What do you think?
Rate this book
Heretic: The Many Lives and Deaths of Jesus Christ
From a celebrated classicist and author of The Darkening Age (“[a] ballista-bolt of a book”� New York Times Book Review ), a biography of the many, diverse variations of Jesus who thrived in early Christian traditions—and how they were killed off until just one “true� Christ survived. Contrary to the teachings of the church today, in the first several centuries of Christianity’s existence, there was no consensus as to who Jesus was or why he had mattered. Instead, there were many different Christs. One had a twin brother and traveled to India; another consorted with dragons. One particularly terrifying Christ scorned his parents and killed those who opposed him. Why do we know so little about these early versions of Jesus? Because, starting in the fourth century AD, the orthodox form of Christianity that had become preeminent set about systematically wiping out every other variation, denouncing their gospels as apocryphal and their followers as heretics. These unfortunate Christians lost their rights, their property, their churches—in some cases, even their lives. Heretic unearths the different versions of Christ who existed in the minds of early Christians, and the process of evolution—and elimination—by which Jesus became the singular figure we know today.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published October 22, 2024
502 people are currently reading
2,650 people want to read
About the author
Catherine Nixey
8books244followersCatherine Nixey is a journalist and a classicist. Her mother was a nun, her father was a monk, and she was brought up Catholic. She studied classics at Cambridge and taught the subject for several years before becoming a journalist on the arts desk at the Times (UK), where she still works. The Darkening Age, winner of a Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award, is her first book. She lives in London.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 147 reviews
May 3, 2024
Critics loved Nixey's first book, The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World, (Macmillan, 2017), but it was panned by actual historians, who noted its arguments were slanted, tendentious and polemical and relied on selective evidence and distortions. Leading expert on the Late Roman world, Dame Averil Cameron, called it "a travesty".
But it sold well, so it's not surprising Nixey was keen to produce another piece of pop history. She seems to have learned some lessions from the critiques of her first book, since this one is more careful to present nuance and multiple views on complex topics. Unfortunately, Nixey's biases still come through, though the misrepresentations are more through what she chooses to emphasise rather than outright errors or selective evidence. She hedges some key points with caveats, but they are often quite weak compared to the heavy stress she places on the main thrust of her arguments.
Essentially this is a very light and usually light-hearted survey of a topic that other popular history writers have covered before. She details the large number of saviour and wonder-worker figures in Jesus' time, notes the variety of Jesus stories in the non-canonical texts that circulated in the centuries after his death, emphasises the range of different Christianities that arose from them and then argues this variety was trimmed - often violently - by orthodoxy to the tame Christianity of today.
Bart Ehrman, Elaine Pagels and many others have told this story in more detail and with more care and understanding long before Nixey. That is not to say another popular retelling of it is totally unecessary. Though her claims in her Introduction that what she is doing in this book is "unusual" are pretty dubious given how well-trodden this topic is even in books for a popular audience.
The problems arise when Nixey can't resist getting back on her Darkening Age hobby horse and insists, again, that Christians not only suppressed what they considered to be "heretical" forms of their faith, but also Classical learning as well. That is mostly wrong. There is also a central incoherence in the book.
Nixey’s overarching argument is that Christianity had a great variety of forms in its early centuries, but most of this was suppressed or even wiped out by its more intolerant, orthodox strain. But much or even most of this variety died out well before that intolerant orthodoxy got the capacity to actively suppress anything. That did not happen until the fourth century, but most of these variant Christianities were minor things or even vague memories or literary ghosts by then. Nixey admits that at least some of these variants were so weird they were of limited appeal and it is actually likely that many of the rest were never large or influential. So was it intolerance that suppressed them or simply that they lost out in competetion with more appealling, more intellectual and less esoteric forms of the faith?
Nixey also never bothers to note that there was a good reason the canonical gospels found their way into the New Testament and the other variant Jesus stories didn't - those gospels were by far the earliest and so not only the most widely read but also the ones known to be closest to the earliest followers of Jesus (as modern critical scholars confirm) and so seen as most authoritative. A better writer would have examined this and explored it as the basis for the rejection of the later variants. She doesn't. In Nixey's telling, these gospels were arbitarily selected over the others and the oppressive orthodoxy she details had no genuine basis at all. But this is not what happened. You don't have to be a believer or think the canonical gospels are wholly historical in their depcition of Jesus (I'm definitely not and I definitely don't) to realise they had a particular status by merit of their earlier date and so the rejection of the later variants and their theologies were based on that foundation. Nixey never bothers to tell her readers any of this.
So this is an entertaining and often amusing book, but as history it's pretty flimsy stuff at best and not exactly an accurate telling at worst. Which means this is not really a very good book. See my full critical reivew of the UK edition Heresy � Jesus Christ and Other Sons of God (Picador, 2024)
But it sold well, so it's not surprising Nixey was keen to produce another piece of pop history. She seems to have learned some lessions from the critiques of her first book, since this one is more careful to present nuance and multiple views on complex topics. Unfortunately, Nixey's biases still come through, though the misrepresentations are more through what she chooses to emphasise rather than outright errors or selective evidence. She hedges some key points with caveats, but they are often quite weak compared to the heavy stress she places on the main thrust of her arguments.
Essentially this is a very light and usually light-hearted survey of a topic that other popular history writers have covered before. She details the large number of saviour and wonder-worker figures in Jesus' time, notes the variety of Jesus stories in the non-canonical texts that circulated in the centuries after his death, emphasises the range of different Christianities that arose from them and then argues this variety was trimmed - often violently - by orthodoxy to the tame Christianity of today.
Bart Ehrman, Elaine Pagels and many others have told this story in more detail and with more care and understanding long before Nixey. That is not to say another popular retelling of it is totally unecessary. Though her claims in her Introduction that what she is doing in this book is "unusual" are pretty dubious given how well-trodden this topic is even in books for a popular audience.
The problems arise when Nixey can't resist getting back on her Darkening Age hobby horse and insists, again, that Christians not only suppressed what they considered to be "heretical" forms of their faith, but also Classical learning as well. That is mostly wrong. There is also a central incoherence in the book.
Nixey’s overarching argument is that Christianity had a great variety of forms in its early centuries, but most of this was suppressed or even wiped out by its more intolerant, orthodox strain. But much or even most of this variety died out well before that intolerant orthodoxy got the capacity to actively suppress anything. That did not happen until the fourth century, but most of these variant Christianities were minor things or even vague memories or literary ghosts by then. Nixey admits that at least some of these variants were so weird they were of limited appeal and it is actually likely that many of the rest were never large or influential. So was it intolerance that suppressed them or simply that they lost out in competetion with more appealling, more intellectual and less esoteric forms of the faith?
