In the tradition of Robert Eisenman, Elaine Pagels, and Harold Bloom, a startling inquiry into early Christianity.
It is commonly believed that the story of Jesus as told in the Gospels contains some elements of fiction as well as of myth. But it is Professor Ellegard's view that the basic facts about the life of Jesus are fictional: Jesus was not born in the time of Augustus Caesar (27 B.C.-A.D. 14). He was not baptized by John. He was not sentenced to death by Pilate. And he never roamed Palestine as a wandering preacher and miracle worker. In fact, none of Jesus' supposed contemporaries ever saw him in the flesh but only through visions, as the Christ raised by God to heaven.
After leading readers through the earliest Christian writings, including Paul's Letters and a dozen other biblical and non-biblical texts, Professor Ellegard declares that none of these writers had seen Jesus in the flesh, nor did they refer to anybody who had. To them, Jesus was someone who had lived and died much earlier.
This thoroughly researched, closely argued book is the result of a modern scholar's purely historical, non-theological approach to Christianity's origins. Readers will certainly find its groundbreaking, controversial insights fascinating.
1: The Teacher of Righteousness is behind the figure of Jesus. Ellegard searches for further confirmation in early Christian texts where he finds indications that Jesus was not considered as a man but as a spiritual savior, a mythical Messiah. When speaking of Jesus his missionaries must have been referring to some distant past. So the Jesus of the Gospels was a reinterpretation of the Essene Lawgiver, whatever came out of the story afterwards in the hands of Diaspora communities, be they Jewish, Gnostic or Christian. I can globally agree. Ellegard gives no particular reasons for the renewed first century interest in the Lawgiver. He also considers, a mistake I believe, that the Teacher of Righteousness had not been given a Messianic status before Christianity and concludes that it was Paul around the thirties who gave Messiah-ship to Jesus as a result of his visionary revelations. Relying on Paul’s visions to glorify the Jesus/Teacher as a Messiah considerably weakens his claims of keeping to an historical approach. He doesn't seem very aware that community strategies with their campaigning messages are behind all religious texts.
2: Ellegard is a specialist on dating texts. Here we find his most exclusive contribution. His linguistic analysis makes him consider that several texts, usually dated to the second century, belong to before the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE. And vice-versa, according to his criteria the Gospels, usually considered as first century documents written or at least started after the Temple's destruction, belong to the second century. (See Tyson: Luke-Acts and Marcion; a defining struggle. Tyson shows that the infancy and childhood chapters 1 and 2 were written late and essentially to establish a wide anti-heretical front)
Ellegard shows a lot of intellectual curiosity and explores well beyond official lines. Readers will find many ideas to graze on, whether they finally accept or reject them.