Simply put, if you're only going to read one book for the Christian side of the mythological/legendary debate concerning Jesus, this is it. Boyd and Eddy do a great job of presenting the reliability of the Jesus tradition. Greg Boyd has had numerous debates with Robert Price (about 6 or 7 actually) on this very subject and much of what is covered in this book reflects that. For those of you who love heavily footnoted books like myself, you will find loads of them here also. For whatever it may be worth, I can only think of one other work (who's name is evading me at the moment) that has provided such a thorough examination of the writings of Josephus. Of course other ancient writings are examined as well. In my opinion, this is one of those books that no Christian should be without.

Is it legitimate to approach the Gospel stories with purely naturalistic presuppositions? Was primitive "Palestinian" Christianity replaced by Paul's "Hellenized" Christianity? Was Christianity nothing more than a new spin on the old paganism of surrounding cultures (e.g. the mystery religions, the hero myths)? What did Paul know about the historical Jesus? These and many other important questions are explored and addressed in this book. Great response to novel and sensationalist interpretations of early Christianity and the person of Christ. Written on a popular level but with extensive footnotes for further research. I definitely recommend it to anyone interested in researching the "historical Jesus."

The set of respectable ways to argue that Jesus was legendary or never existed just got a whole lot smaller. Two highly qualified scholars with impeccable credentials have granted the skeptics their wish: to subject the Jesus-myth arguments to critical scrutiny instead of simply dismissing them as 'anti-God' or 'just so much rhetoric'. Maybe now people like Robert Price and Earl Doherty wish they hadn't. Greg Boyd and Paul Eddy conduct such a thorough demolition of the Jesus myth and make such a strong case for the general reliability of the Gospels that, unless dramatic new discoveries come to light from the ancient world, I doubt anyone will be able on the available evidence to produce such an argument which withstands their criticisms. Skeptics will no longer be able to simply refer to 'the writings of Robert Price and Earl Doherty' and act as if that settled the issue of Christian origins. They will have to pass through Boyd and Eddy first.

From the reviews below it is evident that a major point of contention surrounding this book is whether it is a serious scholarly book or just 'conservative Christian propaganda'. The answer, of course, is that it is both: it is arguing for a conservative position vis a vis the reliability of the Synoptic Gospels, but the authors back this position up with scholarly arguments and extensive (even exhaustive) bibliography. The truth is that ALL scholars are apologists for one position or another, that is, they present positive arguments for their case and try to rebutt possible objections. If Boyd and Eddy are writing conservative Christian propaganda, then John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg are writing liberal Christian propaganda, while Burton Mack and Robert Price are writing skeptical/atheist propaganda. Let us say rather than each scholar argues as best he/she can and then it is up to other scholars and lay reader to judge whether or not they are convincing. If the arguments are good arguments, what does it matter the position they point to?

I will just make a few comments on the substance of the book, as the best word to describe it is 'exhaustive'. The authors try to address EVERY issue or question which arises with respect to determining the historicity of the Gospels and wrestle with the views of many other scholars. Less attention is given to the Jesus Seminar (whose views Boyd demolished in his Cynic Sage Or Son Of God?) and more to radical theorists such as Doherty, Price, Barker, Weeden, et al. With the exception of the important (indeed, according to the authors, most important) middle section of the book which deals with oral tradition, there is little new argumentation. Anyone who has read Meier, Sanders, Wright, Theissen, Dunn or Bauckham on the historical Jesus will find much of the material familiar. Indeed, it becomes obvious that serious scholars HAVE engaged and refuted most of the arguments which Jesus-mythers advance, but the lines of evidence are presented in piece-meal fashion in various parts of various books. Where Boyd and Eddy excel is bringing all this material together and putting it in dialogue with explicit statements and arguments of the Jesus-mythers.

