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Title: Who Wrote the Gospels? by Randel McCraw Helms ISBN: 0-9655047-2-7 Publisher: Millennium Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 1997 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.06 (18 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: EXCELLENT AND PROVOCATIVE
Comment: This book is especially appropriate now when a number of Evangelists and Christians believe the "last days" are approaching and they quote Daniel and Mark in support of their beliefs. Helms clearly shows how Mark based many of his apocalyptic beliefs and statements on the Book of Daniel. In his analysis he also points out several historical inaccuracies of the Old Testment and contradictions between the Gospels in the New Testament. When Jesus failed to return during the life time of his followers (as Mark said he would), Matthew and Luke had to rewrite the stories to make them fit their own troubled times. Helms also presents a strong and fascinating case that the author of Luke was a woman. "Who Wrote The Gospels" is readable, clear, and enlightening.
Rating: 4
Summary: The mystery continues...
Comment: Being a Methodist, of liberal persuasion, I was not surprised by what Dr. Helms presents in this thoroughly researched study of the gospels.
Dr. Randel McCraw Helms, at times, is obsessed with scholarly arguments with his academic colleagues.
The book is short and relatively easy to read, even for the layman with a cursory knowledge of the scriptures. The narrative could have been edited with greater care, reducing the length of many of the author's sentences. The use of internal footnotes are beneficial, at times seemingly to add exclamation points to Helm's arguments.
Helms scholarship and those many sources he examines are obviously known to the clergy, from Rome to America's Bible belt. One wonders why this and other similar studies are not being addressed in Christian churches.
If you accept Helms' conclusions, and it's difficult not to, then what motivated the early Christians, the authors' of the gospels, to embellish the oral traditions. Were the " Gospel Fictions" [according to Helms], created by the anonymous authors of the Gospels, divinely inspired?
After reading this well-researched treatise -- for believers -- will their faith been shattered? I doubt it -- mine hasn't?
Rating: 2
Summary: Poor Scholarship. Pure Speculation.
Comment: R.M. Helms claims to be on the 'cutting edge' of Biblical scholarship with this book "Who Wrote the Gospels." The interesting thing about his remark in relation to his work is the fact that if one were to peruse the bibliography one could not help but notice that his sources are from the 50's and 60's (predominantly), some 70's and 80's, and a scant few from the early 90's. Cutting edge? Hardly.
The material in this work was very hard so swallow. In fact, most of his assertions regarding authorship were speculative at best (albeit the fact that he had no real serious sources to back up his claims). Moreover, his dating of the manuscripts are off base mostly due to the actual 'cutting edge' research that has surfaced since Colin Hemer's work 'The Book of Acts in the Setting of Hellenistic History.'
Where is Helms use of the LXX? What sources did Helms actually use to date the Gospel accounts? None, is the answer, other than his wide use of the source Q. A source which has absolutely no historical backing or evidence, no extant manuscripts, and is purely speculative.
This work is wrought with problems. In fact, Amazon does not give me enough space to write a proper response dealing with all the problems which arise in this text, so I merely highlighted the major ones (and that, without much detail). There are far greater sources written by much better scholars than this one. For instance, I would certainly recommend any source material for the Gospels written by Bruce Metzger, or Alister McGrath, and the Colin Hemer text I mentioned above, but this one should be left on the bookstore shelf as a dust collector.
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Title: The Secret Origins of the Bible by Tim Callahan ISBN: 0965504794 Publisher: Millennium Press Pub. Date: September, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Gospel Fictions by Randel McCraw Helms ISBN: 0879755725 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: January, 1990 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: Bible Prophecy: Failure or Fulfillment? by Tim Callahan ISBN: 0965504700 Publisher: Millennium Press Pub. Date: July, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Who Wrote the New Testament? : The Making of the Christian Myth by Burton L. Mack ISBN: 0060655186 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 06 September, 1996 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard E. Friedman ISBN: 0060630353 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 07 May, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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