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T**S
Comprehensive and convincing but long
This is a devastating and total deconstruction of Bart Ehrman's book "Did Jesus Exist?". It demolishes his entire set of arguments. But I hesitate to give it five stars because it is not an easy read. It is too long, sometimes repetitive, often complex. I believe it could have been improved if a couple of chapters had been dropped while the rest could have been edited and pruned. However, for those willing to read it all from end to end, it packs a huge punch.
P**T
This is a very mixed bag. There are certainly ...
This is a very mixed bag. There are certainly a number of goodies though perhaps not as many as I would have expected in a book of this length. I think it succeeds though in exposing Ehrman's presumpions,
H**B
Fascinating
I've read several of Bart Ehrman's books and enjoyed them all, but "Did Jesus Exist" I found less convincing, hence buying "Bart Ehrman and the Quest of the Historical Jesus of Nazareth". This debunks much of Ehrman's thesis - which is really one atheist arguing with another. In this case a Christian trained Bible scholar (now atheist) arguing with Mythicists."Bart Ehrman and the Quest of the Historical Jesus of Nazareth" gets a little long-winded and repetitive but should be mandatory reading after "Did Jesus Exist". It is a shame that more Christians don't read such books.
R**R
Enjoyabl and infirmative. Well worth the time and effort.
This "...Quest For The Historical Jesus," has left a lasting impression and fuelled lots of readng, too.It's been a few weeks since I read this (and I have read about a dozen books on history and religion/mythology in the interval).Let's face it; whether this fellow existed is of purely academic interest because those sufficiently well-groomed in childhood by the god industry will continue to permit the multi-national enterprises gain more tax efficient revenue and unwarranted influence than certain companies we're all too aware of [puts down coffee, glances around room full of caffeine addicts]. But this is a valuable endeavour because it exposes the character and methods of the buybull business: for that, I wish to thank and support the continued endeavours of all the scholars who've striven to bring understanding to us all.I'm still musing as to whether Nazareth [though I enjoyed their chart topper in the 1970s] was contemporary to the generally accepted era of christianities' (yes: plural) early gestation. Jesus seems, thanks to the observations and criticisms wihin this book, increasingly likely to be a marketeers' manufacture that was sculpted and polished during the 2nd and 3rd centuries - though I'd love to know when he became caucasian. I'll soon start searching for evidence that Islam's favourite son existed.To inform these conjectures I've read Josephus, Hammurabi, and other more recent works including Price and Carrier. The lasting impression I gleen from spending this cash on Amazon is that religions are not to be relied upon as authorities: especially when seeking knowledge of religions! How strange it is that instituting claiming "Truth" are so poor at dealing with "truth."When asking clerics or TV historians about Jesus and Mohammed, they always say "the concensus of historians is that they most probably existed" yet no evidence or sustainable argument ever supports this. Methinks we are finally learning to investigate the sacred big human names of Abrahamic religions and books like this fine collection of essays are doing an excellent job. Thanks to all involved.Yes yes, please read this book and any others that spark your interest within its pages. Bart Erhman deserves credit, too, not least for the fact that his work provoked a response from and introduced me to several fine scholars. Though Carrier continues to recommend a number of Prof Erhman's titles, his seemingly uppish reactions cited in these pages reduce the likelihood I'll be buying them from anywhere other than charity shops and libraries.
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