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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 232.9
Format: Bargain Price
Label: HarperOne
Manufacturer: HarperOne
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 336
Printing Date: April 01, 2006
Publishing house: HarperOne
Release Date: March 28, 2006
Sale Popularity Level: 48373
Studio: HarperOne
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Product Description:
What if everything you think you know about Jesus is wrong? In The Jesus Papers, Michael Baigent probes into the truth about Jesus's life and crucifixion.
As a religious historian, Baigent explores the religious and political climate in which Jesus was born and raised, and the strife within the different factions of the Jewish Zealot movement. He chronicles the migrations of Jesus's family, his subsequent exposure to other cultures and the events, teachings, and influences that were most likely to have shaped Jesus's early years. Baigent also uncovers the inconsistencies and biases in the accounts of the major historians of Jesus's time, revealing their enduring influence in forming our most common conceptions of Jesus.
Baigent provides a detailed account of his groundbreaking discoveries. The evidence he uncovers leads him to make shocking new assertions that threaten the conventional account of Jesus's life and death and shake the very foundation of Western thought. Ultimately, his investigation raises the hope that we may gain a new understanding of Jesus.
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Rated by buyers 
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I haven't read it yet. And probably won't right away cause i'm reading something else.
Rated by buyers -
To begin with, only a few chapters of this book even deal with the so-called crucifixion controversy. A large portion of this book deals with Baigent's own experiences crawling around caves and chapters literally go by without any mention or reference whatsoever to Jesus.
Secondly, Baigent's thesis is absurd. First, he states that he doubts that Jesus ever existed, then goes on to say that a replacement Jesus was crucified, then proposes that Jesus survived the crucifixion. His arguments are conflicting and convoluted, referencing documents he cannot produce or even prove exist to support his claims. Many of his arguments are centered around the Gospels, which he himself goes to great lengths to discredit.
He states that the many conspiracies of the Church are Vatican cover-ups, citing their own selfish reasons for keeping such a secret. Thus, he argues, the Vatican is biased and cannot be trusted. Yet, he ignores his own motives for writing this book and "uncovering" these conspiracies...fame and fortune
Rated by buyers 
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I have never been disappointed in buying a book written by Baigent. He always offers new insights and unexpected twists in his researches into the history of Christianity. I can think of no other author in the genre that can keep my interest for so long. Well done and well worth the price.
Rated by buyers 
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The author spends too much time going through history and not enough time on his arguments. The final disc is the most interesting whereas the middle discs drag on.
Rated by buyers -
It's interesting how many reviewers claim that there is "abundant evidence" provided by historical personages for the existence of Jesus. Let's look at these:
Josephus: wrote a passage that mentions Christ, but scholars now agree that this passage is either a later interpolation or that it has been corrupted. Agapius of Manbij quotes this passage, but he quotes from an earlier version of it which is evident by the fact that it is far more conservative than the extant version of the Josephus passage.
Pliny the Younger: wrote to Trajan in about 112 AD about how to deal with Christians who refused to worship the emperor. Just because he mentions "Christus" does not mean he validated the existence of Christ or the beliefs of his followers.
Tacitus: wrote about a class of people, called Christians, who were "hated for their abominations." He mentions Christus, from whom their name is derived, and who suffered the "extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius" at the hand of Pilate. What this passage actually proves is still under debate by scholars.
Suetonius: mentions that the Jews had been creating disturbances at the instigation of "Chrestus" and so Claudius expelled them from Rome. The problem is that this expulsion happened about 20 years after the death of Christ, so for this reason he could be referring to Christians and not to Christ himself. Thus, the passage offers very little information about Christ.
Thallus: Julius Africanus writing in the 3rd century AD refers to Thallus who, according to Eusebius, wrote a history that spanned a period of time from the Trojan War to 109 BC. No actual writings of Thallus survives.
Lucian: was a 2nd century Romano-Syrian satirist who made fun of Christians.
Celsus: mentions Christ, indeed he calls Christ "a mere man."
There is also a document called "The Acts of Pontius Pilate" which is spurious at best.
This leaves us with mainly the documents that came out of the catholic church that we now called the New Testament, and because it came out of the church it could be controlled by the church.
I'm not saying that this book contains the absolute truth about Jesus, but it certainly opens the door to further research and an opportunity to look at what facts we have from a different perspective.
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