num_pages: 248
description: Jesus the Magician: Charlatan or Son of God? is a 1978 book by Morton Smith arguing that the historical Jesus was a magician who "sprang from a Galilean strain of Semitic paganism" (p. 68). The charge that he was a magician didn't originate with Smith. It was previously voiced by the philosopher &amp; critic Celsus (The True Word c. 200 CE) as we know from the rebuttal authored by the Christian apologist/scholar Origen: “It was by magic that he was able to do the miracles” (Contra Celsum 1.6). Clearly, for Celsus to have repeated the story, it must have had long currency before he came to write his book. Hans Dieter Betz (1994) observes that "from early on even Jesus of Nazareth was implicated in that he was said to be mad or a magician possessed by Satan" &amp; R. Joseph Hoffmann writes (1987) that "that the early Christian mission was advanced by the use of magic is well attested." Discovery News reported in 2008 the discovery by French marine archeologist Franck Goddio of a bowl dating "to between the late 2nd century BC &amp; the early 1st century AD" which refers to Jesus as a magician: "DIA CHRSTOU O GOISTAIS," which, the article tells us, "has been interpreted to mean either, 'by Christ the magician' or, 'the magician by Christ.'" Assuming this references Jesus, this is the earliest known reference to Jesus as a magician.
language: English
title: Jesus the Magician: Charlatan or Son of God?
titlecomplete: Jesus the Magician: Charlatan or Son of God?
characters: Jesus
genres: Magick, Atheism, Spirituality, History, Occult, Magic, Religion, Mysticism, Nonfiction, Christianity
ratings_count: 121
awards: awardedAt: 252489600000
name: Lionel Trilling Book Award
publisher: Ulysses Press (Berkeley, CA)