George Albert Wells

George Albert Wells (born May 22, 1926), usually known as G. A. Wells, is an Emeritus Professor of German at Birkbeck, University of London. After writing books about famous European intellectuals, such as Johann Gottfried Herder and Franz Grillparzer, he turned to the study of the historicity of Jesus, starting with his book The Jesus of the Early Christians in 1971.^[1] He is best known as an advocate of the thesis that Jesus is essentially a mythical rather than a historical figure, a theory that was pioneered by German biblical scholars such as Bruno Bauer and Arthur Drews.

Since the late 1990s, Wells has said that the hypothetical Q document, which is proposed as a source used in some of the gospels, may "contain a core of reminiscences" of an itinerant Galilean miracle-worker/Cynic-sage type preacher.^[2] This new stance has been interpreted as Wells changing his position to accept the existence of a historical Jesus.^[3] In 2003 Wells stated that he now disagrees with Robert M. Price on the information about Jesus being "all mythical".^[4] Wells believes that the Jesus of the gospels is obtained by attributing the supernatural traits of the Pauline epistles to the human preacher of Q.^[5]

Wells is a former Chairman of the Rationalist Press Association. He is married and lives in St. Albans, near London. He studied at the University of London and Bern, and holds degrees in German, philosophy, and natural science. He has taught German at London University since 1949, and has been Professor of German at Birkbeck College since 1968.

Work on early Christianity

Wells's fundamental observation is to suggest that the earliest extant Christian documents from the first century, most notably the New Testament epistles by Paul and some other writers, show no familiarity with the gospel figure of Jesus as a preacher and miracle-worker who lived and died in the recent decades. Rather, the early Christian epistles present him "as a basically supernatural personage only obscurely on Earth as a man at some unspecified period in the past".^[2] Wells believed that the Jesus of these earliest Christians was not based on a historical character, but a pure myth, derived from mystical speculations based on the Hebrew wisdom figure. Wells has summarized his argument about the original, pre-gospel, source of the Jesus figure as follows:

I have argued here that, if we arrange extant early Christian documents into a chronological series, we find that only from about 90 did Christians regard Jesus as a teacher, miracle-worker and a near contemporary, crucified under Pilate. In the earliest documents (which do not include the gospels, which I give reason for dating from 90 to 110) Jesus figures simply as a supernatural personage whom God had sent in human form into the world to redeem it and who was crucified there in unspecified circumstances. These early writers are so vague in what they say about his life that they may well have believed only that he had been crucified in obscure circumstances long ago. I show that such a view is likely to have been suggested to them by the Jewish wisdom literature they knew well and by traditions they must have known concerning actual crucifixions of living men in Palestine one and two centuries before their time. And I argue that they were in fact probably wrong in believing this much of him. (The Historical Evidence for Jesus, 1988, p. 217–218).

According to Wells, the gospels' composition was a later stage of the development of the Jesus myth, which was given a historical setting and a figure subsequently embellished with ever increasing details.

In his books The Jesus Legend (1996) and The Jesus Myth (1999), Wells modified and expanded his initial thesis, and indicates his disagreement with Robert Price:

"In my first books on Jesus, I argued that the gospel Jesus is an entirely mythical expansion of the Jesus of the early epistles. The summary of the argument of the Jesus Legend (1996) and the Jesus Myth (1999) given in this section of the present work makes it clear that I no longer maintain this position. The weakness of my earlier position was pressed upon me by J.D.G. Dunn, who objected that we really cannot plausibly assume that such a complex of traditions as we have in the gospels and their sources could have developed within such a short time from the early epistles without a historical basis (Dunn, [The Evidence for Jesus] 1985, p. 29). My present standpoint is: this complex is not all post-Pauline (Q, or at any rate parts of it, may well be as early as ca. A.D. 50); and if I am right, against Doherty and Price - it is not all mythical. The essential point, as I see it, is that the Q material, whether or not it suffices as evidence of Jesus's historicity, refers to a personage who is not to be identified with the dying and rising Christ of the early epistles." (Can We Trust the NT?, 2004, pp. 49–50).

Wells now allows for the possibility that the central figure of the gospel stories may be based on a historical character from first-century Galilee: "[T]he Galilean and the Cynic elements ... may contain a core of reminiscences of an itinerant Cynic-type Galilean preacher (who, however, is certainly not to be identified with the Jesus of the earliest Christian documents)."^[2] Sayings and memories of this preacher may have been preserved in the "Q" document that is hypothesized as the source of many "sayings" of Jesus found in both gospels of Matthew and Luke. However, Wells concludes that the reconstruction of this historical figure from the extant literature would be a hopeless task.

The updated position taken by Wells has been interpreted by other scholars as an "about-face", abandoning his initial thesis in favor of accepting the existence of a historical Jesus.^[3] However, Wells insists that this figure of late first-century gospel stories is distinct from the sacrificial Christ myth of Paul's epistles and other early Christian documents, and that these two figures have different sources before being fused in Mark.

