn
/caesarea2.htm Paul in Caesarea? Trial and Error
/road-to-rome.htm

Paul goes to Rome? Theology meets
Josephus!
/shipwreck.html

The Curious Yarn of Paul's
"Shipwreck"
/epistles1.htm

New Testament letters 1 - Bold,
Catholic and Fake epistles!
/epistles2.htm

New Testament letters 2 - The bogus
"authentic" Pauline epistles
/corinth2.html

Paul The first theologian? 1 A
Diluted Gnosticism
/corinth3.html

Paul The first theologian? 2
Priestly Imperatives
/ripping-yarn.html Paul and Acts of the Apostles
A Ripping Yarn
/ignatius.html Witness creation programme -
Ignatius of Antioch
/endoftheline.html

The Improbable Paul - The making of
a Super Apostle

CHURCH

/Constantine.htm
Constantine Pagan Thug Makes
Christian Emperor
/persecutions.html

Persecution Holy Mother Church
Invents Heroic Origins - Ken
Humphreys
/arianism.html

Christianity's "civil war" The
Struggle for Power
/george.html

St. George - The Pork Salesman who
became England's Patron Saint
/relics.html

Relics, demons,miracles Egyptian
Roots of Catholicism
/sacraments.html The Sacraments of Church Domination
/rackets.html

Papal Racketeering on an Imperial
scale
/dark-age.htm Putting the Dark into the Dark Age
/dwarfs.html

Emperors Hadrian and Charlemagne
Dwarf on Giants Bones
/miniscule.html

Miniscule "The Carolingian
Renaissance"
/papal-princes.htm

The Papal Princes Christian Lords of
Hell on Earth
/rabinicjudaism.html

Rabbinic Judaism Inc. Portable God
for the Worlds First Multinational
Business

CONQUEST

/murderers.htm

Missionaries or Murderers? - The
Christianising of Europe Torture
/tribes.html

Christianizing of the Heathen The
"Conversion" of the Tribesmen
/Ireland.html

Ireland Who Saved Civilization?
Ireland Subdued by 'Christ'
/britain.html

Battle of Britain - Catholic Vanities
Subjugate the Saxons
/santiago.html Santiago! New Use for a Dead Jew
/christianization-lithuania.
html
The Last Pagans in Europe The Balts

AMERICA

/new-spain.html

New Spain - Old Horrors. The plunder
of the empires of the Americas.
/new-england.html

New England (1600 - 1700)
Buccaneers, Bigots, Slavers and Drug
Traders
/slavery.html

Did Jesus Keep Slaves? The Church,
the USA and Slavery
/nation.html

Birth of a Nation Indians perish,
make way for brotherly love
/new-world.html

Christianizing of America - The Joy of
Sects
/sheep.html

Shaking Down the Sheep The
Christianizing of America - 1950-2006
/endtime.html

The Christianizing of America
Endtime

ISLAM

/arabia.html Arabia the Happy Life Before Islam
/damascus-spring.html

Saving Civilization? The Caliphs Enjoy
the Fruits of Conquest
/baghdad-summer.html

Saving Civilisation? Muslim
Scholarship
/cairo-autumn.html

Seeding the Renaissance Science
and Islam
/wrath-of-god.html

Holy Warriors & Asiatics Extinguish
Islamic Science
/islam1.html

Islam Final Revelation or Ultimate
Heresy? - 1
/islam2.html

Islam Final Revelation or Ultimate
Heresy? - 2

THE TERRIBLE
COST
OF CHRISTIANITY

/1000years.htm 1000 years of Christian Barbarity
/cost.html

The World that was Lost Christianity
Wrecks Civilisation
/ruin.html

The Ruin of Public Health Religion
Damages Your Health
/medicine.html

Foolish Things The Ruin of Public
Health
/theodosius.html

Theodosius Murdering the
Competition
/lost-world1.html

Lost World Civilization Erased by
Piety and Fanaticism Pax Romana vs
Christendom
/lost-world2.html

Lost World Civilization Erased by
Piety and Fanaticism - Loss of
Technology
/execution-1.html

The Good Book? Savage Biblical
Injustices
/sin.html

SIN Drowning Humanity in Guilt &
Fear
/sex-1.html

Those SEXUALLY hung up Christians
1 Loved-up for Jesus
/sex-2.html

2 The triumph of perversity
/sex-3.html

3 Pleasure a distraction from God
/sex-4.htm

4 Paedophiles for Jesus
/hypatia.html

Death on the Nile The End of
Hypatia & Classic Scholarship in Egypt
/closure.html

The World that was Lost by the
triumph of Christendom
/burning.html Burning Times Auto da fe
/science.html

Death of Science The Natural World
Demonised Religious Terror
/xian-barbarism.html

Into the Darkness The Triumph of
Christian Barbarism

CHALLENGING
THE MYTH and
CHRISTIAN
RESPONSES

/wordofgod.htm

The Ever-Changing "Word of God" -
Rife with Contradictions and
Inconsistencies
/circus.html

Christian Apologetics Fundamentally
Flawed
/scholars.html The End is Nigh for Jesus, that is
/naive.html

The Naive Christian Christians
please read before sending your
emails.
/neighbour.html

Jesus Christ The Neighbour from
Hell - Jesus isn't nice at all!
/goodness.html The Good Christian? All in the Mind
/comments.html

Christian and Non-Christian
Commentary on JesusNeverExisted.
com - 1
/comments2.html

com - 2
/comments3.html

com - 3
/roo.html

The New Apologists: Why? Article
by guest writer "Roo Bookaroo"

IN TRANSLATION

SPANISH

/index-spanish.html Jess El Amigo Imaginario
/imagine-spanish.html

Orgenes paganos del Cristianismo.
Presentando las Fuentes de Jess
(Seccin de ndice).
/melange-spanish.html

De Apolo a Jesucristo - Como el
Hombre - Dios es Hecho y Vuelto a
Hacer
/surfeit-spanish.htm

Abundancia de Jesuses! Pero
ninguno de Nazareth
/nazareth-spanish.html

Nazaret - El poblado que la Teologa
construy
/undead-spanish.html

Despertando a la Muerte? - Seales y
Milagros
/mary-spanish.htm

Mara, Mara... Inmaculada
falsificacin
/exist-spanish.html

Existi Julio Csar? Las evidencias
que confirman la Existencia de Csar
son legin!
/scholars-spanish.html

El fin est cerca Inexistencia de
Jess
/philo-spanish.html Testigo de Jess? Filo de Alejandra
/syncretism-spanish.html

Preparando el Terreno para el
Cristianismo Escoja y Mezcle en el
Mundo Antiguo
Jesus Never Existed Chronological Index - Articles by Kenneth Humphreys
11.12.13
Index by Country / Region
Complete Article List
Site
Search:

jesus never existed
Chronological Index

Holy Nudity!
Christian Adamites of
the 4th century took
their name from Adam
and embraced his
primordial nakedness.
Kindred sects
reemerged in Europe
between the 14th-17th
centuries. They
proscribed marriage
but held that the most
perfect innocence was
consistent only with
nakedness and women
held in common.
Sure beats burning
people alive.

Holy Murder

BC
24th 6th century BC
Egypt and the Patriarchs: palpable nonsense
16th 5th century BC
Genesis First invent your Jew, then invent your Christ ...
15th 8th century BC
King David The Boy Wonder
Solomon? The Emperor With No Clothes
11th 6th century BC
Israelites and the Assyrians On the Margins of Empire
8th - 4th century BC
Babylon Nurtures the Jewish Priesthood
Temples on the Mount from "Threshing Floor" to "Noble Sanctuary"
6th - 1st century BC
Temples on the Mount - Part 2. Persians and Greeks bearing gifts.
Gestation of a Superhero
Growing the dream - Profiting from the Prophets
8th century BC - 6th century AD
Arabia the Happy Life Before Islam
A Good Book? Try Morose, Misogynistic, Vindictive
4th century BC - 16th century AD
Sin Drowning Humanity in Guilt & Fear
4th century BC - 1st century AD
Greek & Roman World Culture Confounds the Jews
Silk and Spice The Buddhist Influence in Christian Origins
Those Sexually hung-up Christians, Part 1 God's Love for the Jews
3rd century BC - 4th century AD
Preparing the Ground for Christianity "Pick'n'Mix" in the Ancient World
2nd century BC - 1st century AD
Christianity Without Jesus? Introduction
Christianity Without Jesus? Universal Saviour
1st century BC 1st century AD
A Surfeit of Jesuses! But No "Jesus of Nazareth"
Did Julius Caesar Exist? Yes but No evidence of Jesus Christ
Temples on the Mount Part 3. Herod's Temple - Fact or Fantasy?
1st century BC - 3rd century AD
"Brother James" Radical Jew Sanitized into Pious Christian Marty
Waking the Dead? - Signs and wonders to impress the brethren
The Emmaus Encounter Further fiction from the Biblical Book of Fables
The Sepulchres of Deceit

http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/time.html (1 de 4)01/01/2014 20:29:04
"Take heed ye break
not our ecclesiastical
laws, for then ye are
sure to stretch by the
halter."
John Endicott.
Governor, Christian
colony of
Massachusetts, 1660.

20th century
Christian knight
Burning for Jesus.