Nixey also never bothers to note that there was a good reason the canonical gospels found their way into the New Testament and the other variant Jesus stories didn't - those gospels were by far the earliest and so not only the most widely read but also the ones known to be closest to the earliest followers of Jesus (as modern critical scholars confirm) and so seen as most authoritative. A better writer would have examined this and explored it as the basis for the rejection of the later variants. She doesn't. In Nixey's telling, these gospels were arbitarily selected over the others and the oppressive orthodoxy she details had no genuine basis at all. But this is not what happened. You don't have to be a believer or think the canonical gospels are wholly historical in their depcition of Jesus (I'm definitely not and I definitely don't) to realise they had a particular status by merit of their earlier date and so the rejection of the later variants and their theologies were based on that foundation. Nixey never bothers to tell her readers any of this.
So this is an entertaining and often amusing book, but as history it's pretty flimsy stuff at best and not exactly an accurate telling at worst. Which means this is not really a very good book. See my full critical reivew of the UK edition Heresy � Jesus Christ and Other Sons of God (Picador, 2024)
March 20, 2024
A lot of the information in here has been available for a while, but it hasn’t been assimilated and discussed quite so thoroughly and well as here. It’s a non-judgmental discussion, but one can’t help but draw conclusions about how religion and myth develop and how the two are intertwined.
July 20, 2024
I can see why this book could anger some Christians. I myself, found it very interesting. I appreciated how the author wrote about the different views and practices of Christianity in early times and did it with some polite humor tossed in. A lot of the information is not new to me but learning about Mary's powerful lady parts sure was! I believe it's a book that should be read so Christians realize what the church feeds us is not the whole story. For me, Jesus was a Jewish rabbi, not a Christian and when he returns, he will be a Jewish rabbi. Good reading for anyone open to different views of the Christian religion.
Thank you to the publisher and net galley for allowing me to honestly review this book.
Thank you to the publisher and net galley for allowing me to honestly review this book.
January 29, 2025
Few years back on a city walk in Bangalore, I was going around Johnson Market. It was first week of January and I was generally roaming and shooting photos of places of Interest. While I covered the lanes and by lanes around, I noticed a compound marked as Orthodox Church. And there was a hoarding calling for Christmas celebration on January 7th. Looking at the Hoarding I was surprised. Only later I realized the Orthodox Church is from a different branch of the Christianity. The Popular Catholic Church which owes its allegiance to the Pope in Rome is a Western branch and there is a little known ( In India ) one that is called the Coptic Orthodox Christianity that is also called the Eastern Christianity. This is popular in Egypt, Russia and the thereabouts. They had a different order of things from that of the Catholic Church.
In the Middle Ages, the Eastern Christian church � not the Western � was the most widespread in the world
While I had lived in Europe I had seen the differences of Protestant and Catholic church and the effects of the Great divide between Protestant and Catholic Sects. I had even read about the infamous, intolerant Inquisitions by both sects and the violent insurrections that led to loss of life and livelihood for many across Europe in the past.
I had also read multiple books on the Crusades and understood how that caused death, destruction and instability in the Middle east that plagues us till date. I was pained to note that these were all sanctioned by the Church.
All this was puzzling to me as to why and how a Religion that espouses a God that is full of compassion and love could be cause of these sorrowful events.
This led to my curiosity on the history of the Church.
At this point I have to make a disclosure. I am not the usual majority of this Country that wants to level a motivated campaign against minority Christians in this country. I am not the one to uphold the Majority religion as always one that is better than the 'Abrahamic religions from the west'. Far from it.
I know the dark pages in the our own history with respect to Religion and I sincerely believe that Belief or non Belief is strictly personal. I sincerely want it to be Personal and never to be imposed on any. I personally cannot claim to be Atheist, but do not subscribe to any Organized Religion and its scriptures. I strongly believe spirituality is different from Organized religion and abhor any form of Religious authority, mine or anyone else.
So with that I started reading this book.
This is a very interesting book that starts off by giving a picture of the Social make up and constructs during the time of Jesus and various competing ideas and Messiahs that Christianity had to co-exist with.
A great deal of all ancient religion was little more than healthcare with a halo.
Laws, customs and diseases � all were transforming the world in this era. But they were only able to do so because Roman roads and Roman transport and Roman peace were opening the world up in a way never seen before. Globalization was underway. And one of the things that globalized fastest of all in this period was religion. Lighter than spice, more profitable than gold, gods were spreading along the arteries of empire.
It also gives a detailed Idea about various forms of Christianity that competed against each other, known and Unknown. Slowly it walks us through the history of how the Modern western Christianity started to crystalize and how it built its power structures that has resulted in the order that is today.
In the course of this Journey it also tells us how the Catholic Church, in the name of reforms suddenly and vigorously started using the word Heresy to dominate the History, art, science and everything that has to do with human life, "cleansed" it of the past and wrote a revisionist narrative.
Suddenly the word Heresy that started soon after Christianity came to be Roman Official religion, became a monstrous terror that started engulfing Christians and non-Christians alike. The Catholic Church was the torch Bearer of this. The Progressive Scientific Theories that were established since the time of Ancient Greece suddenly were outlawed and the Ancient Philosopher like Socrates, Aristotle, Pluto etc, were turned into Satans who professed Heresy for their Scientific outlook. A long line of Scientists including Galileo (who was persecuted for his belief and advocacy of Copernican theory ) had to face the Plague of Heresy Charges and Inquisition that followed it.
The Heresy claim and inquisition by the Church not only led to loss of life and livelihood. It led to systematic obliteration of Religions, Christian Sects and their Texts. By this way it systematically denied the place in the history for the Sects that existed. This is also a reason why the modern Religiously leaning comfortable deny such accusation against the church.
For this Reason the book has to depend on Secondary Sources. But then the Author takes a brilliant approach by actually decoding from the Codex Theodosianus and Bible to establish the facts.
if you really want to know an empire, don’t read the whispers of its poets or the confessions of its great men.9 If you really want to understand what is happening, pass over the fancy odes and epodes and epics and epistles � and look instead at its laws.
Finally for me it is not a isolated tirade against Christianity but confirms to my reading of pattern that emerges out of the evolution of any organized religion.
Not only that, with the current state of affairs in my land, I am astonished to find that we have successfully turned the wheel of time backwards to by least 1500 Years.
In the Middle Ages, the Eastern Christian church � not the Western � was the most widespread in the world
While I had lived in Europe I had seen the differences of Protestant and Catholic church and the effects of the Great divide between Protestant and Catholic Sects. I had even read about the infamous, intolerant Inquisitions by both sects and the violent insurrections that led to loss of life and livelihood for many across Europe in the past.
I had also read multiple books on the Crusades and understood how that caused death, destruction and instability in the Middle east that plagues us till date. I was pained to note that these were all sanctioned by the Church.
All this was puzzling to me as to why and how a Religion that espouses a God that is full of compassion and love could be cause of these sorrowful events.
