Toto

Robert M. Price is now selling copies of "The Christ Myth and Its Problems" for $23. The book was published by American Atheists Press. The book contains articles written by Price and is over 400 pages.

Price provided the contents of this to Bart Ehrman, so Ehrman's upcoming book will presumably try to refudiate this.

To order, go to his website and find the obscurely placed Paypal donation button on the left side of the page, below "Mindvendor" and above the book icons. Click on that button and enter the amount; then include your name and shipping address in the transaction notes.

Eventually, you will be able to order it on Amazon and Barns and Noble

stephan huller

"Barns and Noble" I assume is some farm equipment company where erudite agricultural workers in California frequently buy books.

Solo

Thanks, Toto.

According to Amazon.ca, the title is slightly different:

"The Christ Myth Theory and Its Problems".

Best,
Jiri

Toto

Yes, that appears to be the official title.

B&N

Google books

Amazon.com does not have a listing yet.

aa5874

What problems could there be with the MYTH Jesus theory?

1. Jesus was described as a Child of a Ghost.

2. No apologetic contemporary of the supposed Jesus wrote that they saw him alive.

3. No non -apologetic contemporary claimed they saw Jesus alive.

4. No apologetic sources have been dated to the 1st century BEFORE the Fall of the Temple.

5. Non-apologetic sources did NOT account for a Messiah called Jesus BEFORE the Fall of the Temple.

6. Apologetic sources claimed Jesus TRANSFIGURED during his supposed life on earth.

7. A supposed contemporary claimed he was NOT the apostle of a man but of Jesus who was raised from the dead.

8. A supposed contemporary claimed the Lord Jesus was FROM heaven.

9. A supposed contemporary of Jesus claimed was God's Son.

10. A supposed contemporary claimed Jesus was in the FORM of God and EQUAL to God.

Jesus was PURE MYTH.

Stringbean

Another reach! I won't be ordering it thats for sure.....good posts Double AA!

Toto

My copy has arrived.

In the Introduction, Robert M. Price describes how he originally accepted the liberal Christian view of the historical Jesus as "a prophet heralding the arrival of the eschatological Kingdom of God." This Jesus had predicted the coming of the Son of Man, and angelic figure that would raise the dead and judge mankind. When he cleansed the Temple, the Sadducee establishment in cahoots with the Romans got him crucified, but a few days later, his disciples began experiencing visions of him arisen from the dead, and the disciples concluded that Jesus himself was the Son of Man.

But Price eventually rejected this view, and decided that Jesus was myth all the way down, like Hercules. He is not happy with that view, and wishes it were not true, but that is the way the evidence leads him.

He was initially struck by the similarity of Jesus' story to the dying and rising gods of the Mediterranean. But these similarities are not enough to prove that Jesus was originally a myth. Bultman admitted that these myths shaped the form of the resurrection belief among early Christians. But beyond this, all of the elements of the Jesus story dissolve under scrutiny.

Other factors: all of the sayings attributed to Jesus are so closely paralleled in contemporary Rabbinic or Hellenistic lore that there is no particular reason to see any of them as originating with Jesus. And virtually every story in the gospels and in the book of Acts looks like a Christian rewrite of material from either the Septuagint, Homer, Euripides' Bacchus, or Josephus.

Price sees the strongest argument for a historical Jesus as this: that "one can plausibly read certain texts in Acts, Mark and Galatians as fossils preserving the memory of a successionist struggle following the death of Jesus, who must therefore have existed." This implies that Jesus was a latter day Judas Maccabee, who had a group of brothers who could take up the banner when then eldest was killed in battle. Price says that S.G.F. Brandon makes a good case for a Zealot Jesus. But he thinks that the elements that point to a Zealot Jesus are easier to explain as derived from the Jewish War and the fall of Jerusalem.

DCHindley

Those gentleman farmers are the primary competitor to the bare breasted warrior readers of the Amazon tribe. And nay, not just in Californ-i-a, but the noble barns have been erected across the nation, their lofts filled with hay seeded books, sometimes at a cheaper price. Even now, I, even I, have a small balance on a gift card from said noble gentlepersonages, and shall one day redeem it, God willing.

DCH

Vorkosigan

Yes, but you've misspelled the agricultural bookstore chain's name. It's Barns and No Bull. Because farmers who don't raise livestock have more time on their hands to read.

DCHindley

Oh ... that's much different! Statistically, farmers who don't raise livestock are less likely to be gentlemen, according to the US Census Bureau. I suspect this is true elsewhere in this wide world as well. Dirt farmers, with all that extra time on their hands, split fence rails and one day get elected President, and everyone knows that US Presidents have of late not been gentlemenly.

DCH