AD
1st century AD
Hero of the People - The God Who Never Was
68AD Revelation! The Apocalypse of John
Glory The Greatest Man Who Never Lived
Making Romans Kosher Rabbi Solly
Witness to Jesus? 1 Philo of Alexandria
Witness to Jesus? 2 Seneca and the Stoics
St Paul: Mission Impossible - On Tour with a Saint
1st - 2nd century AD
The 'Galilean Ministry' Fabrication of a Christian Holy Land
Militant Tendencies Jewish Resistance to Roman Rule
Bizarre The Assortment of Early Christian Belief
Signs and wonders Resurrection of the Lord? Part 1
Caesarea: Miracles of Time and Space- Philip and Peter?
Caesarea: Trial and Error- Paul's Day in Court?
Caesarea: Beyond the Myth- A City of Hadrian
Paul: Journeys with an Apostle- Up Close and Personal
Mission Impossible: Paul's Journeys Real or Imagined? Cyprus/AsiaMinor
Paul: Magical Mystery Tours A Greek Odyssey?
Philippi First Church in Europe or an origins myth?
Corinthians 1 Friction or Fiction in Roman Greece?
Paul Road to Rome?
From our own Correspondent The Epistles of Paul - Part 1
The Epistles of Paul - Part 2
Galatians Man, Myth and Magic
Paul The first theologian? Part 1
Paul in Jerusalem
All at Sea The Curious Yarn of Paul's "Shipwreck"
Paul and "Acts of the Apostles" A Ripping Yarn
Journey's End or End of the Line?
1st 4th century
The Invincible Mithras
The Gospel of Mithras
The Companions of Mithras
Aelia Capitolina City of the Evangelists
Temples on the Mount Part 4. Temple of Jupiter Biggest and Best?
Bethesda miracle? Jesus steals the magic of Asclepius!
Siloam Negating Jewish magic
1st - 6th century
The World that was Lost Christianity Wrecks Civilization
1st - 15th century
Lost World Part 1 Civilization Erased by Piety and Fanaticism
Lost World Part 2 Civilization Erased by Piety and Fanaticism
Foolish ThingsThe Ruin of Public Health
A Lengthening Shadow Ireland Subdued by 'Christ'
Santiago! New Use for a Dead Jew
2nd century AD
Trajan Conquers the East 'Wars & Rumours of Wars'
The Piety and Vengeance of Hadrian
Nice Gnostics Christian 'Mystics of Knowledge'
What DID the Early Christians Believe? Making an Apology
"Ignatius and Polycarp" Twin stars in the Christian dreamscape. Part 1.
Jesus Christ The Neighbour from Hell
The "12 Apostles" Fabricated followers of a fabricated Saviour
Fabricating the Jesus Story:
"Mark" Bringing the Celestial Superjew Down to Earth
"Matthew" A Gospel for Messianic Jews
Genealogy How the godman was given a bogus pedigree Matthew's yarn
The Birthing of a Godman - The Nativity of Jesus
"Luke" A Gospel for Credulous Pagans
Genealogy How the godman was given a bogus pedigree Luke's yarn
The Birthing of a Godman - The Elaboration of a Myth
" John" A Gospel to Silence the Gnostics
2nd century AD onwards
Non-Christian Testimony? From the authentic pen of lying Christian scribes !!
The Apocryphal (and frequently revised) " Word of God"
Mary, Mary ... Immaculate Deception
From Apollo to Jesus Christ! How the Godman is Made and Remade

The Rackets Seven "Sacraments" of the Church
2nd - 3rd century
"Saint Peter" Linking Rome back to the Godman
Callistus Embezzler, Extortionist, Friend of Emperors Whore, Makes Pope, Dies with Transvestite!
Rabbinic Judaism Inc. A Portable God for the Worlds First Multinational Business
Nazareth The Town that Theology Built
Invention of Orthodoxy
Those Sexually hung-up Christians, Part 2 Christianity, the triumph of perversity
Those Sexually hung-up Christians, Part 3 Pleasure, a distraction from God
2nd - 8th century
Dwarfs on the Bones of Giants The Withering of Culture
Would they lie? Copy and Glorify!
3rd - 4th century
Constantine Pagan Thug Makes Christian Emperor
Pope Damasus The Gangster who hired a Pimp to write the Bible!
Death of Science
3rd - 6th century
Into the Darkness The Triumph of Christian Barbarism
Egyptian Roots of Catholicism The Show Must Go On
3rd - 15th century
The Rise of Christian Tyranny Ruin of Public Health
Christianizing of the Heathen The "Conversion" of the Tribesmen
4th century
The Struggle for Power: Theodosius Murdering the Pagans
4th - 7th century
The Insanity Begins The Closing Mind
The Struggle for Power: Arianism Christianity's "civil war"
Civilization Erased by Piety and Fanaticism
Putting the Dark into the Dark Age
"Saint George" The Pork Salesman who became Englands Patron Saint
Regurgitated fable Relics, demonology, miracles ...
4th century onward
Missionaries or Murderers? The Theory & Practice of Torture
Persecution Holy Mother Church Invents Heroic Origins
Slavery: Did Jesus Keep Slaves?
Those Sexually hung-up Christians, Part 4 Christianity, a psycho-sexual disorder
The Via Dolorosa A Comedy of Errors
The many tombs of Jesus and all empty!
5th - 7th century
Battle for Britain Catholic Vanities Subjugate the Saxons
6th - 7th century
Old Wine in New Bottles The Genesis of Islam
7th - 8th century
Muslim Scholars or Irish Monks Who Saved Civilization?
Muhammad's 'Pick'n'Mix' Message
9th - 11th century
'Hellenization' of Muslim Intellectuals
8th - 15th century
Seeding the Renaissance Science, Technology and Islam
Extinguishing the Light Wrath of God
9th - 10th century
Miniscule Karl the Big tries hard to write joined up letters
10th - 21st century
1000 Years of Carnage & Barbarity in the name of Christ
15th century
Shrouded in Deceit Leonardo's Last Laugh
15th - 16th century
New Spain Old Horrors
15th century - 19th century
Burning Times Auto-da-f
16th - 17th century
Christ in the Colonies - America
18th - 19th century
Birth of a Nation - USA
19th - 20th century
The Americanising of Christianity - The Joy of Sects
20th - 21st century
The "James Ossuary" A Box of Tricks
Circus Circus! Christian 'Apologetics' - Fundamentally Flawed
The Good Christian? In fact, the whole goddamn family, Faith, Hope and Charity
Jesus loves a winner! Shaking Down the Sheep
The End Time Jesus Jihad

All these articles and some fifty others are now
available as a book. For your copy:

Copyright 2007, 2009 by Kenneth Humphreys.
Copying is freely permitted, provided credit is given to the author and no material herein is sold for profit.

Jesus Never Existed Index by Country, Region - Articles by Kenneth Humphreys

11.12.13
Chronological index
Complete Article List
Site
Search:

jesus never existed
Index by Country / Region

"Look into my eyes.
You feel sleepy. You
will do everything I tell
you ..."

Roman Empire
Did Julius Caesar Exist? Yes but No evidence of Jesus Christ
Witness to Jesus? 2 Seneca and the Stoics
The Invincible Mithras
The Gospel of Mithras
The Companions of Mithras
Signs and wonders Resurrection of the Lord? Part 1
Caesarea: Miracles of Time and Space- Philip and Peter?
Caesarea: Trial and Error- Paul's Day in Court?
Caesarea: Beyond the Myth- A City of Hadrian
St Paul: Mission Impossible - On Tour with a Saint
Paul: Journeys with an Apostle- Up Close and Personal
Paul in Jerusalem
Journey's End or End of the Line?
Aelia Capitolina City of the Evangelists
Waking the Dead? - Signs and wonders to impress the brethren
The Emmaus Encounter Further fiction from the Biblical Book of Fables
Those Sexually hung-up Christians, Part 2 Christianity, the triumph of perversity
Those Sexually hung-up Christians, Part 3 Pleasure, a distraction from God
Lost World Civilization Erased by Piety and Fanaticism
Persecution Holy Mother Church Invents Heroic Origins
The World that was Lost Christianity Wrecks Civilization
Civilization Erased by Piety and Fanaticism
Putting the Dark into the Dark Age
The Death of Science
The Rackets Seven "Sacraments" of the Church

Fabricating the Jesus Story:
"Mark" Bringing the Celestial Superjew Down to Earth
"Matthew" A Gospel for Messianic Jews
Genealogy Matthew's yarn
The Birthing of a Godman - The Nativity of Jesus
"Luke" A Gospel for Credulous Pagans
Genealogy Luke's yarn
The Birthing of a Godman - The Elaboration of a Myth
" John" A Gospel to Silence the Gnostics
http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/country.html (1 de 4)01/01/2014 20:29:26

Christians discover the
law of gravity.

Taliban show respect
for Biblical notions of
Canaan/Palestine/Israel
Genesis First invent your Jew, then invent your Christ...
King David The Boy Wonder
Temples on the Mount Part 1. from "Threshing Floor" to "Noble Sanctuary"
Temples on the Mount Part 2. Persians and Greeks bearing gifts
Temples on the Mount Part 3. Herod's Temple - Fact or Fantasy?
Temples on the Mount Part 4. Temple of Jupiter Biggest and Best?
Greek & Roman World Culture Confounds the Jews
Those Sexually hung-up Christians, Part 1 God's Love for the Jews
Militant Tendencies Jewish Resistance to Roman Rule
Nazareth The Town that Theology Built
The 'Galilean Ministry' Fabrication of a Christian Holy Land
Rabbinic Judaism Inc. Worlds First Multinational Business
The "James Ossuary" A Box of Tricks
The Sepulchres of Deceit
The Via Dolorosa A Comedy of Errors
The many tombs of Jesus and all empty!
Siloam Negating Jewish magic

Egypt
Egypt and the Patriarchs No Israelites in Bondage
Preparing the Ground Pick'n'Mix of the Ancient World
Witness to Jesus? 1 Philo of Alexandria
Death on the Nile The End of Classic Scholarship in Egypt
Egyptian Roots of Catholicism
Nice Gnostics Christian Mystics of Knowledge
Relics, demons, miracles Catholicism in Egypt
St. George Pork Salesman becomes England's Patron Saint
Christianity's "civil war" The Struggle for Power

Arabia
Arabia the Happy Life Before Islam
Muslim Scholars or Irish Monks Who Saved Civilization?
Islam Final Revelation or Ultimate Heresy?
Muhammad's 'Pick'n'Mix' Message
Science, Technology and Islam

Syria/Mesopotamia/Persia
The Buddhist Influence in Christian Origins
Who Saved Civilization? Baghdad Summer

justice..

Eastern Empire/Greece/Byzantium/Turkey
From Apollo to Jesus Christ!
Mission Impossible: Paul's Journeys Real or Imagined? Cyprus/AsiaMinor
Paul: Magical Mystery Tours A Greek Odyssey?
Philippi First Church in Europe or an origins myth?
Corinthians 1 Friction or Fiction in Roman Greece?
Foolish Things The Ruin of Public Health
Theodosius Murdering the Competition
Death of Science Religious Terror and the Natural World Demonised
The Ruin of Public Health Religion Damages Your Health!
The Pork Salesman who became England's Patron Saint

Italy, Malta
Saint Peter Fabricated Apostolic commander-in-chief
Paul: Magical Mystery Tours Road to Rome?
The Papal Princes Christian Lords of Hell on Earth
Turin Shroud Leonardo's Last Laugh
The Mythical Virgin Mary

Germany
Christianizing of the Heathen The Conversion of the Tribesmen
Emperors Hadrian and Charlemagne Dwarf on Giants Bones
Miniscule The Carolingian Renaissance

France
Dwarfs on the Bones of Giants The Withering of Culture

Spain/ Portugal
Who Saved Civilization? Baghdad Summer

Britain/Ireland
Who Saved Civilization? Ireland Subdued by 'Christ'
Battle for Britain Catholic Vanities Subjugate the Saxons

Americas
The Christianisation of the Americas
Christ in the Colonies
1700-1850 Birth of a Nation
Did Jesus Keep Slaves?
1850-1950 The Joy of Sects
Jesus loves a winner! Shaking Down the Sheep
The End Time Jesus Jihad
Jesus approved drawers
Tamper-proof Mormon underwear for assured
purity.