This led to my curiosity on the history of the Church.
At this point I have to make a disclosure. I am not the usual majority of this Country that wants to level a motivated campaign against minority Christians in this country. I am not the one to uphold the Majority religion as always one that is better than the 'Abrahamic religions from the west'. Far from it.
I know the dark pages in the our own history with respect to Religion and I sincerely believe that Belief or non Belief is strictly personal. I sincerely want it to be Personal and never to be imposed on any. I personally cannot claim to be Atheist, but do not subscribe to any Organized Religion and its scriptures. I strongly believe spirituality is different from Organized religion and abhor any form of Religious authority, mine or anyone else.
So with that I started reading this book.
This is a very interesting book that starts off by giving a picture of the Social make up and constructs during the time of Jesus and various competing ideas and Messiahs that Christianity had to co-exist with.
A great deal of all ancient religion was little more than healthcare with a halo.
Laws, customs and diseases � all were transforming the world in this era. But they were only able to do so because Roman roads and Roman transport and Roman peace were opening the world up in a way never seen before. Globalization was underway. And one of the things that globalized fastest of all in this period was religion. Lighter than spice, more profitable than gold, gods were spreading along the arteries of empire.
It also gives a detailed Idea about various forms of Christianity that competed against each other, known and Unknown. Slowly it walks us through the history of how the Modern western Christianity started to crystalize and how it built its power structures that has resulted in the order that is today.
In the course of this Journey it also tells us how the Catholic Church, in the name of reforms suddenly and vigorously started using the word Heresy to dominate the History, art, science and everything that has to do with human life, "cleansed" it of the past and wrote a revisionist narrative.
Suddenly the word Heresy that started soon after Christianity came to be Roman Official religion, became a monstrous terror that started engulfing Christians and non-Christians alike. The Catholic Church was the torch Bearer of this. The Progressive Scientific Theories that were established since the time of Ancient Greece suddenly were outlawed and the Ancient Philosopher like Socrates, Aristotle, Pluto etc, were turned into Satans who professed Heresy for their Scientific outlook. A long line of Scientists including Galileo (who was persecuted for his belief and advocacy of Copernican theory ) had to face the Plague of Heresy Charges and Inquisition that followed it.
The Heresy claim and inquisition by the Church not only led to loss of life and livelihood. It led to systematic obliteration of Religions, Christian Sects and their Texts. By this way it systematically denied the place in the history for the Sects that existed. This is also a reason why the modern Religiously leaning comfortable deny such accusation against the church.
For this Reason the book has to depend on Secondary Sources. But then the Author takes a brilliant approach by actually decoding from the Codex Theodosianus and Bible to establish the facts.
if you really want to know an empire, don’t read the whispers of its poets or the confessions of its great men.9 If you really want to understand what is happening, pass over the fancy odes and epodes and epics and epistles � and look instead at its laws.
Finally for me it is not a isolated tirade against Christianity but confirms to my reading of pattern that emerges out of the evolution of any organized religion.
Not only that, with the current state of affairs in my land, I am astonished to find that we have successfully turned the wheel of time backwards to by least 1500 Years.
December 22, 2024
El libro que habría querido leer cuando, como buena muchacha educada en la fe católica, me sorprendí al descubrir, en clase de Religión, que existían otros evangelios, los mal llamados apócrifos. Desde entonces, parte de mi vida lectora se dedicó a buscar y leerlos. De hecho, si uno va a casa de mis padres, aún encontrará en las estanterías de mi postadolescencia volúmenes de varios de estos textos. De hecho (parte dos), uno de los momentos que con más felicidad recuerdo de mi vida fue, allá por 2019, cuando estuve en el desierto de Qumrán y pude ver el lugar donde se encontraron los Manuscritos del Mar Muerto. De hecho (parte tres), uno de los momentos más interesantes que he vivido fue cuando, estando en el Santo Sepulcro, observé el proceder de cristianos coptos y cristianos armenios y su ritualidad tan alejada de la nuestra católica occidental. De hecho (parte cuatro), quizá en otra de mis muchas vidas, cuando aún estaba inmersa en la carrera arqueológica, podría haber llegado a ser especialista en este periodo.
El caso es que este es el libro querría que hubiese llegado a mis manos en esos primeros años de descubrimiento y búsqueda. Un compendio interesantísimo y bastante divertido sobre todos los sabios, profetas, salvadores y otros roles divinos que abundaron en la Antigüedad tardía. Una historia perfectamente documentada de la fe y el dogma, de la construcción de estos. Por sus páginas pululan Apolonios, Augustos, Reyes Magos y Dios Padre; pero también antiguas creencias sobre una Espíritu Santo madre, un burro en vez de una mula, un Jesús con muchos hermanos, y relatos sobre discusiones y enfrentamientos entre los distintos tipos de vivencias de la teología en el cristianismo primitivo.
Increíble, Nixey, quiero tu cerebro.
El caso es que este es el libro querría que hubiese llegado a mis manos en esos primeros años de descubrimiento y búsqueda. Un compendio interesantísimo y bastante divertido sobre todos los sabios, profetas, salvadores y otros roles divinos que abundaron en la Antigüedad tardía. Una historia perfectamente documentada de la fe y el dogma, de la construcción de estos. Por sus páginas pululan Apolonios, Augustos, Reyes Magos y Dios Padre; pero también antiguas creencias sobre una Espíritu Santo madre, un burro en vez de una mula, un Jesús con muchos hermanos, y relatos sobre discusiones y enfrentamientos entre los distintos tipos de vivencias de la teología en el cristianismo primitivo.
Increíble, Nixey, quiero tu cerebro.
April 11, 2025
Not Audible, despite the edition cited, but libro.fm.
This being an audiobook, I don't have highlights and notes to refer to; thus a few points only:
1. History is written by the victors, for which reason we know little about most "heretical" takes on Jesus and Christianity.
2. Oof, those Christians sure had some serious persecuting chops. Let them once get into power, and dissenters beware. Book burnings and people burnings, all in the service of saving souls. Super alarming: how much the behavior of in-power Christians two millennia ago resembles the behavior and the fever dreams of Christian nationalists today.
3. There were quite a few wonder-workers operating in various places in the Roman Empire right around the time when you-know-who was active.
4. Non-Christian Roman takes on Christian narratives and theology could be hilariously contemptuous.
5. "Heresy" originally meant something like inquiry. I'll leave that there.
Nixey grew up RC and her gleeful hostility toward the Church is a balm to the nonexistent soul of yours truly, who grew up likewise. Lalla Ward is a wonderful narrator; she speaks with what I think is RP, but whatever it is her delivery of dry, eviscerating insults made me bark-laugh a few dozen times. I looked her up and find she was married to Richard Dawkins for a couple of decades, but we all make mistakes.
