Craig A. Evans
"Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels"

A response to those who have accepted the Thomas, Mary Magdalen, and Judas Gospels in place of the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

From Amazon.com----Evans begins by discussing his own religious background and how it was affected by the critical study of the New Testament and historical Jesus. He uses this personal reflection to try and understand why some respected scholars have embraced such far-fetched theories. One of his explanations is that some of these scholars came from strict, fundamentalist backgrounds. When exposed to the critical studies, they were not flexible enough to accomodate the new information in their existing religious mind set. As a result, their faith was shattered instead of modified. They see little middle ground betweeen strict fundamentalism and utter rejection of traditional positions. Evans points to himself as evidence of a middle ground that actually bases its opinions on better historical evidences.


Eddie H.

Here is the IVPress site for the book. I recommend reading the
.pdf file for the book's chapter one "Misplacedd Faith and Misguided Suspicions: old and new school skeptics" - a link is provided at the bottom of the page.

http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/toc/code=3318



from the site-Modern historical study of the Gospels seems to give us a new portrait of Jesus every spring--just in time for Easter. The more unusual the portrait, the more it departs from the traditional view of Jesus, the more attention it gets in the popular media.

Why are scholars so prone to fabricate a new Jesus? Why is the public so eager to accept such claims without question? What methods and assumptions predispose scholars to distort the record? Is there a more sober approach to finding the real Jesus?

Commenting on such recent releases as Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus, James Tabor's The Jesus Dynasty, Michael Baigent's The Jesus Papers and The Gospel of Judas, for which he served as an advisory board member to the National Geographic Society, Craig Evans offers a sane approach to examining the sources for understanding the historical Jesus.


Eddie