Africa
Mission Impossible The Christianisation of Africa
Coming Soon

World
1000 years of Christian Barbarity
Missionaries or Murderers? Christianity by Torture
Burning Times Auto-da-f
The Good Christian? In fact, the whole goddamn family, Faith, Hope and Charity
Those Sexually hung-up Christians, Part 4 Christianity, a psycho-sexual disorder
Men in Frocks!

All these articles and some fifty others are now
available as a book. For your copy:


Jesus Never Existed Site Map

11.12.13 HOME

www.jesusneverexisted.com
SITE MAP

Imaginary Friend Godman the gestation of a
superhero
What DID the Early
Christians Believe?
Sourcing the Legend The Way of the Rabbi Fabrication Dogma St Paul the Apostle The Criminal History of the
Christian Church
A Brutal Superstition
Spreads Across Europe
The challenge of Islam The Christianizing of the
Americas
Religious fusion in Ancient
Egypt Alexandria, the breeding
ground of cults
Piety and Dreams Sire a
Godman
Bizarre Beginnings The
Assortment of Early Christian
Belief
From Apollo to Jesus Christ!
How the Godman is Made and
Remade
Just Who Were the Jews?
The Jewish Race Myth & 'Sacred
History'
Lying for God Copy and
Glorify
The Ever-Changing Word of God Two Different Pauls in Epistles
and Acts
The First Christians
"Haters of the human race"?
The Rackets Seven
"Sacraments" of the Church
Arabia the Happy Life
Before Islam
1500-1700 Europe Ablaze for
Christ!
NYA
A Surfeit of Jesuses! (But
NOT one from Nazareth)

Growing the dream

Nice Gnostics Christian
'Mystics of Knowledge'
Egyptian Roots of
Catholicism Relics,
demonology, miracles

Egypt and the Patriarchs
Palpable Nonsense
Non-Christian Testimony? The 'Good Book' Savage
Biblical Injustice
First Mission Paul in
Cyprus and Galatia?
Primitive Christianity
compromises with reality
Racketeering on an Imperial
scale
Who Saved Civilization?
Damascus Spring
1500-1600 New Spain Old
Horrors
Universal Saviour

How the Godman is Made and
Remade
(Jewish Neo-Platonism see
Philo)
King David The Boy Wonder Persecution Holy Mother
Church Invents Heroic Origins
SIN Drowning in Guilt & Fear Galatians Barbarians,
Settlers or Jews?
Pope Callistus Embezzler The Christianizing of Iberia Islam: Final Revelation or
Ultimate Heresy? Part One

1600-1700 Christ in the
Colonies
Elaboration of a myth
Hero of the People

Making an Apology (Stoicism see Seneca) King Solomon? The Emperor
with No Clothes
"Saint George" "Mark" Bringing the Celestial
Superjew Down to Earth
Philippi First Church in
Europe or an origins myth?
Constantine Pagan Thug
Makes Christian Emperor

The "Conversion" of the
Tribesmen of Germany and Gaul

Islam: Final Revelation or
Ultimate Heresy? Part Two

1700-1850 Birth of a Nation
The Genealogies of Jesus
How the godman was given
a bogus pedigree
Glory The Greatest Man Who
Never Lived

Orthodoxy and the Early Church The Buddhist Influence in
Christian Origins

God's love for the Jews! Shrouded in Deceit The Shroud
of Turin and all the other fakery!
Under revision - back soon!
"Matthew" A Gospel for
Messianic Jews
Corinth Rome's imperial
command post in Greece.
But was it Paul's?
The Christianizing of Europe
The Bishops of Christ
seduce the Caesars
Battle for Britain

Who Saved Civilization?
Baghdad Summer
In Human Bondage Did
Jesus Keep Slaves?
Luke's alternative Jesus
genealogy
Witness to a historical Jesus?
Philo of Alexandria

Jewish Venom Revelation

Temples on the Mount? From
"Threshing Floor" to "Noble
Sanctuary"
The 'Galilean Ministry' of Jesus
Fabrication of a Christian Holy
Land
The Roman Church Asserts
Authority The Mythical "St
Peter"
Second and Third Missions A
Greek Odyssey?
Theodosius The Assault
upon Paganism

Ireland Subdued by 'Christ' Seeding the Renaissance
Science and Islam
1850-1950 The Americanising of
Christianity
Nazareth The Town that
Theology Built
Witness to a historicalJesus?
Seneca and the Stoics

The Invincible Mithras On the Margins of a Real Empire
Israelites and Assyrians

Aelia Capitolina City of the
Evangelists
"Luke" A Gospel for
Credulous Pagans
Paul at Ephesus Derring-do
or hocus pocus?
Pope Damasus Gangster The Christianization of the Balts Extinguishing the Light
Wrath of God
1950-2005 Jesus loves a
winner! Shaking Down the
Sheep
Jesus Christ The Neighbour
from Hell
The Gospel of Mithras Babylon Nurturing the Jewish
Priesthood
Siloam Negating Jewish magic Caesarea in 'Acts of the
Apostles'
Paul in Jerusalem Christianity's "civil war"
Arianism and the Struggle for
"Orthodoxy"
A Timeline of Catastrophe
1000 Years
950 -2003
End Time Jesus Jihad
The Good Christian? All in
the Mind
The Companions of Mithras Yahweh Brutal Tribal God
of War
A Jesus miracle at Bethesda? "Brother James" Radical
Jew Sanitized into Pious
Christian Martyr

Paul in Caesarea? Trial and
Error
The Insanity Begins The
Closing Mind
Missionaries or Murderers?
The elimination of dissent
by violence

The "12 Apostles"
Fabricated followers of a
fabricated Saviour
Imperial Cult
NYA
Temples on the Mount?
Persians and Greeks
bearing gifts
Dolorosa The Way of Sorrow
or A Comedy of Errors?
Jewish Venom Revelation Paul goes to Rome?
Theology meets Josephus!

Death on the Nile Burning Times Auto-da-f
Mary, Mary ...The Mythical
Virgin Mother
Apollonius of Tyana
NYA
Greek & Roman World
Culture The Jews Say No
Sepulchres of Deceit "John" A Gospel to Silence the
Gnostics
All at Sea The Curious
Yarn of Paul's "Shipwreck"
A Timeline of Catastrophe
Darkness descends on the
Greco-Roman world
300-600 AD
Christianity a psycho-sexual
disorder?

The End is Nigh A History of
"Jesus Denial"

Militant Tendencies
Resisting Roman Rule
Under revision - back soon!
The empty tombs of Jesus
vacuous nonsense
Epistles Bold, Catholic and
Fake
Civilization Erased by Piety
and Fanaticism PART 1
Men in frocks God's curious
fashion foibles

Christian 'Apologetics'
Fundamentally flawed
Temples on the Mount:
Herod's Temple - Fact or
Fantasy?
Waking the Dead? Epistles The bogus
"authentic" Pauline letters!

Civilization Erased by Piety and
Fanaticism PART 2

Did Julius Caesar Exist? Do
you Exist?

Wars & Rumours of Wars
Trajan Conquers the East
Resurrection of the Lord?
The Hole in the Christian
Doughnut
Paul A Diluted Gnosticism
at the heart of Orthodoxy
Dwarfs on the Bones of Giants
The Withering of Culture
Miniscule "The Carolingian Renaissance"

Nailing Jesus Demolishing
the Messiah Myth
Caesarea A City Built by
Hadrian

Encounter at Emmaus? Paul The first theologian?
Priestly Imperatives
'Privilegia Ecclesiastica'
Decline of Law and Human
Rights

Bart Ehrman: Did Jesus Exist?
Book Review
The Piety & Vengeance of
Hadrian
"James Ossuary" Declared
Fake Official!
Ripping Yarn Paul and the
"Acts of the Apostles"

The Death of Science
The New Apologists Temples on the Mount:
Jupiter Biggest and Best?
Witness creation
programme "Ignatius and
Polycarp"

Medical knowledge lost for
a millennium

Portable God for World's First
Multinational Business
The Improbable Paul The
making of a Super Apostle
Ancient medical knowledge
destroyed

http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/site-map.html (1 de 2)01/01/2014 20:29:36
Jesus Never Existed: The Book
Now in your neighbourhood!
The Companion Volumes to this web site
Jesus Never Existed
Home Complete list of articles Site Search
Bursting the Jesus Bubble!

Can you handle the truth?
No "hidden code", no "secret bloodline", no "arcane wisdom", no "holy grail", in fact, no mystery at
all just the unembellished truth about the greatest fraud in history. Jesus Never Existed reveals a
disturbing truth: that the triumph of Christianity was a disaster for humanity made chillingly ironic
by the bogus nature of its central character, superstar and "saviour". Jesus Never Existed is an
uncompromising exposure of the counterfeit origins of Christianity and of the evil it has brought to
the world. Not a book for those who wish to keep their faith in the cosy bliss of historical ignorance.
Over 50 articles from this website, many revised and updated, arranged into ten chapters, each of
which shakes Christianity to its very foundations.
533 pages over 450 illustrations 27 maps ISBN 0-906879-14-0
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Jesus in Wonderland
The make-believe Ministry of a Messiah

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All of the Passion but none of the Piffle

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http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/book.html (1 de 2)01/01/2014 20:30:25
Jesus Never Existed: The Book

The Counterfeit Apostle
Saint Paul in fact and fiction


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As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be ...
23.05.12

http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/book.html (2 de 2)01/01/2014 20:30:25
The Tragic Fabrication of a Saviour of the World

Jesus? Forget the fairy story.
Many currents fed the Jesus myth, like streams and tributaries joining to form a major river. As Christianity cut its way
through the centuries it became a very murky and dangerous torrent, sweeping away civilizations and all who stood in
its way.
email the author
Kenneth Humphreys

22.11.11
Home Section Complete list of articles Search

Jesus who?

