Did Jesus Live 100 B.C.?

by G.R.S. Mead

""Did Jesus Live 100 B.C."" is a book written by G.R.S. Mead that explores the possibility that Jesus Christ may have lived much earlier than commonly believed. Mead draws on various historical and religious texts, including the Essene Gospel of Peace and the Dead Sea Scrolls, to argue that Jesus was a member of a secret society of Jewish mystics who lived in Palestine during the first century BC. Mead also discusses the influence of Greek philosophy and Eastern religions on the development of early Christianity. The book presents a thought-provoking alternative to traditional views of Jesus and provides a unique perspective on the origins of Christianity.An Enquiry into the Talmud Jesus Stories, the Toldoth Jeschu, and Some Curious Statements of Epiphanius�������Being a Contribution to the Study of Christian Origins. Canonical Date of Jesus; Earliest External Evidence to the Received Date; Genesis of the Talmud; Talmud in History; In the Talmud's Outer Court; Earliest External Evidence to the Talmud Jesus Stories; Talmud 100 Years B.C. Story of Jesus; Talmud Mary Stories; Talmud Ben Stada Jesus Stories; Talmud Balaam Jesus Stories; Disciples and Followers of Jesus in the Talmud; Toldoth Jeschu; Jewish Life of Jesus; Traces of Early Toldoth Forms; 100 Years B.C. Date in the Toldoth; On the Tracks of the Earliest Christians; Concerning the �������Book of Elxai;������� 100 Years B.C. Date in Epiphanius.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

460 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

George Robert Stowe Mead, who always published under the initialism G.R.S. Mead, was a historian, writer, editor, translator, and an influential member of the Theosophical Society, as well as founder of the Quest Society. His scholarly works dealt mainly with the Hermetic and Gnostic religions of Late Antiquity, and were exhaustive for the time period.

Reviews

[Sasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

In his time George Robert Stowe Mead was very well-known and respected scholar, academic indeed. And yes, the subject is fascinating and he treats it with utmost seriousness and care but no matter how you look at it, it is still something written 115 years ago and it shows its age on every page. I should have known better but joy in reading occasional old classic made me overlook the fact that most of the books published in early 1900s are rusty indeed. My first impression of Mead is that he was a classy, well educated gentleman and it shows in his literary "voice", the second impression was that he appears as an old, fussy university professor who gets tangled in too much informations. Actually when Meade write this book he was younger than me right now, but still he was a creature of completely different times and his stiff-lipped way of talking and explaining himself comes across as dry and long-winded. Going for the main core of the problem, he explores Talmud and what does it say about Jesus but it takes forever (and than some) to move from one chapter to another and at certain point (halfway trough) I got so exasperated with the whole crawling trough countless side notes that eventually I just skipped the darn thing and went straight for the ending. Still, there were some fascinating things Meade had to say - he discuss strange silence of usually well-informed Flavius Josephus about the subject of Jesus, truly abominable crimes during Crusades where out of religious intolerance Christians burned every roles of Talmud they could get their hands on (so it is actually a miracle we have anything left of it and probably badly translated), certain Queen Helena of Adiabene who (Jewish tradition claim) was ruler instead of Pontius Pilate and the odd little fact that the onion was a symbol of lasciviousness (!) - somewhere in there my favourite John the Baptist is also mentioned but Meade meanders so much that I actually gave up. I might read this properly if I was shipwrecked on desert island or locked up somewhere without anything else, but in the meantime I decided that it would be better idea to go for some modern day, contemporary writers like Bart D. Ehrman - for better or worse, the way he expresses himself is much closer to my own understanding and phrasing than long gone Meade who might have been well intentioned but he really belongs to Victorian England and it unfortunately shows at every page.