Reviews for Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels

The average rating for Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-03-22 00:00:00 Robert Stockman I've been holding off a while in writing this review. I was hoping to read the whole book again. There's some seriously amazing stuff in here. Craig A. Evans is my new hero. (and I just found out he used to live near me, and teach near me - can't believe I missed out on chatting with him daily). All Christians should be aware that all Biblical truth is being quickly done away with by bad scholars and media hoopla. We must defend our Biblical beliefs with the best research and science that is available (and some that isn't - We have the Holy Spirit for a reason!) This is not a battle that we will win, we must prepare to lose confidentially with love and logic on our side. Remember what stopped the Nazi's from their onslaught of humanity? It sure wasn't media, scholarship, love or truth - but brute power. Here's a fun comment from John MacArthur: "The Bible is like a Lion; you don't defend it - you simply let it out of it's cage." And that is exactly what Craig Evans is doing with his books. Getting the Truth of the Bible out so it can defend itself. When chatting with atheists I have come across almost every challenge in this book (and often by atheist teenagers with mediocre schooling, yet somehow they know every argument against the Bible and Jesus.) The problem is they have no idea what Mr. Evans knows and has carefully and exhaustively researched. They only know what the Jesus Seminar and Richard Dawkins has force-fed them with their very impressive propaganda. How hard is it to sell someone exactly what their rebellious heart wants to hear? That is why they are winning - for now! And yet this book helps us put up a loving fight for the truth. It will show you what an honest scholar finds when he looks into the life and facts of Jesus. The discussions on the Extra-canonical Gospels are hilarious as well. And yet people are desperately prioritizing these bits of foolishness. I could go on all day about how much I loved this book. I won't - now go read it.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-04-03 00:00:00 Gretchen Wagner Fabricating Jesus is written for a wide audience, from anyone who has been confused by much of the popular writing on Jesus recently (e.g. Da Vinci Code) to skeptics to scholars. After reading it I would highly recommend it to people who have not read much in historical Jesus scholarship for it provides a good entry into that realm. The first four chapters are the very best. In chapter one Evans shows examples of both old and new skeptics, illustrating how their theories on Jesus fall short. Then in chapter two he answers some initial questions often debated in scholarship, ending with a discussion of methods to determine what parts of history are authentic (i.e. true). Chapters 3 and 4 provide numerous arguments against other gospels (Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Peter, etc.), showing that they come from much later than the canonical gospels and thus do not provide good information on the historical Jesus. These chapters really are the basis for the rest of the book. When he discusses the diversity of early Christianity, as some scholars have claimed earliest Christianity was extremely diverse only to be crushed into orthodoxy later, much of it rests on the earlier chapters showing that this alleged diversity comes from later gospels that shed little to no light on earliest Christianity. Much of the chapter on early diversity is then a study of the New Testament and an effort, successful in my opinion, to harmonize Paul and James (and the other writers). This book is a very helpful resource for any person who seeks to understand early Christianity and how the New Testament was put together. At numerous places there are box quotations from the sources outside the New Testament that Evans cites; he does not just leave the reader with a citation but provides the text so the reader can read it for himself. This makes it a great reference for pastors and others to go to when questioned by skeptics. Finally, Evans chapters on Josephus and his chapter refuting the popular-level writings on Jesus of recent years (Da Vinci Code, Holy Blood Holy Grail, etc.) are great. Overall, I highly recommend this book.