"The frequent references to "the Kingdom of God" in the Gospels and the sayings attributed to Jesus in the controversial gospel of Thomas all point to an earlier tradition: like King David before him, the Jesus of the Bible is an amalgamation of themes from Near Eastern mythology and traditions of kingship and divinity. The theme of a messiah - a divinely appointed king who restores the world to perfection - is typical of Egyptian and Babylonian royal ideology dating back to the Bronze Age. Thompson shows how ancient sources (such as a song written for the accession of Pharaoh Ramses IV) use the same imagery of a utopian kingdom as that found in David's Psalter and the Gospels." "The Messiah Myth shows that the contemporary audience for whom the Old and New Testaments were written would naturally have interpreted David and Jesus not as historical figures, but as metaphors embodying long-established messianic traditions. Challenging widely held assumptions about the sources of the Bible and the quest for the historical Jesus, The Messiah Myth is sure to spark interest and heated debate among believers and skeptics alike."--Jacket.
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