Jesus Without the Myths
Das Leben Jesu, kritisch bearbeitet.
Tubingen: Osiander, 1835.
Tubingen: Osiander, 1835-36.
First edition of this important work. Two octavo volumes (7 5/8 x 4 7/8 inches; 195 x 124 mm). xvi, 731, [1], [2, publisher’s ads]; xii, 750, [2, errata] pp.
Publisher’s blind-ruled and beveled black cloth, spines with central gilt arabesques surrounding the gilt lettering, pastepaper endpapers, edges stained red. Some underlining in blue on a few pages. Some scattered foxing. Overall, a very good copy.
"The publication of 'The Life of Jesus Critically Considered' aroused a storm of controversy; its revolutionary thesis and content were violently attacked, and wrenched out of context. Strauss's principal objective was to explode not only the traditional orthodox view of the Gospel accounts of the life of Jesus, but also earlier rationalistic views." (PMM p. 182). Strauss's first and greatest work, a crucial text in the history of biblical studies and of religious scholarship generally. The first consistent, systematic application of the (then quasi-Hegelian) notion of myth to the New Testament and early Christianity, offering an epoch-making interpretation of the Christ of the Gospels as the unintentional product of a "mythos" of Messianic expectation already present in ancient Hebrew culture. The book was a scandal which adversely affected Strauss's entire career, offending rationalist and orthodox biblical literalists alike
Printing and the Mind of Man 300.
HBS 65419.
$2,500.
Price: $2,500.00
Item #65419