The Great Deception

by Gerd Lüdemann

It is widely recognized by New Testament scholars that many of the sayings and actions attributed to Jesus in the gospels cannot be factually traced to him. To a considerable degree, these stories have been influenced, or even created, by the early church. Despite this gap between the "Jesus of history" and the "Christ of faith," the contemporary church continues to represent the traditional New Testament canon as a generally accurate record of the life of Jesus.The Great Deception exposes the dangers that accompany this disingenuous, unscientific approach and calls for a more rigorous treatment of the gospels. In a clear, straightforward narrative, Gerd Lüdemann establishes the criteria by which he believes it possible to distinguish inauthentic from authentic sayings and actions of Jesus, and then shows which quotes and deeds can be regarded as factual. His radical conclusion is that the Jesus of history, who emerges after the falsehoods attributed to him are pared away, cannot support the traditional Christian faith.Lüdemann's historical analysis reveals, nonetheless, a Jesus who remains a deeply sympathetic personality and one of the great religious figures of the world. But it also shows that Christian leaders who ignore the results of sound scholarship are selling the faithful a "great deception."

116 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1998

About the author

Gerd Lüdemann is Professor of New Testament at the University of Göttingen, Germany, Director of the Institute of Early Christian Studies, and Founder and Director of the Archive Religionsgeschichtliche Schule at the University of Göttingen. He has also served as Visiting Scholar at Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee, and as co-chair of the Society of Biblical Literature Seminar on Jewish Christianity. He is a Fellow of the Westar Institute.

Reviews

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE GERMAN NEW TESTAMENT SCHOLAR'S COMMENTARY ON SELECTED GOSPEL TEXTS

Gerd Lüdemann (born 1946), is a German scholar who taught New Testament from 1983 to 1999 at the University of Göttingen. After complaints from churches, his Chair of New Testament was renamed the "Chair of History and Literature of Early Christianity"; his research funding was also cut and his teaching was no longer part of the curriculum. He has also written books such as 'What Really Happened to Jesus,' 'Virgin Birth?: The Real Story of Mary and Her Son Jesus,' 'Jesus After 2000 Years: What He Really Said and Did,' etc.

He wrote in the Preface to the U.S. edition of this 1998 book, "In the course of my investigation... I have come to the following conclusion. My previous faith, related to the biblical message, has become impossible, because its points of reference, above all the resurrection of Jesus, have proved invalid and because the person of Jesus himself is insufficient as a foundation of faith once most of the New Testament statements about him have proved to be later interpretations by the community. Jesus deceived himself in expecting the kingdom of God. Instead, the church came; it recklessly changed the message of Jesus and in numerous cases turned it against the mother religion of Judaism." (Pg. xii) He later adds, "the present book gives an account of why I myself must from now regard as illegitimate any return to the preaching of Jesus as a foundation for Christian faith." (Pg. xxiv)

He suggests, "So a decision about historicity is not identical with a decision about what Jesus said or did. However, we may say that the decision about what is 'unhistorical' is 'identical' with the decision about what he certainly did not say and what certainly did not happen. Still, these qualifications do not affect the value of the judgments made." (Pg. 24)

He concludes, "The final result of this journey through a selection of New Testament texts is sobering. It casts light on the brutal reality of the first century: the process of falsifying and overpainting the man Jesus, his words and action, began in earliest Christianity and is already at an advanced stage in the New Testament... this book quotes around half of all the authentic sayings and actions of Jesus, whereas the inauthentic sayings and actions presented here represent only a small selection from a wealth of inventions." (Pg. 109)

Lüdemann's opinions are obviously controversial, but his arguments are important to study for anyone investigating the historical Jesus... whether one agrees with him or not.

[Scott Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author sets up his own criteria and defines miracles and the resurrection out of existence. The gist is that since there is no resurrection and no miracles, any instance of the Gospels stating these things is not authentic.

I give it two stars because at least the author is consistent and calls himself an atheist.