The subtitle here is misleading, in that Nixey's focus is a lot broader. A more accurate title might have been "Heresies: How They Arose and How the Christian Church Mostly Extirpated Them," but I guess that would be less zippy, and anyway the book was so good I'm not complaining.
This being an audiobook, I don't have highlights and notes to refer to; thus a few points only:
1. History is written by the victors, for which reason we know little about most "heretical" takes on Jesus and Christianity.
2. Oof, those Christians sure had some serious persecuting chops. Let them once get into power, and dissenters beware. Book burnings and people burnings, all in the service of saving souls. Super alarming: how much the behavior of in-power Christians two millennia ago resembles the behavior and the fever dreams of Christian nationalists today.
3. There were quite a few wonder-workers operating in various places in the Roman Empire right around the time when you-know-who was active.
4. Non-Christian Roman takes on Christian narratives and theology could be hilariously contemptuous.
5. "Heresy" originally meant something like inquiry. I'll leave that there.
Nixey grew up RC and her gleeful hostility toward the Church is a balm to the nonexistent soul of yours truly, who grew up likewise. Lalla Ward is a wonderful narrator; she speaks with what I think is RP, but whatever it is her delivery of dry, eviscerating insults made me bark-laugh a few dozen times. I looked her up and find she was married to Richard Dawkins for a couple of decades, but we all make mistakes.
The subtitle here is misleading, in that Nixey's focus is a lot broader. A more accurate title might have been "Heresies: How They Arose and How the Christian Church Mostly Extirpated Them," but I guess that would be less zippy, and anyway the book was so good I'm not complaining.
January 25, 2025
Citando diversi vangeli apocrifi e correnti ritenute eretiche, l'autrice mostra quanto fosse variegato il Cristianesimo dei primi secoli. In alcuni testi antichi, respinti dalla Chiesa, Gesù veniva addirittura rappresentato come un prepotente, un ciarlatano e un venditore di schiavi.
Il libro vanta uno stile scorrevole e contiene numerose curiosità storiche, sempre accompagnate da valide fonti. In alcuni tratti, tuttavia, l'autrice ripete concetti già espressi nel suo libro precedente ("Nel nome della croce") ed esce un po' dai binari, proponendo capitoli fuori tema che denigrano la Chiesa da varie prospettive.
Il libro probabilmente non piacerà ai cristiani credenti, perché l'autrice non nasconde le sue antipatie per la Chiesa. Personalmente l'ho apprezzato (forse perché sono ateo), anche se non lo ritengo un capolavoro.
Il libro vanta uno stile scorrevole e contiene numerose curiosità storiche, sempre accompagnate da valide fonti. In alcuni tratti, tuttavia, l'autrice ripete concetti già espressi nel suo libro precedente ("Nel nome della croce") ed esce un po' dai binari, proponendo capitoli fuori tema che denigrano la Chiesa da varie prospettive.
Il libro probabilmente non piacerà ai cristiani credenti, perché l'autrice non nasconde le sue antipatie per la Chiesa. Personalmente l'ho apprezzato (forse perché sono ateo), anche se non lo ritengo un capolavoro.
December 16, 2024
This one will set those unquestioning Christian minds spinning. Most of Nixey’s book was not new to me having read many of Bart Ehrman’s books but for anyone that has not yet read anything about the early Christianities it should be a very interesting book.
July 2, 2024
Fascinating read which shines a light on non-canonical scriptures, differing or alternative beliefs within the early Christian faith.
I particularly found the discussion regarding the Mandaeans, who I had only recently been made aware through James Mcgrath's Christmaker enlightening. Both books left me wondering why had I not heard of this group.
Many do not know or care to know the vast array of differing beliefs and practices of the early Christians. We have been indoctrinated to believe that all Christians held one universal belief system and were one in spirit(as they say).
I also see this book as a cautionary tale for our times. When Christianity weds itself with power more often than not persecution of those who have differing beliefs follows. I once stated in a study group i was leading, that it was terrifying to learn how once the early Christians came to power, they went from the persecuted to the persecutors. The looks I got after stating this was one of shock, and maybe a little anger. And as Nixey states in her book, she does not even discuss the persecution of the Jews by the Christian church.
If you like your long held beliefs challenged, this is the book for.
I highly recommend it and will be searching out other books by Nixey.
I particularly found the discussion regarding the Mandaeans, who I had only recently been made aware through James Mcgrath's Christmaker enlightening. Both books left me wondering why had I not heard of this group.
Many do not know or care to know the vast array of differing beliefs and practices of the early Christians. We have been indoctrinated to believe that all Christians held one universal belief system and were one in spirit(as they say).
I also see this book as a cautionary tale for our times. When Christianity weds itself with power more often than not persecution of those who have differing beliefs follows. I once stated in a study group i was leading, that it was terrifying to learn how once the early Christians came to power, they went from the persecuted to the persecutors. The looks I got after stating this was one of shock, and maybe a little anger. And as Nixey states in her book, she does not even discuss the persecution of the Jews by the Christian church.
If you like your long held beliefs challenged, this is the book for.
I highly recommend it and will be searching out other books by Nixey.
December 8, 2024
As a christian, I found this really interesting. This is all about the different versions of Jesus that have existed throughout history. It's well researched and well written. If you enjoy learning about religions, then I would recommend this. Special Thank You to Catherine Nixey, Mariner Books and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.
November 20, 2024
This book jarred my assumptions of the uniqueness of Christian doctrine in its day of origin and placed it within its context of a complex Jewish, Hellenistic, pagan vibrant world. A fun starting point for delving into the origins of Christianity
December 27, 2024
"Los libros se queman para controlar la memoria del futuro". Esta frase, que escribe la historiadora Catherine Nixey en "Herejía", también podría estar en su otro gran libro, "La edad de la penumbra". Con estos dos trabajos, Nixey se convierte en una firme representante del ateísmo practicante, como Richard Dawkins o el Nobel de Física, Harold Kroto. Aunque en el caso de Nixey se centra demasiado en el cristianismo y se olvida del resto de religiones, que son igual de infames y que coinciden en muchas de las sandeces que caracterizan al cristianismo, como el hecho de considerar que todo lo anterior a su profeta no son más que demonios.
En "Herejía", Nixey se centra en figuras de santones que coincidieron en tiempo y/o forma con Jesucristo y en cómo el simple hecho de que un emperador eligiera esa religión en concreto es lo que ha hecho pervivir a esa figura frente a otros. Todos esos predicadores decían tener origen divino, anunciaban el fin del mundo y la salvación para sus seguidores, afirmaban sanar a los enfermos o hacer milagros como andar sobre las aguas.
