The Gospel and the Greeks: Did the New Testament Borrow from Pagan Thought?

by Ronald H. Nash

Book Overview

Examines contemporary claims for Christian dependence on Hellenistic philosophy, Greco-Roman mystery religions, and Gnosticism. He finds the case for dependence in the strong sense tenuous.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0875525598
• ISBN13: 9780875525594
• Release Date: February 2003
• Publisher: P & R Publishing
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

The Final Chapter on Jesus and the "Mystery" religions of the Greco-Roman World

Nash's book is a solid and very helpful work on the subject of Christ and Christianity in light of the Greco-Roman culture in which it flourished. I stumbled upon this work after having seen the movie, the God Who Wasn't There because I had some questions concerning the similarity of Jesus and other gods from the "mystery" religions of the Greco-Roman world. Brian Flemming, the director of the documentary The God Who Wasn't There should have read up on the history of what he was speaking of before he made his movie because as Nash states, both liberal and conservative religious scholars believe this to be a dead issue with no merit. As someone who has a masters in theology, I appreciate Nash's thoroughness and honesty concerning the issues of Christ and the Greco-Roman world. I highly recommend this book and at the end of the day, the facts are the facts. Jesus was unique, Christianity did not create Him, and one must choose what they think of him.

Jason Santiago

On the surface, many folks might think that the topic is very obscure or not all that important. And while it's true that the subject matter is somewhat complicated and can initially appear pretty irrelevant to present day Christianity, it is nonetheless a topic with enormous present day relevance and deserves to be explored. In a nutshell, this book attempts to analyze whether early Christianity was influenced by pagan philosophical systems or by ideas that existed in the pagan mystery religions. There are a number of reasons why such an examination is so important. First, as this book mentions, a link of influence of paganism on early Christianity has been a common tactic among various folks in academia who are looking to discredit the Christian faith in front of an impressionable audience, and while not mentioning it, the Jesus Seminar has also been diligent in advancing such arguments in an effort to dedeify Jesus. And the reason is clear. One can make major inroads in discrediting the authenticity of Christianity if they can demonstrate, for example, that the resurrection of Jesus as described in the Gospels was really a mythical story copied from allegedly similar recountings in the pagan mystery religions. If this could be demonstrated, any number of additional negative ideas could be argued with greater force, such as that Jesus wasn't really God because the resurrection recountings of the Gospels are not historical but mythical and parallel other myths of the time, or that Jesus is no more special or unique than other supposed gods or deities in other religions. It is clear that the ramifications of these kind of theories, if proven, would be devastating to Christianity. Thus, the importance of this book. Nash carefully divides the book into 3 sections; analyzing the possibility that early Christianity was influenced by pagan philosophy such as Platonism or Stoicism, analyzing the possibility that early Christianity borrowed some of its stories from the pagan mystery religions such as Isis/Osiris or Mithra, and analyzing whether Christianity was influenced by Gnosticism. In each case, Nash does a good job of beginning his analysis by clearly defining the terms of the debate, and fairly representing the claims made by those who positively assert pagan influence on Christianity. These introductions give the reader a very good starting point for seeing how these arguments, when left unscrutinized, can on the surface appear to be compelling. By presenting the arguments fairly and completely, Nash does a good job of peaking the interest of the reader to read on in order to find out whether these arguments really hold water once we get below the surface. And particularly in the analyses of pagan philosophy and the mystery religions, Nash's analyses are very detailed and meticulous. Nash's analyses are very effective in meticulously discrediting these arguments and in most cases, showing very clearly the lazy scholarship that often fuels such