In the Gospels, the two Jesus figures — the human preacher of Q and the supernatural personage of the early epistles who sojourned briefly on Earth as a man and then, rejected, returned to heaven — have been fused into one. The Galilean preacher of Q has been given a salvific death and resurrection, and these have been set not in an unspecified past (as in the early epistles), but in a historical context consonant with the date of the Galilean preaching. (Can We Trust the NT?, 2004, p. 43)

Reception

Co-author R. Joseph Hoffmann has called Wells "the most articulate contemporary defender of the non-historicity thesis."^[6] Wells' claim of a mythical Jesus has received support from Earl Doherty, Robert M. Price and others.^[7][8] The classical historian R. E. Witt, reviewing The Jesus of the Early Christians in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, offered some criticisms but concluded that "Hellenists should welcome the appearance of this challenging book."^[9]

However, Wells' conclusions have been criticized by biblical scholars and ecclesiastical historians such as W. H. C. Frend and Robert E. Van Voorst.^[10][11] Voorst further critiques Wells work as "[Wells] advanced the non-historicity hypothesis, not for objective reasons, but for highly tendentious, anti-religious purposes."^[11] Historian Dr. David Aikman from Patrick Henry College criticizes Wells' lack of expertise and objectivity: "Wells is not a New Testament specialist at all but a professor of German and a former chairman of the Rationalist Press Association. He has written several books rejecting the historicity of Jesus, a position almost no New Testament scholar endorses, even those who are radically opposed to Christianity." ^[12]

After reviewing criticisms from several authors, atheist philosopher Michael Martin said that although "Wells's thesis is controversial and not widely accepted," his "argument against the historicity of Jesus is sound".^[13]

Bart Ehrman, in his Did Jesus Exist? (Ehrman) (2012) stated: "The best-known mythicist of modern times — at least among the NT scholars who know of any mythicists at all — is George A. Wells...He has written many books and articles advocating a mythicist position, none more incisive than his 1975 book, Did Jesus Exist?. Wells is certainly one who does the hard legwork to make his case: Although an outsider to NT studies, he speaks the lingo of the field and has read deeply in its scholarship. Although most NT scholars will not (or do not) consider his work either convincing or particularly well argued." (p. 19). Wells, 86, provided an answer to these points in an article in Free Inquiry.^[14]

Books

German intellectual history

His major works in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century German language thought and letters are

• Herder and After: A Study in the Development of Sociology (Gravenhage, Mouton, 1959)
• The Plays of Grillparzer (Pergamon Press, 1969) ISBN 0-08-012950-1
• Goethe and the Development of Science, 1750-1900 (Sijthoff & Noordhoff, 1978) ISBN 90-286-0538-X
• The Origin of Language: Aspects of the Discussion from Condillac to Wundt. (Open Court Publishing Company, 1987) ISBN 0-8126-9029-X
• The Origin of Language (Rationalist Press Association, 1999)

Early Christianity

• The Jesus of the Early Christians, (Pemberton, 1971) ISBN 0-301-71014-7. Out of print, not republished.
• The Origins of Christianity: From the Pagan and Jewish Backgrounds, (Conway Hall Humanist Centre, London, 1973) ISBN 0-902368-05-2
• Did Jesus Exist? (Pemberton Publishing, Prometheus Books), 1st ed. 1975, ISBN 0-87975-086-3; 2d ed. 1987, ISBN 0-87975-395-1
• The Historical Evidence for Jesus (Prometheus Books, 1982, 2d ed. 1988) ISBN 0-87975-180-0
• Religious Postures: Essays on Modern Christian Apologists and Religious Problems (Open Court, 1988) ISBN 0-8126-9070-2
• Who Was Jesus? A Critique of the New Testament Record (Open Court, 1989) ISBN 0-8126-9096-6
• Belief and Make-Believe: Critical Reflections on the Sources of Credulity (Open Court, 1991) ISBN 0-8126-9188-1
• What's in a Name? Reflections on Language, Magic and Religion (Open Court, 1993) ISBN 0-8126-9239-X
• The Jesus Legend (foreword by R. Joseph Hoffmann) (Open Court, 1996) ISBN 0-8126-9334-5
• The Jesus Myth (Open Court, 1999) ISBN 0-8126-9392-2
• The Acts of the Apostles: A Historical Record? (South Place Ethical Society, 2000) ISBN 9780902368224
• Can We Trust the New Testament?: Thoughts on the Reliability of Early Christian Testimony (Open Court, 2004) ISBN 0-8126-9567-4
• Cutting Jesus Down to Size: What Higher Criticism Has Achieved and Where It Leaves Christianity (Open Court, 2009) ISBN 0-8126-9656-5

Editor

• F.R.H. (Ronald) Englefield, Language, Its Origins and Relation to Thought (Pemberton, 1977)
• F.R.H. Englefield, The Mind at Work and Play (Prometheus, 1985)
• J. M. Robertson (1856-1933): Liberal, Rationalist and Scholar (Pemberton, 1987). More than half the book (p. 123-259) is Wells's presentation of Robertson's work: ch. 7, "The Critic of Christianity", and ch. 8, "The Philosopher"
• F.R.H. Englefield, Critique of Pure Verbiage, Essays on Abuses of Language in Literary, Religious, & Philosophical Writings (Open Court, 1990)
• Carl Loftmark, A History of the Red Dragon (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 1995) ISBN 9780863813177
• David Friedrich Strauss, The Old Faith and the New - Two volumes in one, with a 14-page introduction by G.A. Wells (Prometheus, 1997) [1st ed. Berlin, 1872] ISBN 978-1-57392-118-3.