Contents
1. Christianity Without Jesus?
Piety and Dreams Sire a Godman Growing the dream Composite Hero The God Who Never Was Glory The
Greatest Man Who Never Lived.
2. What DID the Early Christians Believe?
Bizarre Beginnings The Assortment of Early Christian Belief Nice Gnostics Christian 'Mystics of Knowledge'
Making an Apology Orthodoxy and the Early Church.
3. The Syncretic Heritage of Christianity
Conjuring up Catholicism Religious Fusion in Egypt Silk and Spice The Buddhist Influence in Christian Origins
Dress Rehearsal for Christianity Mithraism The Church of the Shadows Waiting in the Wings.
4. Just Who Were the Jews?
Genesis First invent your Jew, then invent your Christ Out of Egypt? Palpable Nonsense Imperial Israel? King
David, The Boy Wonder King Solomon? The Emperor with No Clothes On the Margins of a Real Empire
Israelites and Assyrians Babylon Nurturing the Jewish Priesthood.
5. Christianity's Fabrication Factory
The Ever-Changing Word of God "Mark" "Brother James" The Mythical "Virgin Mary" The Mythical "St Peter"
"John" "Luke" "Matthew".
6. Jesus - The Imaginary Friend
A Surfeit of Jesuses! But No "Jesus of Nazareth" Nazareth The Town that Theology Built The "12 Apostles"
Would they lie? Copy and Glorify! Non-Christian Testimony? Jesus Christ Paragon of Virtue?
7. Rome and the Jews
World Culture Confounds the Jews Militant Tendencies The Apostle Paul 'Wars & Rumours of Wars' The Piety
and Vengeance of Hadrian Rabbinic Judaism Inc.
8. Heart of Darkness
Constantine Pagan Thug Makes Christian Emperor Into the Darkness Christianity's "civil war" The Struggle
for Power Pope Damasus The gangster who hired a pimp to rewrite the Bible! Theodosius Murdering the
Competition The Closing Mind Death of Tolerance Christianizing of the Heathen Sin.
9. The World that was Lost
Christianity Wrecks Civilization Dwarfs on the Bones of Giants Twilight of Ancient Medicine Gathering
Darkness Lost World
10. Truth and Consequence
Love Your Neighbour? Demolishing the Jesus Myth a history.

http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/bookcontent.htm (1 de 2)01/01/2014 20:30:42
Q and A with Kenneth Humphreys - Interview with Metafysiko, Greece
Q and A
email the
author
Kenneth
Humphreys
Site Search:
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18.12.12

Interview with
Metafysiko,
Greece
February 2008

1) Could you give us a
picture of your work
so far? About what
things have you
written and got
involved in?
The Jesus Never
Existed project is
currently in its eighth
year perhaps half way
towards completion! The
web site now
encompasses about 150
articles, with translations
in seven languages. New
material is added every
four to six weeks. The
site had over a million
visitors in the last year
alone and also has a
lively forum following.
http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/q&a.html (1 de 26)01/01/2014 20:30:54

The first volume of the
printed edition has been
available for two years
and has shipped to
twenty-eight countries.
An abridged edition was
published last year in
India and also an extract
appeared in the
anthology The Book Your
Church Doesn't Want You
to Read edited by Tim
Leedom. The second
volume of Jesus Never
Existed should be
available this spring, and
hopefully a Spanish
edition.

2) Why were you so
much interested in
proving that Jesus
wasnt a real historical
figure and why did you
eventually construct
the website
jesusneverexisted.
com?
Actually, the precursor of
the whole study was a
decision to write an
article on the causes of
the Dark Age, something
that had interested me
from a child. The eclipse
of the ancient world was
such a tragedy it still
casts its haunting shadow
today and I didnt buy
the conventional wisdom
that it was all due to
barbarians and

decadence and that the
church had kept the
flickering candle of
civilization alive.
At that stage, I held the
same reasoning that
most people still hold,
There was probably a
Jesus. After all,
Christianity was real
enough and it had to
begin somewhere. That
rationale holds up so long
as you dont go looking
for evidence. When you
do, you dont find a
historical Jesus, you find
a void. So in fact there
are two scandals that
demand exposure: the
despicable history of the
Church and the
outrageous fraud on
which it is based. More
than enough material for
several web sites!
3) If somebody asked
you to answer with a
few words to the
question Had Jesus
of Nazareth truly
existed what would
you say to him?
No evidence. No
contemporaneous report
in any source
whatsoever. Impossible if
any of the claims about
him were true. And a
purported life and legacy
drawn entirely from
mythic hero archetypes,

with no residue of secular
information to tie the guy
into real history? Its a
palpable fraud that
succeeds only because it
taps into a psychological
weakness in the human
mind.
If you allow a few more
words:
Basic details relating to
Jesus birth, life and
death are ambiguous,
vague or completely
unknown and not a word
of it is confirmed by
archaeology, artifacts or
other evidence. Actions
ascribed to him are
unlikely, impossible or
simply fantastical and
had no discernible
consequence on
contemporaneous events.
Despite the paramount
importance of his mission
Jesus wrote nothing
himself and his reported
words are not original but
are regurgitations of
earlier texts. Writings
about Jesus are formulaic
and are expressly
designed to inculcate
faith, suspend normal
judgments, and reinforce
behavioral norms.
We should never forget
that the issue of a
historical Jesus is not
merely an academic
enquiry. The dogmatic
insistence on his
historicity is an
imperative of vast and
powerful vested interests,

a matrix of global mega-
businesses that will never
willingly give up their
raison detre.
4) You must have been
in contact with many
people, whereas many
more people would
have read your views.
What feedback do you
get on the thought that
Jesus is not a
historical figure?
In terms of responses Id
say pros and cons are
pretty much 50-50. But
Jesus deniers are
certainly a minority of the
population. But then so
are intelligent, informed
people!
At present, even among
the non-religious, the
notion of a historical
Jesus still holds the
position of default.
Most people have no idea
how weak is that
contention. On the other
hand, the god-man fairy
tale gets reinforced
continuously in our
culture, with the
mainstream media
ducking serious
examination of the issue.
Plus the fact, of course, it
daily becomes more
unacceptable to offend
religious belief.

5) According to your
opinion, what role had
St Paul the Apostle
played in the spread of
Christianism? As it is
already well-known,
his epistles were
written many years
before the writing of
the gospels.
Ah, St Paul.
Well, in my opinion St
Paul the Apostle is highly
improbable. His pre-
Christian life as a
persecutor is wholly
unconvincing and his
alleged missionary
journeys are bogus. Yes,
we can grant that a
handful of so-called
epistles perhaps as few
as four came from the
pen of a headstrong
religious bully, who may,
possibly, have had the
name Paul. Quite when
they were written is
problematic. The faithful
like to place them in the
50s but they could well
belong about a century
later, just before Marcion
collected and published
them. Pauls writings
were both edited and
supplemented by rival
Jesus-factions during the
second century and
ultimately entered the
canon of Catholic
orthodoxy but they began
life very differently, as

gnostic tracts.
Curious, isnt it, that the
pioneering Apostle to the
Gentiles actually
addresses pre-existing
religious communities
everywhere he goes? I
think the foundational
achievements of Paul
are a late, idealistic
fantasy.
6) The stories about
Jesus (the ones we
read in the gospels)
are similar in many
occasions to myths
and parables of the
traditions of other
people or even of
contemporary wonder-
workers. Could you
give us briefly some
palpable examples?
The path of Jesus
parallels is well-trodden
and, of course, meets
with the predictable
Christian response, No,
they copied from Jesus.
In part, Im sure thats
true. The charlatan
priests of Mithras were
made from the same
mould as the charlatan
priests of Jesus and
certainly would have
copied good stories
from their rivals just as
readily. But what pulls
the rug from under
Christian apologetics is

