WeRead
Powered by ReaderPub
Explore more books like this:
A skeptical, systematic critique argues that the Christ of the New Testament is a constructed myth rather than a reliably attested historical person. It assesses the silence of contemporary writers, the anonymous and late character of the gospels, and the contradictions within infancy narratives, ministry accounts, crucifixion, and resurrection reports. The author evaluates the moral portrait and teachings attributed to the figure and traces parallels with older pagan religions and divinities as possible sources of the myth. The conclusion asserts that supernatural claims lack sufficient historical support and that veneration rests on literary and theological fabrication rather than firm documentary evidence.
His resurrection is adduced as the chief argument in proof of his divinity. Did he raise himself from the dead?
Peter: He did not. God raised him. “Jesus Christ of Nazareth, ... whom God raised from the dead” (Acts iv, 10).
If Christ, then, did not rise from the dead by his own volition, was his resurrection any proof of his divinity? No more than the resurrection of Lazarus was proof of Lazarus’s divinity.