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The Jesus Hoax: How St. Paul's Cabal Fooled the World for Two Thousand Years

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Jesus of Nazareth is one of the most famous men in history. There are good reasons to believe that he walked the earth some two thousand years ago, and was eventually crucified.




But what about Jesus Christ, son of God? What if he never existed? What if the divine, virgin-born, resurrected Jesus Christ was a myth, a lie-even

a hoax? That would have huge implications for modern day Christianity; it would mean that there is a gigantic falsehood at the core of the religion of

some two billion people.




In this book, Dr. David Skrbina presents a profound and stunning that St. Paul and a band of followers constructed a 'Jesus hoax.' They took a kernel of truth based on Jesus, the man, and turned him into the divine savior of humanity. They did so as a way to strike back at the hated Roman Empire, and to undermine its strength among the common people. The absolute lack of corroborating evidence for the so-called biblical Jesus, and the fact that key documents such as the four Gospels were written decades after his time, all support this theory.




Everyone, regardless of religious belief, needs to be aware of this astonishing story. This is not just ancient history; it has vast implications for many areas of modern life.


218 pages, Paperback

Published September 8, 2023

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About the author

David Skrbina

15 books27 followers
Pioneer of ecophilosophy. He also stood for the office of Lieutenant Governor for the U.S. state of Michigan as the Green Party candidate in 2006, as the running mate of Douglas Campbell.

He has developed an ecologically-centered worldview encompassing ethics, metaphysics, and cosmology. He is Deputy Director of the Eco-Philosophy Center.

He has been active in the University of Michigan calling for divestment from Israel. He also corresponded with Theodore J. Kaczynski and wrote an afterword for his book "The road to revolution"

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5 stars
67 (42%)
4 stars
39 (24%)
3 stars
30 (18%)
2 stars
14 (8%)
1 star
9 (5%)
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
Profile Image for Sharon C. Robideaux.
171 reviews2 followers
June 18, 2022
Anti-semitic

At first I thought Skrbina was a legitimate academic, but his book devolves into a Jews-are-liars screed. That's a pity because he has done a lot of good research. His timelines are interesting and clear, but the entire theory he puts forth would be far more persuasive had he not revealed his anti-Semitism. His Antagonism Theory could stand alone without his barely concealed hatred of the Jewish people and religion. I do not recommend this book.
2 reviews
September 30, 2022
good book

Good theory The best I’ve heard so far. I would recommend it.. It’s good to have an answer for what the Scriptures really are
12 reviews
December 28, 2019
a very interesting, thought-provoking book
Profile Image for John  Funk.
91 reviews164 followers
August 16, 2020
Seems to be a weak case. I wasn't convinced.
1 review
March 7, 2023
A must read

St Paul is the biggest liar of all time. Jews lie a lot and Paul might be the biggest Jewish liar ever.
Profile Image for Jenna.
413 reviews16 followers
January 21, 2023
He brings forth plausible evidence that the character of the man known as Jesus was highly exaggerated to make him seem more than he was in history! An image of a savior to prop up the Jews against the Roman world, but was arrested and subsequently executed by the Roman rulers. Yet done by the religious leaders that didn't think, or lose their position of power because of this "apocalyptic preacher", so they stirred up the more radical people who didn't like being under Roman rule! Then around 30 yrs. after his death a new man, Paul comes on the scene to start a brand new religion Christianity, and the rest is history!
Profile Image for Scott Holstad.
Author 140 books108 followers
August 29, 2022
Barely average in delivering what it promises. An addition to a large collection on this and related topics, but sure to be hidden away and not read again because it really doesn't add anything some others don't deal with, and not as good as its competitors. I had heard decent things about the author and I won't make a judgment on the case of one book alone, but I felt underwhelmed and wondered if his talents or whatnot were just overly hyped by the couple of people who'd recommended him. In this case, for this subject, not recommended.
Profile Image for Vijay.
12 reviews
July 1, 2023
Tells the truth about Jesus, Paul, and the Jews in a highly knowledgeable way.
Get it now before the Jews get it banned.
86 reviews1 follower
September 4, 2023
The question regarding substantive evidence that Jesus was really here, is not lost on me. For a few decades, I have asked the unanswerable question, "where's the supporting evidence that the bible story is honest and accurate" ... if, there was a "return back to life" of anybody, let alone one who presents himself as GOD, would that not wake up everyone with a pencil and tablet (even a stone and a chisel) and the capacity to put at least ten words together and report that amazing event???? It would awaken the entire world and make massive headlines. But ...... it didn't and I want to know why. David Skrbina answers my question quite satisfactorily and it tells me that nearly everything in that dusty old book (as Ricky Gervais calls it) is wide open to question and a challenge from any any who want truth and honesty. If you wonder at all about any of these matters, this is your book. I stronly suggest that you read it carefully and formulate your own questions. Do it, it's fun and rewarding ... I promise you that!
Profile Image for Amy.
21 reviews1 follower
February 20, 2025
EXCELLENT book. The people who are offended by this book have also been duped by the same ones that invented Jesus
Profile Image for Viktor.
5 reviews19 followers
February 19, 2025
What needs to be cleared out first: Skrbina needs to pick less provocative titles, and he needs to write introductions to his book better,

This title caught my attention mostly because I was always conflicted on the historicity of Christ, and this book would seem to offer a different perspective. Despite the current consensus, I was not convinced about the current historical evidence of Christ, it seems very lacking when you take out Jewish sources out of the equation (and one would surely expect plenty of say Roman accounts of Jesus). HOWEVER, I was always conflicted by question of why would the Jews invent a figure that is universally likable by everyone, yet "anti-semitic" in spirit (i.e. not racially supremacist, non-genocidal, anti-usury, etc.)

