Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    What Have They Done with Jesus?: Beyond Strange Theories and Bad History--Why We Can Trust the Bible
    Unavailable
    What Have They Done with Jesus?: Beyond Strange Theories and Bad History--Why We Can Trust the Bible
    Unavailable
    What Have They Done with Jesus?: Beyond Strange Theories and Bad History--Why We Can Trust the Bible
    Ebook551 pages11 hours

    What Have They Done with Jesus?: Beyond Strange Theories and Bad History--Why We Can Trust the Bible

    By Ben Witherington III

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Strange theories about Jesus seem to ooze from our culture with increasing regularity. Ben Witherington, one of the top Jesus scholars, will have none of it. There were no secret Gnostic teachings in the first century. With leading scholars and popular purveyors of bad history in his crosshairs, Witherington reveals what we can—and cannot—claim to know about the real Jesus. The Bible, not outside sources, is still the most trustworthy historical record we have today.

    Utilizing a fresh "personality profile" approach, Witherington highlights core Christian claims by investigating the major figures in Jesus’s inner circle of followers: Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Thomas, Peter, James the brother of Jesus, Paul, and the mysterious "beloved disciple." In each chapter Witherington satisfies our curiosities and answers the full range of questions about these key figures and what each of them can teach us about the historical Jesus. What Have They Done with Jesus? is a vigorous defense of traditional Christianity that offers a compelling portrait of Jesus’s core message according to those who knew him best.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061755682
    Unavailable
    What Have They Done with Jesus?: Beyond Strange Theories and Bad History--Why We Can Trust the Bible
    Author

    Ben Witherington III

    Ben Witherington III is professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary. He is considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world and has written over forty books, including The Brother of Jesus (co-author), The Jesus Quest, and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. Witherington has been interviewed on NBC Dateline, CBS 48 Hours, FOX News, top NPR programs, and major print media including the Associated Press and the New York Times. He was featured with N.T. Wright on the recent BBC Easter special entitled, The Story of Jesus. Ben lives in Lexington, Kentucky.

    Read more from Ben Witherington Iii

    Related to What Have They Done with Jesus?

    Related ebooks

    Religion & Spirituality For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Local Minister Breaks Away From Methodist Church Over Its Support For BDS

      Jan 1, 2021

      A Christian minister has put his livelihood on the line by quitting the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA) over its Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) policy towards Israel. Reverend Rowan Rennie says he would rather “sleep on the street” t

      4 min read

    • Article

      Jesus's Lucky Break?

      Apr 11, 2024

      Jesus's Lucky Break?
      2 min read

    • Article

      What Happened Next?

      Feb 24, 2022

      What Happened Next?
      9 min read

    • Article

      We’re Naturally Supernatural

      Jan 5, 2023

      Historical Precedents, Moral Objections, New Realities Jeffrey J Kripal University of Chicago Press 2022 Hb, 256p, £28, ISBN 9780226820248 As a young Catholic, Jeffrey Kripal visited some Protestant churches in his American Mid-West town. He was baff

      11 min read

    • Article

      The Easter of Empty Churches

      Apr 10, 2020

      The Easter of Empty Churches
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Medieval Shock Of Thenew

      May 25, 2023

      IN 1700 A MATHEMATICIAN submitted a paper to the Royal Society in which he attempted to calculate, among other things, the rate at which oral testimony — that is, memory — decayed over long periods of time. It’s a quixotic idea, to be sure, but that

      4 min read

    • Article

      Forgotten Women Of The Bible

      Mar 24, 2022

      Helen Bond (right) and Joan Taylor are professors of Christian origins and ancient history. Their book Women Remembered: Jesus’ Female Disciples came about after they made the documentary Jesus’ Female Disciples: The New Evidence in 2018, which took

      6 min read

    • Article

      Michael Wood On…

      Sep 1, 2022

      In my job, travelling the world making films on history and culture, I’ve spent a lot of time exploring religion in its many manifestations. Religion, after all, is a gift for the camera: full of colour, action and often moving rituals. It’s also a c

      3 min read

    • Article

      Differing Worldviews

      Jun 15, 2023

      Nicholas Spencer One World 2023 Hb, 528pp, £25, ISBN 9780861544615 Many people today share the view of the distinguished American scientist Stephen Jay Gould that science and religion are two “non-overlapping Magisteria”. In other words, two entirely

      3 min read

    • Article

      Building A Fortean Library

      Dec 3, 2020

      It wasn’t just the Beatles, you know. On Merseyside in the 1960s another group of irreverent young men coalesced around an iconoclastic idea, and with rather more intellectual heft than the admittedly slightly better-known, and better-earning, moptop