the testimony of the
Church Fathers who
candidly admitted the
devil had got there first!
And of course the pagan
religions were hundreds
of years older so its clear
which way most of the
copying went.
Examples? Almost all
gods and heroes had
miraculous births. That
much was a given for any
god-man. The most
ancient example is
probably Egypts Horus,
who of course as an
infant had to hide from
his murderous rival Seth.
Romes Romulus and
Remus were sired by the
god Mars from a Vestal
virgin and this motif of
divinity from virginity
repeats itself with
Hercules, Adonis,
Tammuz, etc.
As heavenly counterparts
of earthly kings, gods and
godmen had to have a
retinue of followers
recipients of their wisdom
and witnesses to their
miraculous deeds.
Mithras had his band of
12 followers, an
entourage derived from
the 12 constellations
through which the sun-
god journeyed, and with
whom he shared a last
sacred meal. Dionysius
turned water into wine, a
trick copied by his crafty
priests. Apollonius and
Buddha were both wise
sages who handed on
epithets of wisdom. In
fact, from Buddhist
sources we even have
word-for-word
correlations of Jesus
speak. Sayings and
mighty deeds not
plagiarized from pagan
sources were simply
redactions of Jewish
scripture.
Christians dont
necessarily deny the
connection but they can
swallow this wholesale as
fulfillment of scripture.
To anyone else, its
copying a good yarn.
7) According to your
opinion what were the
reasons that led the
Emperor Constantine
to make Christianism
the state religion of
the Roman and later
Byzantine empire?
Which centers did he
possibly serve with
that choice?
OK, a brief answer.
Constantine was a
ruthlessly ambitious
prince, passed over in the
orderly and merit-based
system of succession
established by Diocletian.
Beginning with a rebellion
on the fringes of the
empire (in Britain) he set
his sights on re-
establishing an
autocracy. Having spent
time in the east, he knew
that his imperial rivals
had considerable trouble
with disaffected
Christians. So
Constantine shrewdly
declared himself their
protector. It cost him
nothing and rewarded
him with the support of
determined fanatics. He
continued to tolerate the
traditional gods but the
Church gave him
something the pagan
cults could not a
disciplined hierarchy
extending down from the
imperial court to the
provincial cities and
major towns. A
generation later,
Theodosius introduced
compulsion into religious
belief and this signaled
the final ruin of paganism.
8) With the
organization of the
church it is observed
(with the initiative of
the Ecumenical
councils) a random
cutting and sewing of
the gospels (with the
aim of erasing as
much as possible
the incongruous
elements) and the
falsification of
accounts which
confirm, amongst the
others, the historical
existence of Jesus.
Could you give us
some distinctive
examples?
Thanks largely to the
chance discoveries of the
Dead Sea Scrolls and the
Nag Hammadi gospels we
now have a much clearer
understanding of both the
diversity of early
Christianity and the
Jewish milieu from which
it arose.
The creation of Jesus
lore was an entire
literary genre during the
2nd and 3rd centuries.
But to meet the
requirements of a
unifying state religion
(and, importantly, one
that cloaked the imperial
despot with an aura of
sacredness) dogmas
had to be agreed,
codified and enforced.
The elevation of Jesus to
the same essence as
God, and Mary as the
Mother of God were the
most scandalous
achievements of the
councils. Hence the rise
of creeds and the
wholesale destruction of
heterogenous opinion.
With Christianitys
adoption as the favoured
religion of the state,
almost limitless funds
became available for
retro-fitting a historical
Jesus within the
Palestinian landscape, a
necessary visual
propaganda for an
illiterate population. The
most notable examples,
of course, were the Holy
Sepulchre and Calvary
in Jerusalem, the cave of
the Holy Family at
Nazareth and the cave
of the nativity at
Bethlehem complete
with the True Cross, the
true nails, Marys birthing
garments, Jesus
foreskin, even straw from
the manger. Fabrication,
thereafter, was more
about establishing the
pedigree of bishops as
true successors and
appointees of the
apostles and that meant
the invention of saints
and relics wholesale.
9) Throughout the
years and particularly
since the Middle Ages
appeared the first
thinkers and
historians who
questioned that Jesus
was a real historical
figure.
Could you give us
some answers on the
following: 1) When had
this dispute started?
2) On which questions
and on which
elements was it
focused? And 3) How
had the system treated
the controversialists
and with which ways
had the church tried to
contradict them?
The Reformation broke
the spell of Catholic
totalitarianism. Once the
Pope was denounced as
the Antichrist no part of
the fabric of religion was
secure.
Early interest centred on
recovering the gospel
truth, free of the
embellishments and
fabrications of
Catholicism. Epistles
which served papal
aggrandizement were the
first to be ditched, then
passages within the
gospels themselves that
disguised insertions from
a later age. Every
identified forgery
weakened further what
remained.
Inescapably it was
realized that the gospels
were not four
independent witnesses
but were a single chain of
story telling and that
recognition focused
attention towards
recovering the original
true story. But the
process of deconstruction
had and has no
stopping point because
there is no historical core.
Only one thing stops
every investigator
reaching the same point
his faith which at a
certain stage arbitrarily
concludes what must be
true.
Pointing out that the
emperor has no clothes
has never been a healthy
occupation. In earlier
centuries, many died for
their candour; many
others blighted their
careers for their honesty.
But under the hammer
blows of science and
rationality traditional
Christianity has dissolved
into a dilute,
individualistic, liberal
humanitarianism, in
terminal decline.
But thats only half the
picture. If you want to
make money out of Jesus
cut a deal with
Apologetics, the US-
driven merger of sales
technology and junk
history. The new
crusaders from the bible-
belt are the Jesuits
reborn. They have
resurrected the corpse of
mediaeval Catholicism
biblical inerrancy,
creationism, the global
struggle of good and evil,
salvation through the
Church and
shamelessly use all the
devices and technologies
of science to sell a
primitive and barbarous
superstition.
10) What is the
prevalent view
amongst the members
of the international
scientific community
on the historicity of
Jesus nowadays? Are
there any academics
who deal with such
hot issues or is it
too early to talk about
something like that?
The academic community
has given a hostage to
fortune by its very
reasonableness and
Politically Correct
sensitivity to faith.
The prevalent view
among scholars even
atheist scholars, it should
be said is that there
was probably a Jesus.
The notion is eminently
reasonable. The name
was commonplace. We
know there were rebels of
many different
persuasions among the
Jews in the 1st century.
Augustus, Herod, Pilate,
Caiaphas were certainly
historical figures and we
know Christianity
emerged as a distinct
religion during the 2nd
century. Therefore, one
can grant an existence to
a minimalistic Jesus
sans virgin birth and
other miracles on the
basis of reasonableness
and commonsense.
The problem is that a
generic Jesus is not any
particular Jesus and is
certainly not THE Jesus.
In a population of about
half a million Jews, the
number of 1st century
Jesuses would have been
several thousands
(perhaps as many as
twenty thousand!). Four
of the high priests in the
1st century were called
Jesus; St Paul confronts a
magician called Jesus and
has an acolyte called
Jesus; Josephus mentions
nineteen characters with
that name. We might
suppose that any one out
of this vast reservoir of
Jesuses was our man but
it would be an arbitrary
choice with absolutely no
historical support.
In reality, a generic Jesus
is nothing more than a G
I Joe or a John Doe.
Without a tie into the
historical record the Jesus
tale is indistinguishable
from a fairy tale and
thats precisely what it is.
And yes, there are
academics still chopping
down the beanstalk. To
name names, Thomas
Thompson, Bob Price and
Jay Raskin are among
accredited scholars to
declare the emperor has
no clothes.
11) Many people when
they hear about the
questions that are
raised by the issue of
the historicity of Jesus
claim that they are not
really interested to
know if he truly
existed. What they all
care about is his
teaching. What would
you answer back to
them?
OK, fine. But if this is
intended as a step
towards honesty lets at
least complete the move
and acknowledge that if
Jesus never existed then
his teaching is not his
at all but is a cultural
legacy from an earlier
age, which may or may
not be relevant today.
Do we really want to
follow Jesus advice to
cure sickness with
exorcism?
Do we really want
children to be told they
were sinners from birth
and that they risk the
fires of hell?
Or that they should take
no thought of the
morrow, handle snakes
and drink poison with no
harm?
Too many people far too
glibly assume Jesus
purported
pronouncements are the
essence of goodness
which they most certainly
are not. And quite
honestly I think the
classic notions of cheek
turning and loving
enemies are utterly
impractical and woefully
mistaken in principle.
12) Supposing in the
future Christianism
falls apart on an
international level.
According to your
opinion, how could the
Westerners since
they would be mostly
affected express
their religious needs?
What would you
suggest as an
antidote? How do
you understand the
term religiousness
spirituality?
I think Christianism will
fall apart in the future but
endless factionalism is
the essence of religiosity
because it is a man-made
construct. But the
parasite is also endlessly
adaptable. Religion draws
into itself the lost, the
lonely, the unfulfilled. For
that reason it will always
be with us.
I think we will see a new
Gnosticism emerge from
enlightened Christianity
(which has no need of a
historical Jesus) and a
militant Fundamentalism,
hell-bent on realizing the
apocalypse and its own
rapture.
But I remain optimistic.
Lets hope we can keep
most people on the side
of rationalism and
science.
Spirituality? There is a
soullessness about a
society that defines
happiness as ever-
greater consumption.
That, of course, is the
tragedy of America.
Having gluttonously
consumed the world it
remains empty and tries
to fill the void with Jesus.
For me, contentment
flows from ever-greater
understanding of the
world and our place
within it. It just so
happens that knowledge
is available at rock-
bottom prices and
minimal environmental
impact! A secular society
can create spectacle, art
and atmospheric
buildings better than any
theocracy and if its awe
and wonder people seek
then the real universe
has more mysteries than
we can ever imagine.
Kenneth Humphreys

Home
MAJOR SECTIONS
Still holding
to the idea
that some
sort of holy
man lies
behind the
legend?
Better check
out...
Godman
Gestation of
a Superhero
A closer look
at the glib
assertion that
the Jesus
story "got off
the ground
quickly and
spread
rapidly."
What DID
the Early
Christians
Believe?
Many currents
fed the Jesus
myth, like
streams and
tributaries
joining to
form a major
river.
Sourcing
the legend
The Syncretic
Heritage of
Christianity
Much of the
mythology of
Christianity is
a rehash of an
older and
even more
transparent
fabrication
Judaism.
Jew
Story The
Way of the
Rabbi
Human
ingenuity and
cunning is
matched by
mankind's
equally
monumental
credulity and
wishful
thinking.

Christianity's
Fabrication
Factory
Church
organisation,
authority and
membership
preceded
rather than
followed the
justifying
doctrine. As
the
organisation
and its needs
changed so
has the
Testament of
God adapted
accordingly.
Dogma
The Word in
all its Savage
Glory
From
religious
policeman to
grandee of
the church,
from beast
fighter in
Ephesus to
beheading in
Rome, Paul's
story has
more holes
than a swiss
cheese.
St Paul
the Apostle
Dead in the
water?
Orchestrated
by ambitious
Christian
clerics, a
cancer of
superstition,
fear and
brutality was
imposed
across
Europe.
Heart of
Darkness
The Criminal
History of the
Christian
Church
The Christian
Heaven may
have been a
vain folly but
the Christian
Hell has been
real enough.
Hell on
Earth A
Brutal
Superstition
Spreads
Across the
World
Raised to the
status of
State religion
the Christian
Church
reigned over
the
destruction of
civilization.
As the
centuries
passed
religious
barbarism
grew ever
more vicious.
Winter of
the World
The Terrible
Cost of
"Christendom"
For two
millennia
Christianity's
anti-sexual,
puritanical
doctrines
have inflicted
untold
damage on
the mental,
emotional and
physical lives
of countless
millions of
people.
Those
SEXUALLY
hung-up
Christians
Loved-up for
Jesus
With a Jewish
father (stern
patriarch) and
a Christian
mother
(obsession
with guilt and
heaven) it is
not surprising
that Islam
grew up a bit
of a tartar.
Islam's
Desert Storm

'Christendom'
Reaps a
Whirlwind
Heaven help
us. The
richest, most
powerful
nation in
history has a
psychotic
infatuation
with Jay-a-
sus the Lawd!
The
Christianizing
of the
Americas

'Save' a friend - e-
mail this page

Copyright 2009 by
Kenneth Humphreys.
Copying is freely
permitted, provided
credit is given to the
author and no material
herein is sold for profit.


The New Apologists a rescue mission for the "Jesus of history"
"Did Jesus Exist?" Bart Ehrman in difficulty with his own question
The New Apologists
R. Joseph Hoffmann and friends on a rescue mission for the "Jesus of history"
Jesus Never Existed Imaginary Friend
email the author
Kenneth Humphreys

26.06.12
Home Section Complete list of articles Search

With the supernatural elements
removed from the gospel story
what then is left of a man called
Jesus to remember decades after
his death?
Why would he be remembered at all
when numerous other Jesuses
were forgotten?
The proponents of a historical
Jesus defend the idea that a single
man became the focus about which
a stupendous legend grew.
Yet does a mountain of artifice
really need a dead nonentity to get
going?
The scholarly establishment has
failed to win the public over with
their weak arguments and arrogant
dismissal of the case for a mythical
Jesus.