Los libros de Nixey, como es lógico, tienen muchos detractores entre creyentes, historiadores y defensores de su religión, pero en realidad la historiadora lo tiene fácil para contar todas las barbaridades que ha hecho el cristianismo a lo largo de su historia, como la destrucción sistemática de libros, el aumento de la represión y las penas de muerte, las matanzas de los otros, la lucha contra la filosofía y el conocimiento, la defensa incluso de conceptos absurdos como el terraplanismo, o el fomento de la falta total de ética a favor del pensamiento único.
En "Herejía", Nixey se centra en figuras de santones que coincidieron en tiempo y/o forma con Jesucristo y en cómo el simple hecho de que un emperador eligiera esa religión en concreto es lo que ha hecho pervivir a esa figura frente a otros. Todos esos predicadores decían tener origen divino, anunciaban el fin del mundo y la salvación para sus seguidores, afirmaban sanar a los enfermos o hacer milagros como andar sobre las aguas.
Los libros de Nixey, como es lógico, tienen muchos detractores entre creyentes, historiadores y defensores de su religión, pero en realidad la historiadora lo tiene fácil para contar todas las barbaridades que ha hecho el cristianismo a lo largo de su historia, como la destrucción sistemática de libros, el aumento de la represión y las penas de muerte, las matanzas de los otros, la lucha contra la filosofía y el conocimiento, la defensa incluso de conceptos absurdos como el terraplanismo, o el fomento de la falta total de ética a favor del pensamiento único.
February 28, 2025
This is the most fun I've had with a book so far this year. I've learned so much about early forms of Christianity, but more importantly, I got to read some crazy stories about Jesus and the Church(es) that I'd never heard before. Absolutely would recommend!
November 21, 2024
Qué locura de libro, qué manera de subirte la tensión y querer leer más y más acerca de oscuros y cuasi ficticios sanadores y santones de hace dos mil años que le hacían la competencia a un Jesús presentado como un auténtico killer. Ya sé que 'La edad de la ignorancia', su no menos impresionante libro anterior gustó tanto a los medios y a los lectores como disgustó a los especialistas más sesudos y supongo que aquí Nixey se tomará también alguna licencia. Pero qué maravillosa irreverencia la suya. Y cómo escribe.
December 30, 2024
3.5 stars rounded to 4. Entertaining, wryly funny. More a piecemeal charcuterie of scrumptious facts than a massive steak of historical records.
January 13, 2025
Heretic offers a bold critique of early Christianity’s impact on classical culture, with sharp writing and vivid descriptions. While its perspective is compelling, the tone often feels one-sided and overly dramatic, sacrificing nuance for polemics. An engaging read, but its lack of balance may leave some readers wanting a more measured account.
June 20, 2024
This review is based on the audiobook read by Lala Ward.
This book can be challenging to listen to (or read) based on your religious beliefs and your upbringing. Your worldview also plays a strong part on how you view this book.
The book is challenging our view of Christianity and who Jesus Christ really was based on what is written in the New Testament and historical facts regarding human natural and norms of that time. Some of these norms are still practiced today (book banning, rejecting people based on their religious beliefs, the powerful shutting down voices of opposition)
Major points:
1. The current view of Jesus is based on what is written in the New Testament is an extremely edited version by the church over many centuries by different scholars or writers who were approved by the church.
2. When the Romans, under Constantine, made Christianity the main religion if the Roman Empire, it allowed the removal of ancient texts about Jesus (or any other claiming to be the Messiah) to be banned, removed or destroyed.
3. Over time, areas with towns that did not belief or convert to Catholicism were isolated and eventually died out.
4. The introduction of Heresy to hunt out Heretics (any person who have a different view or opinion of Christ established by the church at the time) and have these individuals executed.
The book was supported by historical texts, forbidden texts that somehow survived through the ages, as well as medical texts and cultural norms of different periods of Western history. I really enjoyed the majority of this book, but I wished the narrator was a bit more lively in her reading. At times I drifted and had to rewind to a previous chapter. I may have to borrow this book from the library and read it to get a better understanding of some of the main concepts.
This book can be challenging to listen to (or read) based on your religious beliefs and your upbringing. Your worldview also plays a strong part on how you view this book.
The book is challenging our view of Christianity and who Jesus Christ really was based on what is written in the New Testament and historical facts regarding human natural and norms of that time. Some of these norms are still practiced today (book banning, rejecting people based on their religious beliefs, the powerful shutting down voices of opposition)
Major points:
1. The current view of Jesus is based on what is written in the New Testament is an extremely edited version by the church over many centuries by different scholars or writers who were approved by the church.
2. When the Romans, under Constantine, made Christianity the main religion if the Roman Empire, it allowed the removal of ancient texts about Jesus (or any other claiming to be the Messiah) to be banned, removed or destroyed.
3. Over time, areas with towns that did not belief or convert to Catholicism were isolated and eventually died out.
4. The introduction of Heresy to hunt out Heretics (any person who have a different view or opinion of Christ established by the church at the time) and have these individuals executed.
The book was supported by historical texts, forbidden texts that somehow survived through the ages, as well as medical texts and cultural norms of different periods of Western history. I really enjoyed the majority of this book, but I wished the narrator was a bit more lively in her reading. At times I drifted and had to rewind to a previous chapter. I may have to borrow this book from the library and read it to get a better understanding of some of the main concepts.
November 23, 2024
De haberme dejado mi jefe, este libro no hubiera llegado con un dosier de prensa, sino con una cartulina repleta de Jesuses que preguntase a qué Jesús me encomiendo hoy.
No obstante, la historia más increíble de las aquí relatadas no es de Jesús, sino sobre la Virgen María, concretamente su vagina. Cuentan que cuando María dio a luz, la señora que le asistió en el parto salió de la cueva gritando que una Virgen había parido, pues el himen seguía intacto. Otra señora que pasaba por allí, incrédula de la pureza y a modo de lo que sería la prueba del pañuelo de antaño, metió sin permiso ni perdón la mano dentro la vagina de la Virgen y automáticamente quedó carbonizada. Esto sí que es una vagina hot.
Dice Nixey al final del libro: "Esta es una historia acerca de cómo nacen y cómo mueren las ideas. Es también una historia acerca de cómo sobreviven. Trata de cómo perduran antiguos relatos y cómo persisten susurros divinos. Trata de cómo las religiones cambian y vuelven a cambiar, a medida que cambian de lugar, envejecen y se propagan por otras tierras y en otras épocas. Trata de lo dilatada que es la memoria y, a la vez, de lo corta que es. Trata de lo que fue y de lo que habría podido ser; también de lo que es. Y trata de por qué, al llegar el invierno, cuando se montan los nacimientos, siguen colocándose un buey y una mula que velan al Niño Jesús en el pesebre."
Creo que este año deberíamos cambiar al Niño Jesús por una vagina de fuego.
