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The Jesus Papers: Exposing the Greatest Cover-Up in History
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Average Rating:  out of 152 Reviews
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Price: $27.95
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Sale: $6.86
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Manufacturer: HarperOne
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Hardcover
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Author: Michael Baigent
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Publisher: HarperOne
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Dewey Decimal Number: 232.9
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Publication Date: 2006-04-01
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Reading Level: 336
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Description: What if everything you think you know about Jesus is wrong? In The Jesus Papers, Michael Baigent probes into the truth about Jesus's life and crucifixion. As a religious historian, Baigent explores the religious and political climate in which Jesus was born and raised, and the strife within the different factions of the Jewish Zealot movement. He chronicles the migrations of Jesus's family, his subsequent exposure to other cultures and the events, teachings, and influences that were most likely to have shaped Jesus's early years. Baigent also uncovers the inconsistencies and biases in the accounts of the major historians of Jesus's time, revealing their enduring influence in forming our most common conceptions of Jesus. Baigent provides a detailed account of his groundbreaking discoveries. The evidence he uncovers leads him to make shocking new assertions that threaten the conventional account of Jesus's life and death and shake the very foundation of Western thought. Ultimately, his investigation raises the hope that we may gain a new understanding of Jesus. Read by the author
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Customer Reviews
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Review Summary: sometimes interesting sometimes spotty |
Date: 2008-12-07 |
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Details: Michael Baigent is a good story teller, and by now he knows to give the people what they want. What they seem to want most these days is conspiracy. Whether its all true is probably less important.
Baigent's main point, and he is not the only author to recently and persuasively (Baigent less persuasively than others, unfortunately) make it, is that Jesus may (a) not have been crucified at all, and/or (b) if he was, he did not in fact die on the cross, but was taken down alive and survived the crucifixion. How Baigent tells this story, though, is to take us around a lot of circuitous routes, some dead ends, and a lot detours we didn't think at first we were going to have to go on.
Little is written and almost nothing is known about Jesus' youth and education; for the most part, he springs upon us quite suddenly as an adult. Baigent intends to fill in the blanks with Jesus growing up in Egypt, attending a mystery school set up by a somewhat clandestine group of Jewish expatriots, and about which a great deal is written (and supposed and imagined). There is considerable speculation as to motivations and machinations on the part of the various Jewish politico-religious groups central to live during and after the Roman occupation, to the travels of groups around the ancient world, etc etc et multiple cetera. Almost all of this is pretty speculative. Not wrong, I am saying, just pretty speculative. Parts may well be right.
Baigent also covers, again, the idea of Mary Magdalene being the same as Mary of Bethany, also the wife of Jesus. He explores deep caves in Italy, speculating that this may be the site of the mythic entrance to the Underworld, the River Styx. There is a full chapter, in this case solid as a rock and indisputably true, on Roman Catholicism's paranoid and grossly misogynistic treatment of women from the Bible until, well, today. In other words, Baigent covers a lot of territory.
Most of this territory is only tangentially related to the issue of the Crucifixion. It is not uninteresting, but it is not compelling evidence for his case, either. On the bright side, the book is lavishly illustrated, with color plates in abundance.
Baigent, as I mentioned from the start, is a great story teller. I enjoyed reading his book, and liked looking at the pretty pictures. But I am not sure I learned a great deal from it. Other authors covering much the same subject have done a better job of accumulating convincing evidence and keeping their eye on the ball, their focus on the subject they claim they are exploring. |
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Review Summary: The Jesus Paper's |
Date: 2008-11-09 |
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Details: I haven't read it yet. And probably won't right away cause i'm reading something else. |
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Review Summary: Absolutely Ridiculous |
Date: 2008-06-05 |
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Details: To begin with, only a few chapters of this book even deal with the so-called crucifixion controversy. A large portion of this book deals with Baigent's own experiences crawling around caves and chapters literally go by without any mention or reference whatsoever to Jesus.
Secondly, Baigent's thesis is absurd. First, he states that he doubts that Jesus ever existed, then goes on to say that a replacement Jesus was crucified, then proposes that Jesus survived the crucifixion. His arguments are conflicting and convoluted, referencing documents he cannot produce or even prove exist to support his claims. Many of his arguments are centered around the Gospels, which he himself goes to great lengths to discredit.
He states that the many conspiracies of the Church are Vatican cover-ups, citing their own selfish reasons for keeping such a secret. Thus, he argues, the Vatican is biased and cannot be trusted. Yet, he ignores his own motives for writing this book and "uncovering" these conspiracies...fame and fortune |
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Review Summary: Michael Baigent writes a fascinating book AGAIN!! |
Date: 2008-04-25 |
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Details: I have never been disappointed in buying a book written by Baigent. He always offers new insights and unexpected twists in his researches into the history of Christianity. I can think of no other author in the genre that can keep my interest for so long. Well done and well worth the price.
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Review Summary: Where's The Beef |
Date: 2008-04-01 |
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Details: The author spends too much time going through history and not enough time on his arguments. The final disc is the most interesting whereas the middle discs drag on. |
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