"A recent attempt by a well-known NT scholar is exceptionally disappointing and not an adequate rejoinder to the routinely absurd ideas of the
Jesus-deniers." Hoffmann, June 9, 2012.

A trio of Jesus myth denouncers from the world of academe have rushed into the breach opened up by the failure of Bart Ehrman's final
solution to the problem of Jesus' existence (Listen, he was a small-time deluded doom merchant who thought he was king, so there).
Professors Hoffmann and Casey, and a young academic who worked for Casey, Stephanie Louise Fisher, have come to Ehrman's support
with a few dubious arguments in favour of a historical Jesus and a visceral attack on Jesus mythicists as a thoroughly bad crew.
The blogosphere has been enlivened by a potpourri of ego wars, withering sarcasm, aspersions about competence, intellect,
comprehension, and honesty. The mythicist who has drawn most of the ire is Richard Carrier, a scholar whose scholarly prowess is
matched by an equally impressive opinion of himself.
But what of the "historical Jesus"? Has the posse that has rushed to Ehrman's side got a leg to stand on? For what it is worth,
Hoffmann posted online three essays in what he called "The Jesus Process" on his blog, The New Oxonian.

Alarm bells ring in the ivory towers
Increasing numbers of web-savvy enquirers are asking, "What real evidence is there for a historical Jesus?" and are not convinced by the replies. The
result is that a paradigm shift is in progress. The mythic Jesus, an idea largely ignored in the 20th century by the vested interests of religion and
conservative scholarship, has argued its way back onto the agenda, if only to compel the mandarins to issue contemptuous rebuttals.
Yet whisper-thin defences of a historical Jesus do not cut it in the internet-enabled world and established academics don't like that one little bit. The
on-line arena can be rude and crude but, as with the printing press six hundred years ago, the power of a cartel has been broken. For some tastes, the
wrong kind of people have gained an audience.
"One of the most remarkable features of public discussion of Jesus of Nazareth in the twenty-first century has been a massive upsurge in the
view that this important historical figure did not even exist." Maurice Casey
"The endorsement of amateurs by amateurs is becoming a rampant, annoying and distressing problem for biblical scholarship ... The disease
these buggers spread is ignorance disguised as common sense ... the popularity of the non-historicity thesis ... now threatens to distract biblical
studies from the serious business of illuminating the causes, context and development of early Christianity." Joseph Hoffmann

Lamentations of a lapsed Catholic
http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/newapologists.html (1 de 10)01/01/2014 20:31:41

Joseph Hoffmann biblical scholar par
excellence or arrogant know-it-all?
1996
'It is no longer possible to dismiss the
thesis that Jesus of Nazareth never
existed as the "marginal indiscretion of lay
amateurs".'
Hoffmann
2012
"The non-historicity thesis ... is a disease
spread by amateurs ..."
Hoffmann

Is anyone listening?
Hoffmann has long flip-flopped between believing
there was a Jesus and believing there wasn't. No
crime there.
But he wants to project something masterful and
profound about his enduring uncertainty by using
obscure language, tortuous argument and an
avalanche of complex, pretentious sentences.
Someone should tell him that people have stopped
listening.
R. Joseph Hoffmann is a curious breed of atheist. He devotes considerable energy into attacking atheism. He does so, he says, because "modern
atheism is hardly worth defending." He calls it the "New Atheism" whereas Hoffmann likes to think of himself as a "classical humanist", unlike those ill-
mannered louts of the "atheist militia, the campaigners, the billboard mongers." He even fumes at "movement humanism", cursed for giving birth to a
more "uncompromising form of radical secularism." Hoffmann suggests that articulate atheists (like Richard Dawkins) should "shut their trap". He
seems to hanker after halcyon days when atheism respected God as a "very big idea" and academic freethinkers could take afternoon tea with the
bishop and no one took umbrage. (source)
Oh dear, have we now got atheist tanks on the manicured lawn?
Raised in a Catholic family, Hoffmann seems never to have escaped the allure of Catholic culture and has a fondness, even a longing, for the "most
humane, uplifting or learned elements in religion." He speaks of an "appreciation of human frailty, including the limits of reason" and quotes with
evident approval the philosopher Alvin Plantinga, It is perfectly possible that the process of natural selection has been guided and superintended by
God, and that it could not have produced our world without that guidance. (Blog, June 12 2012).
Hostility to the "new" atheists leads Hoffmann seamlessly into visceral attacks on Jesus mythicists, whom he whimsically styles "Mythtics", perhaps to
suggest that they are of a kind with lunatics? He likes to project an image of himself as an intellectual giant, taxing the understanding of his readers
with a mix of tortured statements and ambiguous language. Hoffmann may certainly impress with his erudition he's been in the game a long time
but in the end, he creates more confusion than clarity. But then, his own position on the man from Galilee has been confusing and erratic.
Back in 1996, writing a foreword to The Jesus Legend by George Albert Wells, Hoffmann was of the opinion that New Testament literature began with a
fictive story, the saviour-revealer-god (Christ the Lord) of Paul's letters. The "early insistence" by the Church on the historical character of the gospels,
said Hoffmann, was driven by "liturgical" rather than historical elements. Back then he was able to ask:
"Why is the core historical episode of the gospel tradition, the story of Jesus's death on the cross, completely lacking in convincing historical
detail, being rather a liturgical drama built up from the psalms and prophetic texts?"
Hoffmann was himself a mythicist as little as five years ago. On June 15, 2007, albeit with some equivocation, the prof went on the record as saying he
thought the non-existence of Jesus more likely than his existence:
"All of us, certainly, have an agenda, all of us have a commitment to a certain view. I happen I'm going to say this for what it's worth I happen
to believe that Jesus of Nazareth did not exist. I happen to believe that, but I'm certainly persuadable.You just have to sit me down and show
me the historical elements in the gospels which point me in the direction of a plausible historical figure who is more plausible than the alternative
explanation for the origins of Christianity." Source.
Hoffmann now retrospectively qualifies that statement. Of course, everybody is entitled to clarify what they meant to say or even change their mind,
hopefully in response to new information. But in Hoffmann's case he cannot say what that new information is. As of June 9th 2012, after a lifetime of
study, Hoffmann reached a definitive answer on the existence of Jesus: "Yes and No because of the inadequacy of the sources." This appears to be his
latest "final conclusion". It's the same lack of certitude that he had five years ago, but this time round he elects for an historical Jesus "the only
reasonable postulate based on the material we now possess." This scholar is still wavering. Raised as a Christian, and having lived with Jesus as man
and boy, Hoffmann, like Ehrman, finds it's too difficult to dismiss his beloved Jesus for good.
What is surprising about Hoffmann's vacillation is not whether he veers towards the yeas or the nays at any particular point in time, but the vitriolic
abuse he currently pours on mythicists. Hoffmann may have plumped for historicity for the moment that's his opinion on the matter, but he is so
besotted with his own superiority that he vilifies anyone who happen to disagree with him, a sorry state of affairs.
Hoffmann admits that he still has doubts about the historicity of Jesus but he's quite sure the myth theory is unprovable and, far worse, that its
proponents are knaves and clowns. His on-going "rebuttal" of mythicism is more vitriolic than informative. And apparently it's all tied up with that
dastardly "New Atheism":
"This had to happen: the coalescence of God deniers and Jesus deniers I mean ... trivializing the settled or nearly-settled conclusions of
modern scholarship itself, and if that doesnt work, bashing the scholars."
Nearly-settled conclusions, huh? Did they get nearly-settled in the last five years then, and if so, by what?
Is Hoffmann so apoplectic because he's disappointed by the arguments for non-historicity? He has after all been pursuing Jesus for a very long while
(the Jesus Seminar, the Jesus Project, the Jesus Process) and now admits to Jesus fatigue. But that in itself wouldn't explain his atrocious abuse of
mythicists and his confessed "prickliness."
Rather, it is because of the people who make those arguments and the global audience the internet affords them. After years of being "out in
front" (chair for the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion, etc.) Hoffmann's is a voice from a bygone era, bypassed by a growing tide he
no longer can control. Perhaps Hoffmann has always wanted to be the scholastic genius who finally unmasked the Fraud of Ages? Maybe. Hoffmann,

like his pal Casey, is incandescent that peons are allowed a voice and that voice is being heard.
It isn't the sin that Hoffman hates but the sinner.
"New Atheism" or the New Apologetics?
What has really happened in the last sixteen years?
Well not the discover of new evidence for Jesus in the Levant but rather the ascendancy of the Christian Right in the United States, and a concomitant
domination of New Testament study by well-funded Fundamentalism. The well has been poisoned and Hoffmann still draws from that well, as can be
seen in his "Case for Jesus".
Hoffmann's arguments for a historical Jesus:
1. "Unique historicism"?
When you hack through the luxuriant but rather tedious verbiage that fills Hoffmann's blog what fruit do you find? It seems that the persuasive
argument for Hoffmann is nothing other than "the evidence of the New Testament" and "an unbroken literary tradition extending from the very century
in which the events are supposed to have happened." William Lane Craig could not have put it better. This Hoffmann styles "The Literary Matrix"
apparently, "The gospels retain a stubbornly historical view of Jesus".
Hoffmann assures us that the apostolic fathers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries were determined to preserve fragments of an oral tradition of a real man
despite the assault of the fantasists. Unlike the Gnostics and others, the proto-orthodox were not given to flights of fancy and religious imagination, or
if they were, nevertheless clung tenaciously to a historical kernel, faithfully handed down to them, about a flesh-and-blood figure called Jesus. In this
respect, says the prof, Christianity was unique.
"We have no examples from classical antiquity of a religion that insisted from the beginning on the historical existence of its founder in both
explicit and implicit ways and no way of explaining why Christianity would differ so markedly from the cults in this respect."
Yet every cult had unique features how could it not do so if it wanted to exist? So, yes, Christianity's "unique selling feature" was a claim that it's god
had incarnated on earth in the time of the stiff-necked generation of Jews that had been engulfed by war (a conflagration that had conveniently
destroyed all records).
Is it really so difficult to grasp that Hellenised Jews, finally cast adrift from a devastated Temple Judaism, should concoct precisely that syncretism of
man and god, which merged Jewish notions of historical determinism and its anticipated messiah with the mores of polytheism? Like his pal Ehrman,
Hoffmann concedes "antecedent and unrelated mythologies" may have influenced the "form of transmission" but not, as he would have it, the
"historical core".
Yet even a unique lie is still a lie. Would the proto-orthodox not have been capable of lies and fabrication, just like the competition (and religious
charlatans throughout history)? Perish the thought. "It would be irresponsible to think that he [Irenaeus] systematically misrepresents the traditions
of an earlier period." And again,
"To impugn their motives moves us away from a methodological suspicion of sources into the realm of master-theories, cynicism and baseless
assumptions for which there is no textual support."
There you have it.
If you think early Catholics lied then you are a cynical conspiracy theorist.
This weak argument is quickly spun into an ad hominem attack on mythicists and Hoffmann blames Richard Dawkins, no less, for popularizing the idea
that religion is a lie so the study of religion is a study of lying.
As we said before, Hoffmann is a curious breed of atheist.

