Jesus Lied: He Was Only Human: Debunking The New Testament in Atheists and Skeptics

Sep 21, 2014 Bakari rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reviewed, 2014-books-read, atheism-religion

I haven’t read the Bible in several years — and probably won't do so anytime soon —, but CJ Werleman’s Jesus Lied provides the type of close reading of the Synoptic Gospels that I never got when reading the Bible in my early college days.

With humor and critical scholarship (not of the dry kind), Werleman explains the contradictions, fallacies, and varying interpretations of Jesus's so-called life, and most importantly how the Gospels were far from harmonized. For example he shows how the more th I haven’t read the Bible in several years — and probably won't do so anytime soon —, but CJ Werleman’s Jesus Lied provides the type of close reading of the Synoptic Gospels that I never got when reading the Bible in my early college days.

With humor and critical scholarship (not of the dry kind), Werleman explains the contradictions, fallacies, and varying interpretations of Jesus's so-called life, and most importantly how the Gospels were far from harmonized. For example he shows how the more than 70 anti-Semitic references in the Book of John are the root cause of anti-Semitism throughout history, which is information and analysis I quite honestly was never aware of, but should have been. He shows how odd it is that the founder of the Christian church, Paul, had little or nothing to say about Jesus's life, though he possibly was a contemporary of Jesus, and scholarship shows that he actually wrote his biblical texts before Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John.

More importantly Werleman shows that if Jesus did in indeed exist, his ministry and prophecies are based on an apocalyptic cult, in which he constantly talked about people living in internal damnation (one of many examples: “Death is just the commencement of true suffering should you not heed the bullshit frothing from my mouth.”–haha, Werleman’s paraphrasing.) if they did not believe in him, and his equally barbaric godfather.

My review can't even do justice to the scholarship and analysis that Werleman provides in his book. Interestingly much of this history and analysis is also provided in Bert Ehrman’s How Jesus Became God, but Ehrman can't decide if he believes in Jesus or not — he’s agnostic when it comes to God. I found it very frustrating to read Ehrman’s book, and thus couldn’t wait to get my hands on Jesus Lied — this based on my previous reading of Werelman’s first book, God Hates You, Hate Him Back.

If you read Jesus Lied, pay particular attention to chapter 13, “The Gospels on Why Jesus Had to Die.” I've been asking the question for years, what difference did it make that Jesus died and rose from the dead? His death and resurrection doesn't seem to have changed much of anything, and as miraculous as it was supposed to be, there are no other sources outside of the Bible that mention the event. Human beings are no better off because of his suppose it sacrifice, which also begs the question, why did he have to be sacrificed? If he was sent it to “pay the price of our sins,” then who in the hell was the price being paid to? Why does God, the author of the entire fucking universe, need his “only begotten son” to die a bloody damn death on the cross? That kind of death and sacrifice doesn't in any way compare to the creation and complexities of the universe. The two events are trillions of miles apart in comparison. The notion of a sacrifice, if it ever happened should be utterly embarrassing to the so-called creator.

The reason I will probably never reread the Bible is because it is mostly a bunch of ancient, mythological stories propagated by god-fearing, ethnocentric, so-called prophets and ministers. Like most religious doctrines, the whole-life after-death scenario is used to scare people into living a righteous life, and supporting religious leaders and demagogues. It's utterly embarrassing that we have allowed these religious texts to have such a deep influence over our culture and sense of humanity. Enough this bullshit, it’s time to grow up.

If you're an atheist, you owe it to yourself to read this book, because it provides the type of arguments you want to use when discussing religious text with Jesus believers. If you are believer, you should also read this book to see if you can counter the analysis that Werleman makes. He should definitely have you going back to the Bible and reading the Gospels more carefully. If you're not willing to do that, you honestly don't have any knowledge of what you believe in.

One last point I want to make is that Werleman closes his book with a chapter titled, “Did Jesus Exist?”, which I think is a question Ehrman should reconsider. Werleman finds the question difficult to answer, but he at least raises it, and he points to sources that attempt to answer the question. The more I read and think on this question, I’m beginning to conclude that Jesus was quite possibly a fictional character, or if he did exist, the reports about him are so saturated with myth, as Werleman’s book points out, that it’s difficult to draw any factual evidence and conclusion about his life. Many of us do know however, that Jesus certainly was no god in flesh, and his dead ass won’t ever be returning to earth “riding atop a white fluffy cloud (really!) in order to bring judgement upon mankind.” ...more

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