Modern historical study of the Gospels seems to give us a new portrait of Jesus every spring--just in time for Easter. The more unusual the portrait, the more it departs from the traditional view of Jesus, the more attention it gets in the popular media.
Why are scholars so prone to fabricate a new Jesus? Why is the public so eager to accept such claims without question? What methods and assumptions predispose scholars to distort the record? Is there a more sober approach to finding the real Jesus?
Commenting on such recent releases as Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus, James Tabor's The Jesus Dynasty, Michael Baigent's The Jesus Papers and the Gospel of Judas, for which he served as an advisory board member to the National Geographic Society, Craig Evans offers a sane approach to examining the sources for understanding the historical Jesus.
Table of Contents:
Preface
Introduction
1. Misplaced Faith and Misguided Suspicion: Old and New School Skeptics
2. Cramped Starting Points and Overly Strict Critical Methods: The Question of Authenticity
3. Questionable Texts--Part I. The Gospel of Thomas
4. Questionable Texts--Part II. The Gospel of Peter, The Egerton Gospel, the Gospel of Mary and the Secret Gospel of Mark
5. Alien Contexts: The Case Against Jesus as Cynic
6. Skeletal Sayings: Maxims Without a Context
7. Diminished Deeds: A Fresh Look at Healings and Miracles
8. Dubious Uses of Josephus: Understanding Late Antiquity
9. Anachronisms and Exaggerated Claims: Christianities Lost and Otherwise
10. Hokum History and Bogus Findings: Jesus Between the Lines
11. Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up? Unfabricating His Aims and Claims
Appendix 1. Agrapha: Free-floating Sayings of Jesus
Appendix 2. What Should We Think About the Gospel of Judas?
Glossary
Abbreviations
Notes
Recommended Reading
Author Index
Subject Index
Scripture Index
Index of Extracanonical Ancient Sources
About the Author :
Craig A. Evans is Payzant Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Acadia Divinity College in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, and has written extensively on the historical Jesus and the Jewish background of the New Testament era. He has appeared frequently as an expert commentator on network television programs, such as Dateline, and in various documentaries on the BBC, the Discovery Channel and the History Channel.
Review :
. . .great value for evangelicals. Evans demonstrates that good scholarship is on the side of Scripture.
"This is a work that can be given to a genuinely interested skeptic, and you will not be embarrassed. Recommended."
"Dr. Evans has done a formidable service to evangelical Christianity . . . [and] has ably championed the integrity of the original New Testament documents as reliable evidence of the traditional Historical Jesus."
"[A]s a resource to quickly find some responses to or literature on some bewildering issues in Jesus studies, this volume will prove very helpful."
"Fabricating Jesus is an excellent resource for basic information about the texts, issues and major players in the historical Jesus debate."
"In this book, aimed primarily at a nonspecialist audience, Craig A. Evans intends to show that traditional views about the Gospels and Jesus are historically well founded. Evans brings his considerable expertise to bear on a wide variety of topics."
"Overall, this work makes a major contribution to historical Jesus studies."
"In the genre of conservative evangelical responses to The Da Vinci Code and the Jesus Seminar, Fabricating Jesus stands out as a generously civil yet firm critique of the way some scholars distort Jesus."
"[This book] is a timely, succinct, and well-written guide for those perplexed by this subject that is much in the news these days. In this wide-ranging book Evans covers numerous contemporary and perennial academic topics related to the historical Jesus."
"This thorough, well-written book debunks a number of serious but widespread and influential misinterpretations of the New Testament Gospels, and thus provides an invaluable service."