Skrbina does really bad job of writing introduction to his book, because I honestly expected to read the biggest dogshit of my life, because he put focus mostly on disproving the miracles which suddenly stopped occurring with the dawn of cameras.

However, later on he presents lots of historical facts on the table and connects them together in a neat way, and puts up his thesis, which is that the Christ myth was invented by St. Paul, ex-Saul, ardent Zealot/Jewish nationalist that switched from hunting and killing Christians into being one, and his gang to undermine the Roman rule.

He brings up Jewish worldview reflected in the Old Testament (which he describes as "by Jews, about Jews, for Jews"), and how their hatred for everyone non-Jewish always reflected, and how it ultimately reflected badly for the Jews themselves. So, the core of his thesis is how Christ myth was invented as the product of inner power struggle within the Jewish elites, and how they did a little flip in the New Testament (which now becomes "by Jews, about Jews, for non-Jews"), in which, seeing the failure of the Jewish revolt which resulted in the destruction of the Temple, but still unified by the anti-Roman creed, they seek leveling world-rejecting religion.

During the process of explaining his thesis, he brings up lots of historical tidbits about how Paul in his letters never references his Master (because his letters were written 40 years before the Gospels), provides interesting evidence into the ethnicity of Gospels authors, and how John and Luke's gospels were likely "antisemitic" because of the inner power struggle and criticism of current Jewish status quo, rather than real antisemitism later developed by Europeans.

The key difference between this book and say Nietzsche's Anti-Christ, is that Skrbina saw Jesus as crucified revolutionary - a wannabe Jewish king, whereas Nietzsche admired Jesus and held the view that Jesus was a hippy rabbi peace loving anarchist.

Overall, short but insightful little read, if you ignore the provocative title and don't get pissed off at shitty introduction.
124 reviews1 follower
April 27, 2024
This is a very small book and some parts seem repetitive. As someone who doesn't belong to any of the monotheistic religions, some parts were a revelation. How much of his assertions are true is something, am in no position to analyse? If you have read Umberto Eco, he makes similar points in his books.His " The Name of the Rose" has more theological history than here.
Faith is a very difficult aspect for any human being to overcome. At some level it is tied to your ego and people feel their existence in threat when their faith is questioned.Quite understandable when you have believed in something all your life and think your life force arises from it.
One needs to understand that all the modern devices of today were at one time seen as work of evil by these monotheistic religions and today are used by the religious leaders to propagate their religions.The hypocrisy itself should make one question their rants.Science has progressed despite them and provided them platforms today like internet to propogate their nonsense further. The same scientific beliefs were seen as heresy in the past.
Profile Image for Don.
3 reviews
February 13, 2023
David seems to believe that the only value in a story is whether it is historically true. But fictional stories also have value. And there is more than one kind of truth.

I remember in grade school, our teacher would have us read stories, perhaps fairy tales, and then she would ask us, "What is the moral of the story?" If, as many believe, the stories about Jesus reveal something to us about the nature of God, and more specifically, the loving power of God, and that truth is corroborated in our experience of love, then historical "facts" are trivial and David's arguments are irrelevant.
Profile Image for Sherie.
32 reviews
October 20, 2025
I don't have much to say about this book. I'm not even sure how to rate it. I think 3 stars, since I found it a good opinion read. However, all I would like to say is that we all believe in something. Whether it's that God exists or not, whether Jesus was the Messiah or not. Own your faith, your beliefs and live YOUR life. Maybe if we did that, minded our own business, the world would be a better place.
Profile Image for Socraticgadfly.
1,528 reviews494 followers
December 11, 2024
No, and not only with this but with Jesus mythicism books in general, the "bible" does not suggest that Jesus never existed.

That said, even if Skrbina means just "Christ-mythicism," he's wrong there, too, and needs to read things like 1 Enoch. Paul wasn't writing in a vacuum.
Profile Image for Robbie Keeran.
2 reviews
February 26, 2025
The book was good. Had some very good theory’s about the possibility of the hoax and how it’s a lie. But nothing to fully convince me it was all a hoax. Lost a good credibility when he uses references of Hitler and Joseph Goebbels of how through our history the Jews were not like.
Profile Image for RW Gramscian.
8 reviews13 followers
March 7, 2026
Absolute banger. Convincingly argued book. Every Christian should read this and put their unshakable faith to a true test. Shatters everything. You’ve been forewarned….
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews