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Morton Smith
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Jesus the Magician: Charlatan or Son of God? Paperback – January 1, 1998

by Morton Smith (Author)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 20 ratings
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Drawing on obscure fragments of ancient documents, the late author of The Secret Gospel challenges the orthodox version of the life of Jesus Christ with a portrait of Jesus as a feared practitioner of black magic. Original. IP.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    235 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Ulysses Pr
  4. Publication date
    January 1, 1998
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1569751552
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1569751558
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ulysses Pr (January 1, 1998)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 235 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1569751552
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1569751558
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 20 ratings

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Morton Smith

Morton Smith

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4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
20 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

D leggett
5.0 out of 5 stars It will rub believers the wrong way
Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2010
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I have read his other works and this one as well does not disappoint. Mr. Morton Smith has been explicit that this is not for a fact how it was exactly, but offers up possibilities based upon his extensive knowledge of the cultural environment of the time. Too often our group think leads us to believe things that the whole wants us to believe rather than searching for the truth. As I stated earlier and Mr. Smith often repeated that this endeavor is part of that search for truth. It is not the end all be all, but raised some interesting questions for me and answered quite a few others. His writing is clear and uses common language.
6 people found this helpful
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Ricardo Fuentes
3.0 out of 5 stars not pure blasphemy, but close
Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2023
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lots of references but you get the feeling that the author knows the answer before he presents all the references and his prejudiced conclusion.
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xaosdog
5.0 out of 5 stars maverick scholarship with flawless methodology
Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2000
Morton Smith, the author of this book, died while I was pursuing coursework in earliest Christianity at Brown University, so I saw firsthand the effect of his passing on (a set of) his peers, most of whom, it turns out, are believers. Although Smith's views are frightening and sometimes even repugnant to the faithful, his work commands a real (and not always grudging) respect among Christian scholars. Smith's method is heavily comparative, analyzing the four Gospel accounts of the life of Jesus in terms of choice of language and expositional technique, and comparing them to contemporaneous rabbinical and Hellenic writing. Granting a very few premises - such as, that Jesus and his followers did not conceive of themselves as representative of a wholly new historical paradigm, but rather as a part of their own cultural context, a premise quite consistent with the decisions they made in describing themselves and Jesus - the resulting historical account is virtually unassailable, and powerfully compelling. The most controversial aspect of Smith's results is the theory that Jesus thought of himself as a "magician", in the sense that that word was used 2000 years ago in the Levant, in addition to - but very much overlapping with - his roles as a religious teacher and political revolutionary. In conclusion, I can say with confidence that this is one of those books of history which come along only once in a very great while - Guns, Germs, and Steel; Plagues and Peoples; Bandits, Prophets, and Messiahs - which leave the reader unshakeably certain that this is how it *must* have been.
59 people found this helpful
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Frater Adservio
4.0 out of 5 stars An Important Piece of Scholarship
Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2010
This book is essential reading for three kinds of people; occultists, Christians and those who aren't afraid of the truth. This book traces a fully credible and academically supported theory of the origins, life and nature of the man remembered as Jesus the Christ. It is by no means the normal view, but it is what the evidence points to, both in the Scriptures and outside of it.
3 people found this helpful
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Dust
5.0 out of 5 stars God is one, however many
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2011
Maybe like Paul Simon and Adam you might eventually feel you 'think too much'. God, man and law on the brain. This changed my thinking about god. A lifetime of reflecting on Jesus, without much research, had me believing he was the product of the Abraham Moses prophetic tradition. This has me thinking otherwise.
Rather than butcher, baker, messiah, this put you right back to the unknowable god we invoke for what help may be beyond us: healing might be the main thing. At many times in many places that meant casting out demons. Those times and places included the time and place of Jesus life and history.
I would accept from this that the skills of a magician were learned much as others learned their trade.
Jesus is quoted as attesting that he would have to be crucified and raised up.
Can a carpenter be 'son of God'? Can a magician?
3 people found this helpful
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Jeffrey Bolden
5.0 out of 5 stars Jesus according to Nero
Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2001
For centuries The Secret Gospel of Mark has been a pink elephant in studies of reconstructing the gospel. Without the plethora of strong denials of this document's existence, there would be no reason to suppose it exists, but with these denials one could be led to a "the lady doth protest too much" conclusion. In the 1960's Morton Smith discovered a letter from Saint Clement of Alexandria to one of his followers, regarding the Secret Gospel of Mark. In this letter he corrects certain comments the follower had heard but instructs him not to reveal the existence of this document. What's interesting about these few passages we have from the longer version of Mark is that all of them revolve around quasi-magical practices. In other words was Mark part of a longer work, and the magical material censored out? Since Morton Smith was unlikely to trip over gold again and find more of this lost book, he begins investigating the nature of magical practice in 1st century Palestine using texts like the magical papyri. What did people mean by magic? From this study we are able to understand much more clearly what verses like, Matt 9:34, "It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons ", meant to the speaker which as it turns out is quite different than what they mean to a modern audience. A very good book, I wouldn't recommend it as a first "true life of Jesus" but it makes an excellent contrast to the Crossen, E.P. Sanders school which tries to place Jesus in a fully Jewish context by ignoring everything that doesn't fit.
36 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Magnus Skalda
5.0 out of 5 stars Useful to read this in conjunction with "The Masks of ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 23, 2014
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A very readable style and not as "Jesus bashing" as the title suggests. This is not one of the current group of books designed to "prove" that Jesus never existed. Useful to read this in conjunction with "The Masks of Christ" by Lyn Picknett & Clive Prince
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Rick
4.0 out of 5 stars The book by Morton Smith is a must read. ...
Reviewed in Canada on September 3, 2017
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The book by Morton Smith is a must read. I find it refreshing and challenging at the same time. Its premise forces the reader to look at Jesus in another light. I have always wondered who Jesus was, and why the Church would put such a narrow 'spin' on him. This book is a definite literary find.
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