2. "Too soon for a myth" ?
The orthodox early Christians, says Hoffmann, made "a coordinated effort to prevent a deposit of historical tradition from being eviscerated by the
Maurice Casey out in the sun too long?
Casey is author of Jesus of Nazareth: An
Independent Historians View of his Life
and Teachings.
He modestly admits to being "well-known to
some people for his work on Aramaic
sources behind the synoptic Gospels,
careful scholarship and truth."

Trust me, I'm a professor
"The underlying assumption that biblical
studies is EZ PZ is a basic misconception
about the field and one that makes Jesus
denial and mythicism possible."
Hoffmann, blog May 26, 2012.

religious mythicizers of the period," whereas apocryphal and Gnostic gospels "fly off in all directions." (Were the genres ever that distinct? And what of
the many orthodox writers that drifted off into heresy?)
According to our professor, "the history of Jesus was being compiled, but not created in the churches" and this contention he supports (knowingly)
with the tired old apologetic that the "compiled oral tradition" was,
"Written .. fairly early in point of time compared. As old and inconvenient as this defense of the historicity of important elements of the gospels
may be, it is still a detail to be reckoned with."
In this fantasy world in which primitive Christian "truth" had a tenacious existence, no doubt the throngs of supposed Jesus witnesses could have
"checked-up" and filed a complaint if any of the "compilers" got the details wrong?! Hoffmann even adds a 'classic' flourish from the stable of
apologetic rhetoric:
" ... we know more about Jesus than we know about a great many figures that we think existed."
Now where have we heard that one before? Or this one:
"No ancient writer questioned the historicity of Jesus and the fact that no church writer felt compelled to defend it." (June 8th, 2012)
Unbelievably, Hoffmann declaims the rhetorical question, "Could the Gospel writers have referred to 'real' people like Caiaphas and Augustus
and yet made up Joseph of Arimathea and Simon of Cyrene?" As if historical fiction were an unknown genre he asks, "How would we justify that
assumption?"
Trial and death? "Entirely probable", says Hoffman, "if not a chronicle of events". I guess we can agree that if Jesus actually lived then he did indeed
die.
The resurrection? "Not historical, but does clearly refer to historical outcomes: the belief of Jesus followers."
My gosh, does not this belief ("unto death" one presumes) point towards something extraordinary (like a resurrection?!) or are we thrown once again
into the pit of mass hallucination or hysteria? Hoffmann is just as clueless as Ehrman when it comes to explaining the supposed spontaneous outbreak
of resurrection belief.

3. Parsimony of a human Jesus ("The Mythicists make their own myth")
"Mythicists are forced to manufacture unknown proto-Christians who build up an unattested myth ... about an unspecified supernatural entity that
at an indefinite time was sent by God into the world as a man to save mankind and was crucified "
Hoffmann has concluded that there is "compelling evidence" for a 1st century teacher about whom an elaborate cult formed and no evidence at all
for the alternative scenario, in which those self-same extravagant beliefs (incarnation of a spirit entity into human history, salvation of mankind by the
self-sacrifice of that entity) could have formed in the mind of men without the catalyst of a simple Jewish carpenter (or misunderstood apocalyptic
rabbi).
Yet with the supernatural elements removed what would be left of a man called Jesus to remember?
And if one minor figure could influence a very tall tale why not several?
Yet Hoffmann, and other proponents of a historical Jesus, argue that a single minor character was the focus about which a stupendous legend grew.
But does a mountain of artifice really need a nonentity to get going? Here our professor presents the "Argument from Context"
"Does parsimony then lead you to the following: Jesus of Nazareth, who is perfectly typical of this context ..."
In other words, Jesus, as now defined (a failed eschatological prophet), "fits" all that we know of the historical, geographical and political context.
"If you begin with facts that are supported by general agreement: Rome existed, the province of Palestine existed, the Herodians existed, Pilate
existed, apocalyptic Judaism existed, radical political and dissident religious parties existed, food rules existed, sexual apartheid between men
and women existed, sects existed, the Herodian building project existed, publicans existed, eschatological preachers existed, the Galil
hagoyim called Galilee in the the gospels existed, magicians and healers existed, cults existed, the crucifixion of bandits and troublemakers

existed, messiahs existed, baptism existed ... (non-historicity requires) it seems to me an exception to the clear historicity of context ..."
With this, Hoffmann shows himself well-versed in the inanities of apologetics. Jesus is "perfectly typical" of his context precisely because "historicists"
excise every aberrant quality and story element which makes him notable. Jesus thus blends seamlessly into the Palestinian background,
indistinguishable not only from the melee of apocalyptic preachers and rabble-rousers but also from Jewish males in toto. In other words, we have a
man. We know nothing that he said, nothing that he did. But because others, decades later, write about a man-become-god, we can be really confident
that those writers were recalling the memory of an obscure man and not formulating a syncretic and humanoid saviour god, primarily from Old
Testament prototypes.
Did it require a human component to fabricate the high priest Melchizedek? the archangel Michael? the 'Son of Man' Enoch? the tribal autocrat Moses?
the conquering hero Joshua? the miracle-working prophet Elijah? With such a cornucopia of templates to work from, what, precisely, did the myth-
makers require from a mere dead man before they could get to work?

4. Paul's "Active Silence"
Mythicists, quite rightly, make much of Paul's silence on the historical Jesus of his birth, his teachings, his miracles, etc. This is a point Hoffmann
says he would grant to the mythicists but for the fact he has (he thinks) a super-rebuttal, ready and loaded. Paul is silent because he's an ambitious
maverick, more concerned with his own success than anything Jesus might have said or done. He just wasn't interested, his was an "active silence."
Jealous of his rivals, envious that they had known Jesus "in the flesh", Paul chose to omit the life of Jesus from his writings, and instead expatiated on
the meaning of a crucified and risen Jesus. It was only because Marcion made so much of Paul that this minor apostle was placed centre stage in the
2nd century, as a result of the battle for his legacy.
Yet if as is certainly the case a minor figure has been inflated by Church politics into a colossus bestriding the world of early Christianity, and
dispatching seminal epistles in all directions, can we really hang so much on questionable references within those letters to "brother" or "brothers" or
to supposed close associates of Jesus? Hoffmann thinks so, despite acknowledging that the Pauline body of "evidence" has been tampered with, and
sarcastically demands that dissenting "conspiracy theorists" name the counterfeiters!
Paul's "lack of interest" in a historical Jesus is quite bizarre support for the existence of a historical Jesus. Perhaps Paul's lack of interest and he was
ostensibly in the right place at the right time was because there was no Jesus of Nazareth to be interested in!
Hoffmann's "finely nuanced" argument here will be lost on most of humanity as it surely should be but my guess is that our irate academic grand
master doesn't give a damn and even remains unaware that his ambivalent and tortured message is not passing through to his confused readers.

Coalition of the Willing support from Nottingham
Maurice Casey probably speaks for many old-school academics when he expresses his horror that the internet appeals directly to a mass audience,
who are, it seems,
"... closed minds who are impervious to evidence and argument", "ineducable", "maliciously inventive", "a quite different world from the critical
scholars among whom I am happy to have spent most of my life."
Shock! Horror! Who opened the door to the riffraff?
Several centuries ago the printing press doubtless prompted similar disgust from the hierarchs of Holy Mother Church. Yes, the internet can be rude
and rebellious. To which there is one obvious answer: get over it.
Casey's article is tedious and rambling. He begins by "reviewing" the work of Earl Doherty, D. Murdock, Tom Harpur, Neil Godfrey, Steven Carr, and
Robert Price. They are, of course, all found lacking. Amusingly, it was Price who collaborated with Hoffmann in pulling together the ill-fated Jesus
Project; and would you believe it! the much-pilloried Murdock (aka Acharya S.) was also invited by the very same Joseph Hoffmann to join the
team!
Casey delights in identifying the likes of Harpur and Price erstwhile Christians as "trapped in their fundamentalist past." A more balanced view
might be that their Christian background gives them unique insights but Casey's having none of that. And let's not mention that Casey himself "drifted
away from the church in 1962 during his first degree in theology at Durham."
Casey's arguments for a historical Jesus