Articles and other media

• "The Critics of Buckle", Past and Present (1956), pp. 75–84
• "Criteria of Historicity", German Life and Letters, New Series, vol. XXII, No.4 (Oct. 1968)
• "Stages of NT Criticism", Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. XXX, No. 2 (April 1969), pp. 151–155. [Discusses the view of Volney on the origin of astrology in early agriculture and its extension to stars' influence on human affairs.]
• "The Myth of the Mushroom", Humanist, 86 (1971), pp. 49–51.
• "The Holy Shroud of Turin," Question 9 (1975), pp. 24–37.
• "Miracles and the Nature of Truth,", Question 10 (1977), pp. 30–41.
• "Was Jesus Crucified Under Pontius Pilate? Did He Even Live at All?”, The Humanist, vol. XXXVIII, no. 1, January–February, 1978, pp. 22–27.
• "More on the Holy Shroud," New Humanist 94 (1978), pp. 11–15
• "Paul Valéry on the Importance of the Poet", Modern Languages 66 (1985), pp. 186–191
• "Burke on Ideas, Words, and Imagination", British Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 9 (1986)
• "The Historicity of Jesus", in R. Joseph Hoffmann & Gerald A. Larue, ed. Jesus in Myth and History (1986), pp. 27–45.
• "Robertson as Critic of Christianity", in ed. G.A. Wells, J.M. Robertson, 1856-1933, Liberal, Rationalist, and Scholar (Pemberton, 1987), pp. 123–196
• "Wilhelm Wundt and Cultural Origins", Quinquereme, 11 (1988)
• "Criticism and the Quest for Analogies", New German Studies, 15 (1989)
• "The Bible With or Without Illusions?", New Humanist, 105 No. 1 (1990)
• Jesus: What Evidence?, debate between John Warwick Montgomery & G.A. Wells, London, Feb. 10, 1993 (2 CDs, Canadian Institute for Law, Theology and Public Policy)
• "German Bible Criticism & the Victorian Church", Journal for the Critical Study of Religion, Ethics and Society 2(1) (1997), pp. 55–67.
• "Don Cupitt's Religion of Language", Theology 105, (2002), pp. 201–210
• "A Critique of Schopenhauer's Metaphysic", German Life & Letters, 59 (2006) pp. 379–389. Wells relates Schopenhauer's view of the primacy of the will to Albert Schweitzer's claiming that the will is a transcendent reality at the basis of self-consciousness that provides immediate certainties — allowing us to connect with the "mighty spiritual force streaming forth from [Jesus Christ]", needing no longer to rely on the uncertain results of historical criticism concerning Jesus's message.
• "Historicity of Jesus", in Tom Flynn, The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief (Prometheus, 2007), pp. 446–451
• "Is There Independent Confirmation of What the Gospels Say of Jesus?", Free Inquiry 31 (2011), pp. 19–25.

References

External links

• G.A. Wells, "Earliest Christianity" (1999). Best short summary of Wells's two-stage theory of two Jesuses (5,600 words).
• G.A. Wells, "Replies to Criticisms of his Books on Jesus" (Feb. 2000). Response to Rev. Dr. Gregory S. Neal.
• G.A. Wells, "A Reply to J. P. Holding's 'Shattering' of My Views on Jesus and an Examination of the Early Pagan and Jewish References to Jesus (2000)". A response to J.P. Holding's article "Jesus - Shattering the Christ-Myth".
• G.A. Wells, "A Resurrection Debate - The New Testament Evidence in Evangelical and in Critical Perspective (2000)". A discussion of the literary evidence used in Did Jesus Rise from the Dead? (Harper & Row, 1987), on the 1985 debate of Antony Flew versus Gary Habermas at Liberty University (Lynchburg, VA), the Baptist College of the American evangelist Jerry Falwell. (A revised and amplified version of Who Was Jesus?, Ch. 2 "The Resurrection", "Epilogue: A Resurrection Debate"; 1989, p. 46-52.)
• G.A. Wells, "Ehrman on the Historicity of Jesus and Early Christian Thinking", excerpts from an article on Free Inquiry, June–July 2012, p. 58-62. A response to Bart Ehrman's book Did Jesus Exist? (April 2012).
• "Jesus - History or Myth?". An Australian debate about Wells' thesis: David H. Lewis, "Escaping the Gravitational Pull of the Gospels", versus Prof. William Loader, "The Fraught Project of Finding the Historical Jesus" (Dec. 2005).
• "Historical Jesus Theories: G. A. Wells", Early Christian Writings
• "The Jesus Illusion" on YouTube, Prof. George A. Wells looks at Paul's Letters to the Corinthians, the first written Christian document.
• Alvar Ellegard, "Theologians as historians", Scandia - Journal of Historical Research, (Lund Un., 2008), p. 169-204 PDF