Fabricating Jesus How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels
By Craig A. Evans
Purchase from Amazon.com (US) or Amazon.ca
(CDN)
Fact: The Gospel of Thomas is late, not early; secondary, not authentic. Contrary to what a few scholars maintain, the
Gospel of Thomas originated in Syria and probably no earlier than the end of the second century.
The Gospel of Peter, which describes a talking cross, is late and incredible. In fact, the fragmentary document that we have may not be the
Gospel of Peter at all. The document that we have may date to the fourth or fifth century.
The "secret" version of the Gospel of Mark, allegedly found in the Mar Saba Monastery, is a modern hoax. Analysis of the hand-writing betrays the tell-tale signs of forgery.
The distinctive conclusions of the Jesus Seminar are rejected by most scholars in North America and Europe.
There is absolutely no credible evidence that Jesus had a wife or a child.
The evidence is compelling that the New Testament Gospels--Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John--are our best sources for understanding the historical Jesus. The New Testament Gospels are based on eyewitness testimony and truthfully and accurately describe the teaching, life, and death of Jesus.
Jesus was not a Cynic; in all probability he never encountered a Cynic.
No killer monks (albino or otherwise) number among the membership of Opus Dei.
All descriptions of documents, literature, and archaeology in this book are accurate.
Craig
Evans is Payzant Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Acadia Divinity College
of Acadia University,
in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada. He received his B.A. degree in
History and Philosophy from Claremont McKenna College, his M.Div.
degree from Western Baptist Seminary in Portland, Oregon, and his M.A.
and Ph.D. degrees in Biblical Studies from Claremont Graduate
University in southern California.
After
teaching one year at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada,
Evans taught at Trinity Western University in British Columbia for
twenty-one years, where he directed the graduate program in Biblical
Studies and founded the Dead Sea Scrolls Institute. He was also for one
year a Visiting Fellow at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton,
New Jersey. Evans joined the Acadia
Divinity College faculty in 2002.
Author
and editor of more than fifty books and hundreds of articles and
reviews, Professor Evans has given lectures at Cambridge, Durham,
Oxford, Yale, and other universities, colleges, seminaries, and
museums, such as the Field Museum in Chicago and the Canadian Museum of
Civilization in Ottawa. He also regularly lectures and gives talks at
popular conferences and retreats on the Bible and Archaeology, and
Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Evans has appeared several times on the
television programs Faith
and Reason and the John
Ankerberg Show. He has appeared in several History
Channel and BBC
documentaries and is a regular guest on Dateline
NBC. Evans also served on the National Geographic Society's Gospel
of Judas project.
Fabricating Jesus