Outdated

Dr. Nash is a highly smart, highly nice man, a Christian philosophy professor who knows the early 20th century dying and rising god scholarship backwards and forwards. This book gives the state of the art Christian "refutation" of early 20th century claims that Jesus was a knock-off Pagan dying-and-rising godman, and Christianity copied baptism, the Eucharist, and other rituals, sacraments, and theologies directly from other ancient religions. But you should understand, this is an apologist's book, written by a believer for other believers. It is not written with the rigor needed to withstand unfriendly critical analysis. The analysis, in my opinion, is a bit soft. Specifically: #1. The theories Dr. Nash refutes are, as he says himself, old and outdated. Beginning in the late 1800s a school of scholars argued that Jesus was a knock-off copy of Pagan dying and rising godmen. Jesus was copied myth by myth from similar ancient gods. By the 1950s it was generally accepted, for good reasons, that the ancient evidence can not sustain this theory. Yet this is the only theory Dr. Nash refutes. What he fails to refute is great swaths of recent scholarship tying Christianity not to myth copying, but to assimilation of the basic ideas, prejudices, and primitive science of ancient culture. Ideas like gods up in heaven coming down to earth. Miracles. Prophecies. Life after death. These things were all common in ancient culture. Pagans had them first. Christianity had them second. Dr. Nash ignores this scholarship altogether. A short list of academics' books explaining the current scholarship would include: Miracles in Greco-Roman Antiquity A Sourcebook for the study of New Testament Miracle Stories by Wendy Cotter Life After Death A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion by Alan Segal Born Divine The Births of Jesus & Other Sons of God by Robert Miller Martyrdom and Noble Death Selected Texts from Graeco-Roman, Jewish and Christian Antiquity by Jan van Henten and Friedrich Avamarie The River Of God A New History Of Christian Origins by Greg Riley The Homeric Epic and the Gospel of Mark by Dennis MacDonald If Dr. Nash knows about any of this recent scholarship, he doesn't let on. He certainly fails to try to refute any of it. #2 Chapter after chapter, similarity after similarity, Dr. Nash's recurring argument is that the Christian story is different, in some detail or other, from the Pagan stories. And so could not have been borrowed. Jesus' magical divine father, mortal mother, dream foretold, prophesy fulfilling birth didn't borrow from paganism because Jesus' mother was a virgin--and that makes the Jesus story different from the Pagan's magical divine father, mortal mother, dream foretold, prophesy fulfilling birth stories. Dr. Nash's refutation is only persuasive if this difference argument is persuasive. Why he thinks it is, he doesn't say. Dr. Nash seems like a nice guy. The book is clearly and honestly written. It is however a refuta

THE Definitive Resource on this Topic

I consider this book to be a 'must have' because of how critical I think the subject matter is, and how well I think Nash analyzes the subject.On the surface, many folks might think that the topic is very obscure or not all that important. And while it's true that the subject matter is somewhat complicated and can initially appear pretty irrelevant to present day Christianity, it is nonetheless a topic with enormous present day relevance and deserves to be explored. In a nutshell, this book attempts to analyze whether early Christianity was influenced by pagan philosophical systems or by ideas that existed in the pagan mystery religions. There are a number of reasons why such an examination is so important. First, as this book mentions, a link of influence of paganism on early Christianity has been a common tactic among various folks in academia who are looking to discredit the Christian faith in front of an impressionable audience, and while not mentioning it, the Jesus Seminar has also been diligent in advancing such arguments in an effort to dedeify Jesus. And the reason is clear. One can make major inroads in discrediting the authenticity of Christianity if they can demonstrate, for example, that the resurrection of Jesus as described in the Gospels was really a mythical story copied from allegedly similar recountings in the pagan mystery religions. If this could be demonstrated, any number of additional negative ideas could be argued with greater force, such as that Jesus wasn't really God because the resurrection recountings of the Gospels are not historical but mythical and parallel other myths of the time, or that Jesus is no more special or unique than other supposed gods or deities in other religions. It is clear that the ramifications of these kind of theories, if proven, would be devastating to Christianity. Thus, the importance of this book.Nash carefully divides the book into 3 sections; analyzing the possibility that early Christianity was influenced by pagan philosophy such as Platonism or Stoicism, analyzing the possibility that early Christianity borrowed some of its stories from the pagan mystery religions such as Isis/Osiris or Mithra, and analyzing whether Christianity was influenced by Gnosticism. In each case, Nash does a good job of beginning his analysis by clearly defining the terms of the debate, and fairly representing the claims made by those who positively assert pagan influence on Christianity. These introductions give the reader a very good starting point for seeing how these arguments, when left unscrutinized, can on the surface appear to be compelling. By presenting the arguments fairly and completely, Nash does a good job of peaking the interest of the reader to read on in order to find out whether these arguments really hold water once we get below the surface. And particularly in the analyses of pagan philosophy and the mystery religions, Nash's analyses are very detailed and meticulous. Nash's a

Easy to read and well documented!

Ronald Nash has put to rest the old idea that the Gospels and Paul borrowed ideas from the Greek mystery religions. This book is well documented and easy to read and understand. Nash does a superb job of explaining facts and documented scholars in this long debate. I would recommend this book to anyone.