No obstante, la historia más increíble de las aquí relatadas no es de Jesús, sino sobre la Virgen María, concretamente su vagina. Cuentan que cuando María dio a luz, la señora que le asistió en el parto salió de la cueva gritando que una Virgen había parido, pues el himen seguía intacto. Otra señora que pasaba por allí, incrédula de la pureza y a modo de lo que sería la prueba del pañuelo de antaño, metió sin permiso ni perdón la mano dentro la vagina de la Virgen y automáticamente quedó carbonizada. Esto sí que es una vagina hot.
Dice Nixey al final del libro: "Esta es una historia acerca de cómo nacen y cómo mueren las ideas. Es también una historia acerca de cómo sobreviven. Trata de cómo perduran antiguos relatos y cómo persisten susurros divinos. Trata de cómo las religiones cambian y vuelven a cambiar, a medida que cambian de lugar, envejecen y se propagan por otras tierras y en otras épocas. Trata de lo dilatada que es la memoria y, a la vez, de lo corta que es. Trata de lo que fue y de lo que habría podido ser; también de lo que es. Y trata de por qué, al llegar el invierno, cuando se montan los nacimientos, siguen colocándose un buey y una mula que velan al Niño Jesús en el pesebre."
Creo que este año deberíamos cambiar al Niño Jesús por una vagina de fuego.
July 9, 2024
Ketterij van Catherine Nixey is een beetje het vervolg op haar eerste boek Eeuwen van Duisternis. In Ketterij toont ze aan dat er in de eerste eeuwen na Christus heel veel versies van het evangelie waren en nog meer varianten van het christendom.
Een heel boeiend en goed gedocumenteerd boek. Heel graag gelezen! Soms valt ze wat in herhaling of wordt het wat langdradig, maar dat belet niet dat er heel veel nieuwe inzichten in staan!
Een heel boeiend en goed gedocumenteerd boek. Heel graag gelezen! Soms valt ze wat in herhaling of wordt het wat langdradig, maar dat belet niet dat er heel veel nieuwe inzichten in staan!
July 15, 2024
Very fun read
January 24, 2025
This book contains a vast amount of anecdotes and accounts of ‘heresy�. For someone who has hitherto not heard any contradiction to mainstream Christian belief it will blow your mind. But for others an insightful editor may have formulated this book into the powerful argument it could have become.
March 30, 2025
Catherine Nixey is one of my favourite authors. Heretic and The Darkening Age are easily among the best books I’ve read. I especially enjoy her witty style, clever jokes, and thought-provoking writing. If you’re interested in early Christianity and question the historicity of a certain figure, this book offers a compelling and unapologetic read.
April 10, 2025
There were many interesting parts to this book, but what I really enjoyed were the author’s explorations of the gnostic gospels and varying mythologies surrounding the story of Jesus. Other stories surrounding the politics in Rome, etc seemed off topic.
December 20, 2024
The value for me is its challenge to read on the subject more deeply. Thus, a good introduction.
February 18, 2025
An interesting read, but kinda loses track of the title to focus on the greater topic of early Christianity and heresy as a topic. Still a neat book, but I found it a little repetitive toward the end. If the topic interests you, I wouldn’t start with this book.
February 28, 2025
Fascinating look at early Christianity’s varied traditions of Jesus, as Eastern and Western Orthodoxy developed into the 4th century AD.
January 2, 2025
I found this to be quite repetitive in parts, and although this book suggests it would look into the different versions of Jesus, and the different people that could have been Jesus, a significant portion of this book is dedicated to how the continued persecution of alternative narratives has shaped Christianity, and the way in which we look at history.
That being said, this book was an interesting read, with some parts definitely providing food for thought.
That being said, this book was an interesting read, with some parts definitely providing food for thought.
January 11, 2025
Entertaining review of alternative Christain texts. A little on the slight side and could have been expanded. But a good read and explains some of those more esoteric Nativity events that don't feature in the bible and their origins.
Christianity comes across as quite a malign and confused concept. As I had long since concluded.
Christianity comes across as quite a malign and confused concept. As I had long since concluded.
February 24, 2025
‘You may talk of the tyranny of Nero and Tiberius; but the real tyranny is the tyranny of your next-door neighbour,� as Walter Bagehot, the Victorian journalist and editor, wrote. ‘Public opinion is a permeating influence, and it exacts obedience to itself.� This, then, is a book about heresy and about how beliefs and ideas are violently silenced. But it is also about the ways in which people silence themselves. It is about the far more insidious ways in which things become first unwritable, then unsayable and finally unthinkable.
For centuries, there was almost a gentlemen’s agreement between classicists and theologians that the Greek and Roman gods, which fell into the categories of ‘history� and ‘mythology� (and, tacitly, of ‘absurdity�), should be dealt with by classicists; while the Christian God and his followers, which fell into the category of true religion, should be dealt with by theologians.
I was raised casually Catholic, and my parents stopped attending church once my older sister was old enough to take me and my brother, and my cousins only attended on 2 holidays, so I didn’t find it to be consequential to my life, but I did start a spiritual journey in college that has led me to beautiful soulful places. I was a pretty obedient child, so I remember having to make up sins for confession, and the idea that Christianity was the only true religion never felt true to me, so a friend and I travelled around Philly attending different spiritual centers, and my eyes and mind and heart were opened in profound ways; at the same time as electives, I took a Women and Religion course that showed me a feminist view of religions, and a Literature and Religion class that exposed me to ways religion is encompassed in works of art to expand and teach and change beliefs.
I remember in my senior year talking with friends about religion, and I thought I could never reject Jesus as my savior, since that is how I was brought up, but over time, not only was I able to, but I am concerned at how much so many people believe that nothing matters here, it only matters when we die; it is a profound source of awful, narrow-minded, selfish thinking and contributes to the dire situations we are in now. I respect all religions insofar as they are positive in someone’s life, but the minute they abuse, suppress, alienate, sow hatred, cause war, it is no longer a religion but a philosophy of hate.
This book is a fantastically written overview of a specific religion, and a particular part of it, those who also claimed to be a jesus type figure and those who wrote differing accounts of history and religion that were eventually suppressed by the winning strain of Catholicism. The writing was light, engaging, and thought-provoking for anyone, and I wish all people would read it to understand the history of the religion.