      7 min read

    • Article

      Breaking With Christmas Tradition

      Nov 15, 2022

      “WHAT YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS?” I shouted in disbelief. “What? do you mean there wasn’t a donkey?” Clearly this nun had gone mad. She smiled angelically at me and persevered. “Most scholars agree that given Mary and Joseph’s social and economic position

      3 min read

    • Article

      How New Gods Are Made

      Mar 24, 2022

      TO SEND REVIEW COPIES, CONTACT THE BOOK REVIEWS EDITOR AT DVBARRETT@FORTEANTIMES.COM On Men Unwittingly Turned Divine Anna Della Subin Granta Books 2022 Hb, £20, 460pp, ISBN 9781783785018 Many of the subjects of this delightfully curious book had no

      11 min read

    • Article

      Spiritual Or Atheist? More Nonbelievers Are Saying ‘Both.’

      Mar 11, 2019

      In a letter up for auction, Albert Einstein talked about admiring “in humility the beautiful harmony of the structure of the world.” More nonbelievers say they are seeking a sense of awe and reverence in their own lives.

      6 min read

    • Article

      Convert Nation

      Aug 12, 2017

      Convert Nation
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Known Unknowns

      Jun 15, 2023

      TO SEND REVIEW COPIES, CONTACT THE BOOK REVIEWS EDITOR AT DVBARRETT@FORTEANTIMES.COM Peter Burke Yale University Press 2023 Hb, 256pp, £20, ISBN 9780300265958 With Ignorance: A Global History, Peter Burke, professor emeritus at Cambridge University a

      11 min read

    • Article

      The Problem With White Jesus

      May 24, 2021

      The Problem With White Jesus
      3 min read

    • Article

      Gods, Saints And Spellcraft

      Mar 27, 2020

      Gods, Saints And Spellcraft
      6 min read

    • Article

      Why a Biblical View of History Must Be Restored

      Oct 28, 2022

      In the last few years, there appears to have been a renewed interest in the field of history. Often derided as the study of ‘dates and dead people’, the subject was viewed as less important than say, maths or science. So, while it is encouraging to n

      2 min read

    • Article

      Not Always Brotherly On The Square

      Feb 25, 2021

      TO SEND REVIEW COPIES, CONTACT THE BOOK REVIEWS EDITOR AT DVBARRETT@FORTEANTIMES.COM How Freemasons Made the Modern World John Dickie Hodder & Stoughton 2020 Hb, 454pp, £25, ISBN 9781473658196 Masons, Mysteries and the Founding of America (2nd edn) P

      11 min read

    Reviews for What Have They Done with Jesus?

