Talk:John Remsburg

Stein
I have removed the following lines from the article. Gordon Stein has pointed out, however, that in speaking for a mythological Christ in the text, Remsburg makes the error of interchanging “Christ” when “Jesus” is meant. “Remsberg says that the two terms are interchangeable,” writes Stein (The American Rationalist, November-December 1994), “but that is only true if you are a convinced Christian who believes that Jesus was the Christ. Since Remsburg does not believe this, he should distinguish the possibly historical Jesus from the concept of Christ (Messiah).” Mr Stein is clearly in error, as Remsburg does not say that the terms are interchangeable and does distinguish between them. It appears that he did not read the book with sufficient care. Here is an example from Chapter 1. Jesus of Nazareth, the Jesus of humanity, ... is a possible character and may have existed; but the Jesus of Bethlehem, the Christ of Christianity, is an impossible character and does not exist. While I could have added the citiation to the article, I can not see the point in including both a false criticism and its refutation in a short article. That would only be useful in a case where there was a widespread false belief that needed to be addressed (eg: the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr Charles Drew). As what we have here is merely Mr Stein's personal opinion, I have removed it from the article and presented it here.

Jewish scholarship
I noticed that Remsburg has been cited by a number of Jewish proponents of the Christ myth theory, such as Hyam Maccoby and the anti-missionary organization Messiahtruth. It seems unclear on why they would continue to cite him, especially since Remsburg was apparently not Jewish and that the Christ myth theory has been largely debunked by mainstream academics. ADM (talk) 11:01, 5 July 2009 (UTC)

Spelling of Surname
It is important to determine whether his surname is Remsburg or Remsberg. If the latter, then he was most likely ethnically Jewish, and that would provide a sufficient explanation for his desire to "debunk" the "myth" of the Christ. Remsberg, in his work, "The Christ," criticizes the Gospel writers for mischaracterizing the procedures and authority of the Sanhedrin. If Remsberg is informed about such matters, that is further evidence of his Jewish origins.

The atheist website,, reproduces his work and spells his name as Remsberg.

John Paul Parks (talk) 05:35, 3 April 2010 (UTC)


 * The correct spelling is Remsburg John Eleazer Remsburg vs John Eleazer Remsberg. From the Library of Congress |ammem|catalog|ppoc|thomas John E Remsburg vs |ammem|catalog|ppoc|thomas John E Remsberg.  Note only the Remsburg spelling brings up the correct books through the Library of Congress. Ergo Remsburg is the correct spelling.--BruceGrubb (talk) 15:17, 4 August 2010 (UTC)

Views Quote question
In "Views" the block quote starts with Blessed are the poor in spirit; Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. I haven't read nor have access to the book, but I just wanted to make sure that Remsburg actually espouses "blessed are the poor/meek" as being lumped in with his list of ideas from the Bible that is pernicious. Seems counter-intuitive to my simple brain, so I just thought I'd check. Ckruschke (talk) 18:17, 17 April 2012 (UTC)Ckruschke

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