This is a perfect example that lends legitimacy to many early texts that were considered heretical, but whose elements did combine into how it is practiced today:
“Each year, we put out Mary and Joseph, and the three wise men. And, each year, we put out the ox and the donkey on which Mary had ridden. Our crib, we were certain, was correct: the perfect representation of the story of the birth of Jesus, as told in the Bible. And yet the ox and the donkey � seen in so many cards and carols and paintings � are not mentioned in the Bible. They are mentioned instead in another ancient gospel � a gospel in which, at the moment of the birth of Jesus, the world stopped turning, and the vagina of the Virgin Mary burned off another woman’s hand.� (from THE INFANCY GOSPEL OF JAMES)
One of the things that irked ancient observers most about the new Christian cult that had appeared in their midst was not merely that its followers claimed Christ performed miracles, or that he had divine qualities. It was that they seemed to consider this in any way special. Why, asked the irritated Celsus, is it that all our stories are to be regarded as mere ‘legends� while yours is to be regarded as ‘noble and convincing�? Christians, one Greek writer observed testily, claim that Christ was unique, but other men ‘also performed wonders . . . in fact, they performed boundless wonders.’Moreover, Christians placed baffling amounts of faith in texts that had clearly been written by uneducated hands. ‘They talk of Jesus up hill and down dale,� one classical critic wrote, ‘revering him for giving sight to the blind and doing some such miracles as these.� But, he argued, ‘the deeds of Jesus have been exaggerated� by his followers, who were hardly intellectuals, he added, but rather ‘liars [and] yokels�.
As the pioneering psychologist William James observed when he gave a series of lectures on religious belief, ‘we instinctively recoil from seeing an object to which our emotions and affections are committed handled by the intellect as any other object is handled.� But it is also poor history. Theologians and classicists might shelve their books in different corners of different libraries, but the classical world was far more promiscuous: a statue of Orpheus might, so one ancient author said, stand happily alongside one of Jesus; the name of Helios might appear alongside that of Christ in a single spell. This book will mirror that ancient approach and mingle and compare Christian habits and non-Christian ones. Christianity was uniquely successful; it was not � despite its later claims � unique.
When Apollonius of Tyana’s mother was pregnant � or so his surviving biography claims � that divine being appeared to her, but she was unafraid, and was told she was pregnant with a god.Similarly, an angel appeared to Jesus� mother Mary, ‘And the angel said unto her, “Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.”� Mary too is told that she will conceive a son and that he will ‘be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.� In the gospels, Jesus� birth is marked by a ‘star in the East�; Apollonius� is marked by a bolt of lightning in the sky. Their later lives offer other similarities. When both men get to adulthood, they start to lead a peripatetic existence, roaming about the countryside, preaching and gathering large numbers of followers. When Apollonius arrives in a town, we are told, ‘not even workmen stayed at their crafts, but followed him.� For Jesus, it is fishermen who leave their work. Come, follow me, says Jesus to the fishermen, and ‘Immediately they left their nets and followed him.� Both Apollonius and Jesus raise the dead.
For, in chapter 53, the reader is offered the heading: ‘Persons Who Have Come to Life Again After Being Laid Out For Burial�. Here, Pliny offers a host of such stories, and speculates on possible explanations for how it had happened� it was such a common trope that in the first century AD there was even a play that involved the resurrection of a character who, having apparently been killed by poison, then ‘began to stir slightly, as though recovering from a profound sleep, and lifted its head and looked about.� Everyone in the theatre witnessing this resurrection � and the audience included the elderly Emperor Vespasian � was delighted and ‘much moved�. Their enthusiasm was by no means diminished by the fact that this particular resurrected character happened to be a dog.
Ancient fragments in which Jesus is derided as a magician still do survive. But, as Smith observed in a typically arch aside, ‘by some amazing oversight, New Testament scholarship says almost nothing about them.� Instead, Smith wrote, ‘modern scholars, trying to discover the historical Jesus behind the gospel legends, have generally paid no attention to the evidence for Jesus the magician and have taken only the gospels as their sources.� Jesus walked on water? According to the papyri, this was a standard trick. A magical assistant can, one spell claims, ‘quickly freeze rivers and seas�, making it possible to run across the surface. How about turning the water into wine, as Jesus did? This magical assistant can do that too � though, once again, he can go one better and not merely offer table wine but the vintage stuff, summoning ‘costly wine, as is meet to cap a dinner splendidly.�
Consider the Ethiopian Book of the Cock. This sacred text explains how Jesus, not long before he was crucified, had resurrected a cockerel from a stew that had been placed before him on the table at dinner. Merely by touching his meal, Jesus caused the bird to stand up, once again whole, once again alive. Having escaped from the dinner table, the resurrected bird is then charged with setting off to spy on Judas. A little later, the cock returns to Jesus and explains to him what Judas has planned for him; whereupon the disciples weep and Jesus sends the bird to the sky for a thousand years. The Western tradition might disdain this story, but a Victorian traveller to Ethiopia found that it was still being read in Ethiopia, on Maundy Thursday; to this day, the book has a ‘privileged place in the liturgy of the Ethiopian church.�
For centuries, there was almost a gentlemen’s agreement between classicists and theologians that the Greek and Roman gods, which fell into the categories of ‘history� and ‘mythology� (and, tacitly, of ‘absurdity�), should be dealt with by classicists; while the Christian God and his followers, which fell into the category of true religion, should be dealt with by theologians.
I was raised casually Catholic, and my parents stopped attending church once my older sister was old enough to take me and my brother, and my cousins only attended on 2 holidays, so I didn’t find it to be consequential to my life, but I did start a spiritual journey in college that has led me to beautiful soulful places. I was a pretty obedient child, so I remember having to make up sins for confession, and the idea that Christianity was the only true religion never felt true to me, so a friend and I travelled around Philly attending different spiritual centers, and my eyes and mind and heart were opened in profound ways; at the same time as electives, I took a Women and Religion course that showed me a feminist view of religions, and a Literature and Religion class that exposed me to ways religion is encompassed in works of art to expand and teach and change beliefs.
I remember in my senior year talking with friends about religion, and I thought I could never reject Jesus as my savior, since that is how I was brought up, but over time, not only was I able to, but I am concerned at how much so many people believe that nothing matters here, it only matters when we die; it is a profound source of awful, narrow-minded, selfish thinking and contributes to the dire situations we are in now. I respect all religions insofar as they are positive in someone’s life, but the minute they abuse, suppress, alienate, sow hatred, cause war, it is no longer a religion but a philosophy of hate.
This book is a fantastically written overview of a specific religion, and a particular part of it, those who also claimed to be a jesus type figure and those who wrote differing accounts of history and religion that were eventually suppressed by the winning strain of Catholicism. The writing was light, engaging, and thought-provoking for anyone, and I wish all people would read it to understand the history of the religion.
