Killing History

""Robert M. Price does in Killing History what he does best: bring immense erudition, sharp critical thinking, and edgy humor to sort through a thorny topic in our public discourse about the Bible. In plain language, but without simplifying, Price expertly dissects the dilettante ‘arguments' in O'Reilly's Killing Jesus, exposing it for the pretentious pablum that it is. Along the way, Price serves up a first-rate introduction to the academic historical-critical interpretation of the gospels.” —Robert J. Miller, fellow of the Jesus Seminar “Even though serious and hard-hitting scholarship on the historical Jesus has been available for over three hundred years, modern writers continue to publish ‘popular' accounts of Jesus' words and deeds, blithely ignorant of what we actually know. In Killing History, New Testament scholar Robert Price shows that among the worst of sinners is Bill O'Reilly and his bestselling but ill-conceived book Killing Jesus. In point after point, Price convincingly and authoritatively argues that O'Reilly has produced a Jesus of his own imagination, rather than the Jesus who emerges from a historically informed study of the gospels.”— Bart D. Ehrman, James A. Gray Professor, Department of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill “It is no secret that Bill O'Reilly and I disagree on various issues of church-state separation. O'Reilly told me that Christianity is a philosophy, not a religion, so government actions promoting Christianity are not against the Constitution; I think that's just a disingenuous attempt to justify favoritism and religious bigotry. Robert M. Price now shows that the master of the ‘No-Spin Zone' also ‘massages his facts' in his popular tome Killing Jesus. O'Reilly claims to be looking out for you, but he'd better realize that Price is looking out for the truth.”—David Silverman, president of American Atheists“For Robert M. Price, Bill O'Reilly's heart may sometimes be in the right place, but his head is not. Nor has he any more business writing a ‘historical' book about Jesus than Sean Penn might to pontificate about foreign policy! Though Price may not believe there was a ‘historical Jesus,' that does not mean he wants to see him abused and, for Price, that is what is going on in Killing Jesus. Killing History reveals Bill O'Reilly's claim that Killing Jesus is a ‘historical work' and not a religious one as blatant spin—so much so that, for Price, O'Reilly qualifies as a whirling dervish!”—Robert Eisenman, author of James the Brother of Jesus and The New Testament Code“