It would be a mistake to think that this book is solely a defensive reply to the Jesus myth, however. The book also presents a constructive case for the reliability of the Gospels, again drawing from the best results of the last two centuries of historical study of the New Testament. Reading this book will acquaint you with all the critical tools and results one must be familiar with to offer a responsible historical assessment of these documents. That is no small feat. Indeed, I know of no other book (even Dunn's massive Jesus Remembered (Christianity in the Making, Vol. 1), to which the authors are heavily indebted) that covers this amount of material. Add to this an important preliminary treatment of philosophical issues surrounding the question of miracle and divine action, and you have a historical Jesus book unparalleled in the history of scholarship. Its interdisciplinarity is its major strength.

Evaluations of the book's main argument will of course differ, but as far as I can objectively tell the authors succeed brilliantly in arguing that the Jesus of the Gospels is the Jesus of History, or at least as close as we'll ever come to him. Their presentation of skeptical arguments is meticulous and fair (quotations are always put in their original context and further points and arguments are referred to when appropriate) and the implications they draw from their original research in oral tradition are eminently logical. This book strengthened my faith in Jesus and greatly encouraged me with regard to the state of believing scholarship. In a word, it is blossoming. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Boyd and Eddy have done an excellent job! In every chapter, the views they intend to criticize are first explained fully and fairly before being critiqued. Especially interesting is their forthright insistence on the primacy of religious and philosophical presuppositions that have shaped Jesus scholarship. By bringing these to light, Boyd and Eddy have been honest and faithful to what is really going on in Jesus scholarship. Also, their use of findings in the field of orality studies have proved to be a cogent check on hyper-literary standards that the Gospels necessarily fall short of.

The ONLY reason I gave this book four stars instead of five is because the binding is beyond cheap-- I am always kind to my books, and I never left this one open and face down or with a heavy object holding it open, yet the binding broke in about six places. Since a review is supposed to be about a book as a whole, I think taking away one star for this defect seems fair. Hopefully there will be a reprint that will use a better binding.

The Jesus Legend: A Case for the Historical Reliability of the Synoptic Jesus Tradition

I have spent hundreds of hours reading skeptics of the Gospels, particularly John D. Crossan, as I write my doctoral dissertation. Crossan claims that "the last chapters of the gospels and the first chapters of Acts taken literally, factually, and historically trivialize Christianity and brutalize Judaism."

Others promote that we need to distinguish "the 'mythical' (anything legendary or supernatural) in the gospels from the historical." Speaking of Crossan's, The Historical Jesus, British scholar, N. T. Wright, claims "the book is almost entirely wrong."

Bruno Bauer, Arthur Drews and G. A. Wells argue that the Jesus tradition is perhaps entirely fictional in nature.

To these and other doubters of Gospel content, Paul Eddy & Greg Boyd, in The Jesus Legend, challenge the Jesus-legend thesis and defend the historical reliability of the Synoptic Jesus tradition - based on evidence.

This is a book for those who want the challenges of the skeptical left addressed in a substantive, scholarly way. The authors examine (1) The historical method & the Jesus tradition in first-century Palestine, (2) Other witnesses, including ancient historians & the apostle Paul, (3) The early oral tradition between Jesus and the Gospels, and (4) The Synoptic Gospels as historical sources for reliable evidence for Jesus.

They reach the researched decision that "our broad cumulative case for the historicity of the essential portrait(s) of Jesus found in the Synoptic Gospels" refutes the legendary-Jesus thesis, based on the Gospels an examination of "the general religious environment Jewish Palestine" (p. 452).

They are in agreement with James Dunn that "if we are unsatisfied with the Jesus of the Synoptic tradition, then we will simply have to lump it; there is no other truly historical or historic Jesus" (cited in p. 453).

This is one of the most refreshing books I have read in my scholarly escapades. It is not for those who want a nice bed-time story, but for those who seek answers to the scholarly rot of recent years that has infected the church and the Christian faith.

Spencer Gear,
Hervey Bay, Qld., Australia