This is a perfect example that lends legitimacy to many early texts that were considered heretical, but whose elements did combine into how it is practiced today:
“Each year, we put out Mary and Joseph, and the three wise men. And, each year, we put out the ox and the donkey on which Mary had ridden. Our crib, we were certain, was correct: the perfect representation of the story of the birth of Jesus, as told in the Bible. And yet the ox and the donkey � seen in so many cards and carols and paintings � are not mentioned in the Bible. They are mentioned instead in another ancient gospel � a gospel in which, at the moment of the birth of Jesus, the world stopped turning, and the vagina of the Virgin Mary burned off another woman’s hand.� (from THE INFANCY GOSPEL OF JAMES)
One of the things that irked ancient observers most about the new Christian cult that had appeared in their midst was not merely that its followers claimed Christ performed miracles, or that he had divine qualities. It was that they seemed to consider this in any way special. Why, asked the irritated Celsus, is it that all our stories are to be regarded as mere ‘legends� while yours is to be regarded as ‘noble and convincing�? Christians, one Greek writer observed testily, claim that Christ was unique, but other men ‘also performed wonders . . . in fact, they performed boundless wonders.’Moreover, Christians placed baffling amounts of faith in texts that had clearly been written by uneducated hands. ‘They talk of Jesus up hill and down dale,� one classical critic wrote, ‘revering him for giving sight to the blind and doing some such miracles as these.� But, he argued, ‘the deeds of Jesus have been exaggerated� by his followers, who were hardly intellectuals, he added, but rather ‘liars [and] yokels�.
As the pioneering psychologist William James observed when he gave a series of lectures on religious belief, ‘we instinctively recoil from seeing an object to which our emotions and affections are committed handled by the intellect as any other object is handled.� But it is also poor history. Theologians and classicists might shelve their books in different corners of different libraries, but the classical world was far more promiscuous: a statue of Orpheus might, so one ancient author said, stand happily alongside one of Jesus; the name of Helios might appear alongside that of Christ in a single spell. This book will mirror that ancient approach and mingle and compare Christian habits and non-Christian ones. Christianity was uniquely successful; it was not � despite its later claims � unique.
When Apollonius of Tyana’s mother was pregnant � or so his surviving biography claims � that divine being appeared to her, but she was unafraid, and was told she was pregnant with a god.Similarly, an angel appeared to Jesus� mother Mary, ‘And the angel said unto her, “Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.”� Mary too is told that she will conceive a son and that he will ‘be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.� In the gospels, Jesus� birth is marked by a ‘star in the East�; Apollonius� is marked by a bolt of lightning in the sky. Their later lives offer other similarities. When both men get to adulthood, they start to lead a peripatetic existence, roaming about the countryside, preaching and gathering large numbers of followers. When Apollonius arrives in a town, we are told, ‘not even workmen stayed at their crafts, but followed him.� For Jesus, it is fishermen who leave their work. Come, follow me, says Jesus to the fishermen, and ‘Immediately they left their nets and followed him.� Both Apollonius and Jesus raise the dead.
For, in chapter 53, the reader is offered the heading: ‘Persons Who Have Come to Life Again After Being Laid Out For Burial�. Here, Pliny offers a host of such stories, and speculates on possible explanations for how it had happened� it was such a common trope that in the first century AD there was even a play that involved the resurrection of a character who, having apparently been killed by poison, then ‘began to stir slightly, as though recovering from a profound sleep, and lifted its head and looked about.� Everyone in the theatre witnessing this resurrection � and the audience included the elderly Emperor Vespasian � was delighted and ‘much moved�. Their enthusiasm was by no means diminished by the fact that this particular resurrected character happened to be a dog.
Ancient fragments in which Jesus is derided as a magician still do survive. But, as Smith observed in a typically arch aside, ‘by some amazing oversight, New Testament scholarship says almost nothing about them.� Instead, Smith wrote, ‘modern scholars, trying to discover the historical Jesus behind the gospel legends, have generally paid no attention to the evidence for Jesus the magician and have taken only the gospels as their sources.� Jesus walked on water? According to the papyri, this was a standard trick. A magical assistant can, one spell claims, ‘quickly freeze rivers and seas�, making it possible to run across the surface. How about turning the water into wine, as Jesus did? This magical assistant can do that too � though, once again, he can go one better and not merely offer table wine but the vintage stuff, summoning ‘costly wine, as is meet to cap a dinner splendidly.�
Consider the Ethiopian Book of the Cock. This sacred text explains how Jesus, not long before he was crucified, had resurrected a cockerel from a stew that had been placed before him on the table at dinner. Merely by touching his meal, Jesus caused the bird to stand up, once again whole, once again alive. Having escaped from the dinner table, the resurrected bird is then charged with setting off to spy on Judas. A little later, the cock returns to Jesus and explains to him what Judas has planned for him; whereupon the disciples weep and Jesus sends the bird to the sky for a thousand years. The Western tradition might disdain this story, but a Victorian traveller to Ethiopia found that it was still being read in Ethiopia, on Maundy Thursday; to this day, the book has a ‘privileged place in the liturgy of the Ethiopian church.�
November 12, 2024
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book is a bit of mysticism, a bit of religion and whole lot of history.
Heres what I learned- when Jesus was a young man � Prophets� and “saviors � were as common as “influencers� are today. They were everywhere claiming to heal the sick, cure the blind and raise the dead, plus the pesky Roman gods were still hanging around. Seems like they all had more ardent groupies than Dave Matthews. As it is today, religion was a business and there was stiff competition for followers.
Resurrection stories were common and tomb thefts happened with such frequency that the Romans had 51 inscriptions against it. Tombs used REALLY nice stone.
Religion and magic further blurred the lines- wasn’t anything miraculous just another word for magic?
There were many, many sacred texts that were popular for hundreds of years and though not in the bible can be seen in remnants via art work today- example the manger scenes with the donkey and ox on either side of the cradle- not in the current books of the bible. Its from � the infancy of James�. one of the ancient stories detailing A much more vivid story of Jesus� birth.
The heretic in the title comes in as the various versions of the bible battle for supremacy, and losing stories are buried.
Interesting read from a historical perspective, but lots here may make practicing Christians very uncomfortable, but I guess that’s the nature of heresy.
This book is a bit of mysticism, a bit of religion and whole lot of history.
Heres what I learned- when Jesus was a young man � Prophets� and “saviors � were as common as “influencers� are today. They were everywhere claiming to heal the sick, cure the blind and raise the dead, plus the pesky Roman gods were still hanging around. Seems like they all had more ardent groupies than Dave Matthews. As it is today, religion was a business and there was stiff competition for followers.
Resurrection stories were common and tomb thefts happened with such frequency that the Romans had 51 inscriptions against it. Tombs used REALLY nice stone.
Religion and magic further blurred the lines- wasn’t anything miraculous just another word for magic?
There were many, many sacred texts that were popular for hundreds of years and though not in the bible can be seen in remnants via art work today- example the manger scenes with the donkey and ox on either side of the cradle- not in the current books of the bible. Its from � the infancy of James�. one of the ancient stories detailing A much more vivid story of Jesus� birth.
The heretic in the title comes in as the various versions of the bible battle for supremacy, and losing stories are buried.
Interesting read from a historical perspective, but lots here may make practicing Christians very uncomfortable, but I guess that’s the nature of heresy.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 147 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.