    4/5

    13 ratings2 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      The subtitle is a better guide to the contents of the book than the title. I had expected this to focus on critiquing other people's work, but that is only incidental to the author's explication of his own point of view. That's not a complaint, just a clarification. The exception is an appendix, pp. 293-309, which is an in-depth review of James Tabor's The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity. I found that book pretty interesting, and this contains some very valid criticisms. Since this is a topic about which many people, including me, have strong ideas in which they have a substantial investment, I am not going to attempt to judge whether Witherington is "right" or "wrong", merely whether or not it is worth reading, especially for laypeople. I also have no ambitions to judge his scholarship; I leave the meaning of ancient Greek prepositions to those who know what they are talking about. Since he refers to them in the third person, I assume that Witherington does not consider himself to be a fundamentalist. I gather that he doesn't regard that Christian canon as inerrant dictations from the Holy Spirit, but rather as the good-faith, reliable testimony of eye-witnesses. He includes miracles and the resurrection of Jesus as events on which they may be trusted. He makes a careful comparison of various texts and comments upon their probably lineage, e.g., Paul to Luke, Peter to Mark, etc. He is concerned mainly with the apostolic era. He argues that there were different streams of Christianity, e.g., Gentile versus Jewish, but that these difference were often more cultural than theological. There may have been multiple churches in one place with different orientations, but these represented an agreement to disagree, not hostility. By the same token, he argues that the so-called Gnostic gospels, and other later writings, are so different from the early writings that it is doubtful that they were original strains of Christianity. Although I admire the tolerance and equality which some scholars have attributed to Gnostic gospels, I have never found their theology appealing, and I am amused by Witherington's comments (pp.28-29): "This puts salvation on a whole different footing ... [s]alvation is a matter of who you know and how well you understand these secret sayings ... presumably salvation for the literate or even the learned. It is not a surprise that some scholars find this vision of salvation appealing. ... This sounds like a form of revelation that can be received only by those who have far too much time on their hands." Cleverly and effectively put. I think this is very well done: clear and logical. I don't think that definitive answers are possible to these questions, but Witherington has done an exemplary job of presenting his case. The chapters are organized around particular members of the early Christian community: e.g., Peter, James the Just, Mary Magdalene, Paul, etc. Particularly in the beginning, Witherington often shows a good-natured wit: the Introduction is entitled "The Origins of the Specious." The section labelled "Doubting Thomas" (p. 27) begins: "There is no doubting that the Gospel of Thomas ... " I don't accept Witherington's criticisms of Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (Plus). Ehrman's point is that while the originals of canonical documents may have been written in the first century, we have only later copies which differ from one another. In the picky, ruthless world of theology, "those who have far too much time on their hands", small differences have led to bloodshed. I recommend having a Bible while reading this, since Witherington does not always explicate the verses he quotes, but although I didn't have one, he explains well enough that I didn't feel too much lack. (I have not read most of the Epistles, and in those cases, I had no idea what they were about, except as Witherington explains them.) [Added later: After a well-deserved chatisement by a commentator on this review, I read the rest of the Epistles - none of my views are changed.] There is no bibliography, outside of the notes, which also contain numerous explanatory in addition to bibliographic notes. My personal preference is for having a separate bibliography and explanatory notes at the bottom of the page. The indexing could be a little more thorough: the reader is not led to information about the Gospel of Thomas by looking up Thomas, the Apostle, or Doubting Thomas. Even though the author does not believe that the Apostle wrote that Gospel, I think the two should be linked. There are two indexes, one for subjects and one for scriptures.
    • 5/5
      The subtitle is a better guide to the contents of the book than the title. I had expected this to focus on critiquing other people's work, but that is only incidental to the author's explication of his own point of view. That's not a complaint, just a clarification. The exception is an appendix, pp. 293-309, which is an in-depth review of James Tabor's The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity. I found that book pretty interesting, and this contains some very valid criticisms. Since this is a topic about which many people, including me, have strong ideas in which they have a substantial investment, I am not going to attempt to judge whether Witherington is "right" or "wrong", merely whether or not it is worth reading, especially for laypeople. I also have no ambitions to judge his scholarship; I leave the meaning of ancient Greek prepositions to those who know what they are talking about. Since he refers to them in the third person, I assume that Witherington does not consider himself to be a fundamentalist. I gather that he doesn't regard that Christian canon as inerrant dictations from the Holy Spirit, but rather as the good-faith, reliable testimony of eye-witnesses. He includes miracles and the resurrection of Jesus as events on which they may be trusted. He makes a careful comparison of various texts and comments upon their probably lineage, e.g., Paul to Luke, Peter to Mark, etc. He is concerned mainly with the apostolic era. He argues that there were different streams of Christianity, e.g., Gentile versus Jewish, but that these difference were often more cultural than theological. There may have been multiple churches in one place with different orientations, but these represented an agreement to disagree, not hostility. By the same token, he argues that the so-called Gnostic gospels, and other later writings, are so different from the early writings that it is doubtful that they were original strains of Christianity. Although I admire the tolerance and equality which some scholars have attributed to Gnostic gospels, I have never found their theology appealing, and I am amused by Witherington's comments (pp.28-29): "This puts salvation on a whole different footing ... [s]alvation is a matter of who you know and how well you understand these secret sayings ... presumably salvation for the literate or even the learned. It is not a surprise that some scholars find this vision of salvation appealing. ... This sounds like a form of revelation that can be received only by those who have far too much time on their hands." Cleverly and effectively put. I think this is very well done: clear and logical. I don't think that definitive answers are possible to these questions, but Witherington has done an exemplary job of presenting his case. The chapters are organized around particular members of the early Christian community: e.g., Peter, James the Just, Mary Magdalene, Paul, etc. Particularly in the beginning, Witherington often shows a good-natured wit: the Introduction is entitled "The Origins of the Specious." The section labelled "Doubting Thomas" (p. 27) begins: "There is no doubting that the Gospel of Thomas ... " I don't accept Witherington's criticisms of Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (Plus). Ehrman's point is that while the originals of canonical documents may have been written in the first century, we have only later copies which differ from one another. In the picky, ruthless world of theology, "those who have far too much time on their hands", small differences have led to bloodshed. I recommend having a Bible while reading this, since Witherington does not always explicate the verses he quotes, but although I didn't have one, he explains well enough that I didn't feel too much lack. (I have not read most of the Epistles, and in those cases, I had no idea what they were about, except as Witherington explains them.) [Added later: After a well-deserved chatisement by a commentator on this review, I read the rest of the Epistles - none of my views are changed.] There is no bibliography, outside of the notes, which also contain numerous explanatory in addition to bibliographic notes. My personal preference is for having a separate bibliography and explanatory notes at the bottom of the page. The indexing could be a little more thorough: the reader is not led to information about the Gospel of Thomas by looking up Thomas, the Apostle, or Doubting Thomas. Even though the author does not believe that the Apostle wrote that Gospel, I think the two should be linked. There are two indexes, one for subjects and one for scriptures.