The Jesus Myth

by George Albert Wells

Does the New Testament story of Jesus contain any elements of historical truth, or is it pure legend? Professor G.A. Wells is the foremost contemporary exponent of the purely legendary, or "mythicist" view. In The Jesus Myth he presents an up-to-date, radical, and well-reasoned argument, drawing upon his sure grasp of the wide-ranging evidence.

Wells contends that the accounts of Jesus in the four canonical gospels not only contradict each other, but are also not in harmony with the earliest Christian documents, which never present Jesus as an itinerant preacher, a performer of miracles, born of a virgin, associated with Nazareth, or executed under Pilate.

The gospels were composed after A.D. 70 by unknown individuals who could not have been eye-witnesses to the events they describe. All the earliest non-Christian testimony, pagan and Jewish, is dependent upon Christian accounts. The frequently voiced notion that there is independent corroboration of the life of Jesus from "Roman records" or elsewhere is wishful thinking.

The Jesus Myth, which follows Professor Wells's earlier, highly acclaimed work, The Jesus Legend (see page 15), contains a new investigation of the historicity of the gospel miracles, a detailed look at the earliest non-Christian testimony to the existence of Jesus, and a provocative discussion of the New Testament Jesus as an ethical guide. There is also an afterword by the distinguished Christian scholar Roderick Tyler, whose criticisms of Professor Wells's arguments led to the new presentation in The Jesus Myth.

350 pages, Paperback

First published December 30, 1998

About the author

George Albert Wells (born May 22, 1926), usually known as G. A. Wells, is an Emeritus Professor of German at Birkbeck, University of London. After writing books about famous European intellectuals, such as Johann Gottfried Herder and Franz Grillparzer, he turned to the study of the historicity of Jesus, starting with his book The Jesus of the Early Christians in 1971. He is best known as an advocate of the thesis that Jesus is essentially a mythical rather than a historical figure, a theory that was pioneered by German biblical scholars such as Bruno Bauer and Arthur Drews.

Since the late 1990s, Wells has said that the hypothetical Q document, which is proposed as a source used in some of the gospels, may "contain a core of reminiscences" of an itinerant Galilean miracle-worker/Cynic-sage type preacher. This new stance has been interpreted as Wells changing his position to accept the existence of a historical Jesus. In 2003 Wells stated that he now disagrees with Robert M. Price on the information about Jesus being "all mythical". Wells believes that the Jesus of the gospels is obtained by attributing the supernatural traits of the Pauline epistles to the human preacher of Q.

Wells is a former Chairman of the Rationalist Press Association. He is married and lives in St. Albans, near London. He studied at the University of London and Bern, and holds degrees in German, philosophy, and natural science. He has taught German at London University since 1949, and has been Professor of German at Birkbeck College since 1968.

Reviews

[Timothy Rooney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very technical, dense book. I don't expect a text of this nature could be written in a flowing, easy-to-read style. It does provide many, very specific details about why the claimed history of Jesus should be called into question. Perhaps I wanted to see more of a technical analysis of what qualifies as evidence and how that level of evidence is not met by the existing literature. But that would be a book on logic and evidence and NOT a book about the degree of truth of a religion. At any rate, maybe the book even did show how existing evidence does not meet the absolute standard of believability, but this book was not explicit about deliniating those details/sources/quality of evidence. It is also a very technical read (much biblical knowledge probably helps, but I personally lack that knowledge). It is not light, easy, casual reading. At least it does demonstrate how much of the source material and reasoning behind believing in Christianity should be called to question.

[Ddd S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Makes a very solid case that much of the Jesus story as found in the "new testament" gospel writings, is legend and myth, even if there was a jewish preacher Jesus of some sort underneath all the religious embellishments that grew up around the figure. This serious study by Wells, is very much based in serious new testament scholarship and careful reasoning.

[Jacqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of fun for someone like myself, i.e. anyone made to read and listen to many Bible stories growing up and always frustrated by the actual logic of them.