Stephanie Fisher cheer leader for
Hoffmann and Casey?
Quixotic Stephanie quotes approvingly theologian
Lloyd Geering that the world has purpose and no
ultimate meaning. Is that clear now?
Apparently, her penchant for radical (ab)use of
language ran in Steph's family. Of her deceased
mother she wrote,
"She was famous for renaming things,
1. "Mythicists are hopeless" Not really a positive point for a historical Jesus but Casey makes this charge five times: mythicists are hopelessly
biased, hopelessly unlearned, hopelessly late daters, hopelessly out of date, and hopelessly fundamentalist! Gee whiz, I guess that means that without
Jesus there's no hope!
2. "Mythicism has been decisively refuted" According to Casey any doubts about the existence of Jesus have has been put to rest by
exceptionally competent authors:
"In the later twentieth century, competent New Testament scholars believed that it [mythicism] had been decisively refuted in a small number of
readily available books, supported in scholarly research by commentaries and many occasional comments in scholarly books."
Is Casey aware that his pal Hoffmann was of the "mythtic" persuasion only five years ago? And just what were these earth-shaking works of erudite
scholarship? A footnote provides the alarming answer:
"The major generally available books were S. J. Case, The Historicity of Jesus: A Criticism of the Contention that Jesus Never Lived, a
Statement of the Evidence for His Existence, an Estimate of His Relation to Christianity (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1912; 2nd edn, 1928);
M. Goguel, Jesus the Nazarene: Myth or History? (1925. Trans. F. Stevens. London/New York: Unwin/Appleton, 1926. With a new introduction
by R. Joseph Hoffmann, Amherst, New York: Prometheus, 2006."
1912? 1925? And profs like Casey and Hoffmann delight in accusing mythicists of using antiquated scholarship! True enough, these works by the
American Baptist Shirley Case and the French Protestant Maurice Goguel are "classics" of the genre pioneering many, if not most, of the arguments
fine-tuned by the apologetics industry that Casey himself decries for its pernicious domination of New Testament studies. It is amusing to note that
Hoffmann /Prometheus connection in the re-issue of the Goguel book!
3. "High context culture" So this is what explains the ignorance of Paul. "He didn't need to mention things everyone knew." Plain remarkable (not
to say ludicrous) how that glorious "oral tradition" so rapidly spread the same message everywhere from Galatia to Macedonia to Rome in the 1st
century AD but then got into such a muddle in the 2nd century AD when scribblers started to write it down! For more on this, see any of a gazillion
books from Christian apologetics.
4. "Aramaic source points to a Jesus" Yes, there are a handful of Aramaicisms in the gospels (as indeed there are a handful of Latinisms). Most
famously, ... Eli, Eli, lamasabach-thani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Most of these Aramaicisms are quite trivial: a
reference to a '"little girl" at Mark 5.41 (in the phrase talitha cumi) when the author is quite happy to use Greek elsewhere for "girl". Is this the
residue of an original Aramaic gospel or merely an attempt to lend some authenticity to a magical utterance placed on the lips of Jesus? Neither
Matthew nor Luke follow Mark's use of this particular bit of realia. Either way, a few erratics scarcely move us any closer to a "Jesus of history": it's just
as easy to fabricate a story in Aramaic as it is in Greek the Old Testament should be evidence in abundance for that!
Casey would have us believe that there was a clear Aramaic-speaking personality behind the gospels and of course there will be if he goes on writing
the script! Aramaic is beyond the understanding of most of humanity, which rewards Casey with a privileged position: Unless you know the language of
Jesus how can you possibly understand what Jesus said, and if he said anything at all then he must have existed! That's watertight, wouldn't you
agree? Casey is thus at liberty to construct all kinds of imagined Aramaic "documents" that nobody else has ever seen and will never see.

And a Girl Friday to help the guys
Stephanie Fisher young Kiwi helpmate of Maurice Casey who redefines language as fancy takes her:
"Ive never believed in gods or religions but that doesnt make me an atheist of any sort at all ... To be an atheist is to maintain God. His
existence or his nonexistence, it amounts to much the same, on the plane of proof."
Fisher (Source: stateofformation website).
Steph is credited (by Casey) with wonderful work for him "about mythicists", so I guess that got him up to speed. The purpose of her contribution, she
says, is "to refuting the methods of recent mythicists and drawing attention to their unprofessional attitudes and prejudices", so she is not to be faulted
with providing nothing here to support the case for a historical Jesus. She succeeds admirably in her stated aim of scything through her opponents, at
least judged by her prolific use of damning adjectives. In a little over six and a half thousand words she slaps the following labels on mythicists:
including her children. I expect we all have
identity complexes. The fridge became the
microwave, the airing cupboard became
the piano. I was called Mar-man-pippa-
nick-el-steffie but often was just called
Pippa." source.
Well you've been warned. You are about to
disappear down the rabbit hole.
This young topsy-turvy took on the task of critiquing
Richard Carrier's Bayes Theorem approach to
Jesus historicity.
Good choice, huh?

What has math to do
with history?
History requires that we make
judgements about the past. But how
can we decide between the 'possibly
true' and the 'probably true' ?
Probability theory may help.
Thomas Bayes was an 18th
century English Presbyterian with a
passion for math, in particular
"chance". The Reverend made an
attempt to describe mathematically the

prejudiced
ideological
radical
undiscerning
egotistic
evangelising
incompetent
irrelevant
bumbling
flawed
ignorant
hopeless
supercilious
muddled
fundamentalist
overblown
bigoted
pseudo
out-of-date
biased
over-confident
self-promoting
Thank heavens Steph puts her faith in "recognized academics in top tier universities" and "the best critical scholarship", which just happens to mean
Aramaists like Casey.
"How many of these 'scholars' read more than 3,500 examples of the Aramaic term br nash(a)' when they were deciding what it meant? Casey
is the only such scholar known to me!"
Sadly, as Steph is obliged to admit, Casey's synthetic "Aramaic original" of the gospels is rejected not only by mythicists but also by many mainstream
scholars and "all fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals" but then they just aren't competent Aramaists, so what would they know?

Giving Carrier a good kicking
Richard Carrier, erstwhile editor of Internet Infidels, is a activist for atheism (he prefers the word "naturalism"). He's also a blogger, historian and
writer: Sense and Goodness without God (2005); Not the Impossible Faith (2009) and most recently, Proving History (2012). At one time
unconvinced by the arguments for mythicism, in July 2005 Carrier announced:
"I have come to realize that mythicism is significantly more probably true than historicity. This I consider as radical a departure from my previous
agnosticism as my agnosticism was from my previous historicism."

In recent times, Richard Carrier has argued for the use of Bayes' Theorem as a way out of the befuddled mess that besets Jesus studies (Proving
History: Bayess Theorem and the Quest for the Historical Jesus). If Carrier could pull off this master stroke it would be as revolutionary as he claims.
The Fisher (Hoffmann) retort to Carrier is to denounce the use of Bayes's theorem as useless in deciding questions of historical probability. Any
attempt to apply a simplistic mathematical formula like Bayes to composite historical texts is hopelessly flawed methodology, "one that fails to
differentiate between primary and secondary traditions". The literary record is way too complex for that sort of resolution, says Fisher.
We will have to wait until Carrier reveals his promised detailed treatment of Jesus in an intended second volume and then judge whether he has fed
plausible assumptions into his probability engine.
The odds of Carrier making an historical breakthrough? Not very probable and we can be quite sure that a mathematical solution is unlikely to enjoy
mass appeal.

Whither the Historicists?
Hoffmann is immeasurably well-qualified to have an opinion about Jesus (Harvard Divinity School, Oxford, professorships at various universities, etc.),
but then, equally well-qualified academics have disagreed with him on just about every contention, beginning thirty years ago with his doctoral thesis
that argued for an earlier dating of Marcion (Marcion: On the Reconstitution of Christianity).
Like a swaggering mafioso brought into town to gun down all naysayers from the comfort of his limo (in this case a blog called The New Oxonian)
super-brain Hoffmann amuses himself by decapitating lesser beings with the temerity to question his magisterial rulings. His verdict on mythicism has
been delivered: mythicists are conspiracy theorists, invoking "unknown proto-Christians who build up an unattested myth."
For all his own recent dalliances with mythicism, Hoffmann is today smugly of the opinion that the breaker for mythicism was and is the unmet
"challenge" issued by Shirley Case a century ago. Really? Had Hoffmann not read Case back in 1996? or 2007? In any event, Case challenged the
mythicists to
" ... reconstructing, without reference to him [Jesus], so strong a theory of Christian origins that the traditional view will pale before it as a lesser
light in the presence of a greater luminary."
normally unstated reasoning process
and he worked out a theorem that
subsequently took his name.
The same idea was refined by French
astronomer Pierre-Simon Laplace
early in the 19th century. It reemerged
in the 1950s in risk analysis, and has
since been applied to all manner of
things. Theists have used Bayes to
argue for the existence of God (Unwin,
2003)
The snag is that the whole enterprise
pivots on initial, subjective judgements
thus, Garbage In, Garbage
Out.
Yet the challenge can be reversed: who precisely were the authors of the canonical gospels if not also "unknown proto-Christians who build up an
unattested myth"? Is it not very curious indeed that these "compilers of history" were unknown in time or place even in the 2nd century? For that
matter, where is the compelling evidence that early Christian writers were referring to the same minor individual?
The New Apologetics is at its weakness at precisely those points where the old apologetics offers miracle and marvel to resolve difficulties. Why was
Jesus notable if he did not draw multitudes from across the region? Why was he remembered decades later if he did not perform spectacular healings
and miracles? Why did his followers "just start believing" that he had been resurrected if the laws of the universe had not been suspended?
There is a poverty, emptiness, and a certain hard-headed obstinacy, about a view that resolves those sort of difficulties with a shrug yet is quite
insistent that "of course Jesus existed" and mercilessly vilifies those who say otherwise.
References:
Hoffmanns blog The New Oxonian (Hoffmann - Controversy, Mythicism, and the Historical Jesus;
Casey - Mythicism: A Story of Bias, Incompetence and Falsehood; Fisher - An Exhibition of Incompetence, Trickery Dickery Bayes)
Earl Doherty responses to Ehrman, Vridar, and Maurice Casey, Vridar
Neil Godfrey response to Maurice Casey and Stephanie Fisher Vridar
Steven Carr's blog
Richard Carrier's blog

Related articles

Bart Ehrman, Did Jesus Exist? Book review
Home
MAJOR SECTIONS
Do you really think it all began with a sanctimonious Jewish wonder-worker, strolling about 1st century Palestine?
Prepare to be enlightened.
Imaginary Friend
Still holding to the idea that some sort of holy man lies behind the legend? Better check out...
Godman Gestation of a Superhero
A closer look at the glib assertion that the Jesus story "got off the ground quickly and spread rapidly."
What DID the Early Christians Believe?
Many currents fed the Jesus myth, like streams and tributaries joining to form a major river.
Sourcing the legend The Syncretic Heritage of Christianity
Much of the mythology of Christianity is a rehash of an older and even more transparent fabrication Judaism.
Jew Story The Way of the Rabbi
Human ingenuity and cunning is matched by mankind's equally monumental credulity and wishful thinking.
Christianity's Fabrication Factory
Church organisation, authority and membership preceded rather than followed the justifying doctrine. As the organisation and its needs
changed so has the Testament of God adapted accordingly.
Dogma The Word in all its Savage Glory
From religious policeman to grandee of the church, from beast fighter in Ephesus to beheading in Rome, Paul's story has more holes than a
swiss cheese.
St Paul the Apostle Dead in the water?
Orchestrated by ambitious Christian clerics, a cancer of superstition, fear and brutality was imposed across Europe.
The Criminal History of the Christian Church
The Christian Heaven may have been a vain folly but the Christian Hell has been real enough.
A Brutal Superstition Spreads Across Europe
With a Jewish father (stern patriarch) and a Christian mother (obsession with guilt and heaven) it is not surprising that Islam grew up a bit of
a tartar.
The Challenge of Islam 'Christendom' Reaps a Whirlwind
Heaven help us. The richest, most powerful nation in history has a psychotic infatuation with Jay-a-sus the Lawd!
The Christianizing of the Americas

Some fifty articles are now available as a book. For your copy order:

Copyright 2012 by Kenneth Humphreys.



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