A review by steveinadelaide
Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth by Bart D. Ehrman
challenging
informative
fast-paced
5.0
I thoroughly enjoyed Bart Ehrman's book on the question of Jesus's existence. It's very readable and provides some excellent arguments for believing that Jesus existed as a human (Ehrman doesn't argue for the typical Christian supernatural wonder working Jesus). He also discusses what we can, historically, know about the human Jesus. Of course, as Ehrman points out, history is primarily about assessing the probability of something based on the evidence we have. And, for Ehrman, the probability is in favour of Jesus' existence.
DID JESUS EXIST? is written in a polemic style because it grew out of Ehrman's frustration with Mythicists who have become increasingly vocal in defending the view that Jesus never existed. His polemical approach could have been toned down a bit but does make for interesting reading. But it is when Ehrman provides his arguments and evidence that the book is most interesting.
I have previously found some of the Mythicist writings somewhat persuasive, but Ehrman's book has given me pause, showing how the Mythicist perspective doesn't fit the evidence of Jesus' existence we have available, and which is the basis for an almost universal scholarly consensus that he did.
For anyone interested in whether Jesus did exist -- that is, the human Jesus -- then Ehrman's book is a must read.
DID JESUS EXIST? is written in a polemic style because it grew out of Ehrman's frustration with Mythicists who have become increasingly vocal in defending the view that Jesus never existed. His polemical approach could have been toned down a bit but does make for interesting reading. But it is when Ehrman provides his arguments and evidence that the book is most interesting.
I have previously found some of the Mythicist writings somewhat persuasive, but Ehrman's book has given me pause, showing how the Mythicist perspective doesn't fit the evidence of Jesus' existence we have available, and which is the basis for an almost universal scholarly consensus that he did.
For anyone interested in whether Jesus did exist -- that is, the human Jesus -- then Ehrman's book is a must read.