Author Archives: René Salm


About René Salm

I write about Jesus Mythicism, Gnosticism, Early Christianity (and its possible links with Buddhism), and have been researching the archaeology of Nazareth for over twenty years. My books are Buddhist and Christian Parallels (2004) The Myth of Nazareth (2008) and NazarethGate (2015), the last two examining the physical evidence for settlement in the Nazareth basin during the Early Roman period. I also manage the companion website www.NazarethMyth.info.

16 awesomely important talks at the upcoming SBL-AAR convention

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It’s taken me a whole week just to go through the 500-page program book for the annual SBL megaconvention, a task I completed this morning. Whew! My 25-minute talk on Nazareth will be just one of a gazzillion similar presentations taking place Nov. 17-20. The combination SBL-AAR meeting (my first) will happen at the biggest convention center in the world—McCormick Place in Chicago. For four days I’ll be surrounded by thousands of bible scholars, all excitedly communicating the latest cutting edge religious research. Well, “cutting edge” is in the eye of the beholder. The following is a list of presentations drawn from the program book, all cited verbatim: SBL: – Dining to death: stories of death following eating (25 min) … Continue reading →

My upcoming SBL talk on Nazareth archeology

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Today I sent in the draft for my upcoming talk in Chicago at the Society for Biblical Literature (SBL) Annual Meeting (Nov. 17-20). As it happens, the SBL program book also arrived in today’s mail—a 500 page doorstop that all attendees are supposed to carry around with them for four days. Right… The trip to Chicago will be a welcome break from my mundane existence in Eugene, Oregon. Thankfully, my costs have been covered by a generous benefactor. Otherwise, I could hardly afford the $1,000 tab. This will be my first SBL meeting—and probably my last. I was basically dragged kicking and screaming into giving this presentation—because, quite frankly, the academic scene turns me off. I have little interest in … Continue reading →

The Mandeans and Christian Origins (R. Stahl)

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In a recent post I mentioned reading a book by Robert Stahl, “Les Mandéens et les Origines Chrétiennes” (Paris, 1930). I finished it yesterday. Actually, I only read about half the book, because when I was at GTU library in Berkeley (see last post) I photocopied only what I considered the most important chapters. Here’s my comment on this interesting work… Stahl sees the Gospel of John as dependent upon (and as a reaction against) Mandaism (pp. 10, 14). Both emphasize light/life/the word, but the main difference is that the Fourth Gospel carnalizes these in the person of Jesus. According to Stahl, GJohn was a reaction against those who considered John the Baptist to be the “Great Revealer,” and the … Continue reading →

Doing research

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Every year or two I make a special trip to a well-endowed library in order to gather hard-to-find reading material for the next twelve months. One might think I’m in the boondocks but, actually, the local library here in Eugene, Oregon is not at all shabby. After all, the University of Oregon library has an exceptionally large religious studies collection—which is surprising, since the U of O doesn’t even offer an advanced degree in the field. Nonetheless, each month there are generally a couple of books or articles which I really need and which the U of O lacks. So, over the course of the year I compile a list of those sources and, when the list gets to a … Continue reading →

Thoughts on Mandaism (first post on this new blog)

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I’ve just finished reading Mark Lidzbarski’s German translation of the “Book of John” (Mandaic). I hope to put a precis of the book up on this website. Lidzbarski was a real Mandaic specialist, a true devotee of this obscure and much-reviled religion. He copied out—by hand—the entire Book of John (which I also possess in photocopy). The result is a work of art, and one remains speechless before the gargantuan effort represented by those 290 pages in impeccable handwritten Mandaic (not a single crossing out can be found). Even the footnotes are in Mandaic, with only a few abbreviations in German to guide the reader. While I’m presently struggling to get a foothold in reading Mandaic, Lidzbarski’s work as a … Continue reading →

John was Jesus? (Price) Pt. 3

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“Was Jesus John the Baptist Raised from the Dead?” by Robert M. Price, Ph.D. Being Chapter Seven of Jesus is Dead (American Atheist Press, 2007) Reproduced by permission, in three parts. With occasional added footnotes in green by R. Salm Part Three Narrative Mitosis Is the whole thing utterly implausible? If an historical analogy would help, recall F.C. Baur’s theory that Simon Magus was a bifurcated “evil twin” of the Apostle Paul. Simon Magus was at first a caricature of Paul understood as a usurping opponent of Simon Peter, a false pretender to apostleship who sought to purchase the recognition by the Pillars by means of the collection made among the Gentile churches (compare Acts 8:18-24 with Galatians 2:7-10). As … Continue reading →

John was Jesus? (Price) Pt. 2

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“Was Jesus John the Baptist Raised from the Dead?” by Robert M. Price, Ph.D. Being Chapter Seven of Jesus is Dead (American Atheist Press, 2007) Reproduced by permission, in three parts. With occasional added footnotes in green by R. Salm Part Two In a Looking Glass Darkly Mark 1:14 (“And after John had been delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God.”) has Jesus neatly replace John on the public stage, occasioning the popular opinion that Jesus’ public advent signaled the miraculous return of John. Note the use of paradidomi, the same pregnant word used for the sacrificial delivering up of Jesus to death, whether by God (Romans 8:32) or by Judas Iscariot (Mark 3:19). Can the … Continue reading →

John was Jesus? (Price) Pt. 1

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“Was Jesus John the Baptist Raised from the Dead?” by Robert M. Price, Ph.D. Being Chapter Seven of Jesus is Dead (American Atheist Press, 2007) Reproduced by permission, in three parts. With occasional added footnotes in green by R. Salm Part One There are several New Testament passages which over the years have struck me as being pregnant with implications far beyond those scholars usually reckon with. These texts seem to me to be held in check by the conventional ways in which we read the documents in which they occur. They are “anomalous data” (Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions) which somehow seem “left over” in the context of the paradigms which seem to make such excellent … Continue reading →

Basic Mythicist Bibliography

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Note: Though these books are not all “mythicist,” all provide scholarly support for that point of view. “I soon learned how little it mattered that the serious student agree with every point, even the main point, of a book. The thing is to find fresh food for thought and to encounter new perspectives not presented in the stale tomes of the orthodox and conventional.”—Robert M. Price. Thanks to Dr. Price for links to many of his reviews below, and for a number of (sometimes irreverent) comments that follow, variously by him and by myself.—René Salm. ALLEGRO, John. – The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross (1970) – The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Myth (Prometheus, 1984) Jesus was nothing other … Continue reading →

Paul-Louis Couchoud

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Born in Vienne (Isère) in 1879, Couchoud entered the École Normale Supérieure in 1898 and received a diploma in philosophy. He also studied medicine in Paris, receiving his doctor’s certificate in 1911 for his work L’Asthénie Primitive. Appointed lecturer at the University of Göttingen, Couchoud benefitted from a Kahn Foundation scholarship. This permitted him to visit China and Japan, resulting in his book Sages et Poètes d’Asie (1916). He translated several works from Japanese and published, in 1924, Luciole, Conte Japonais, Raconté à Marianne Couchoud par son Père. Dedicating himself particularly to the research of Christian origins, Couchoud made a name for himself among exegetes and historians in the field, leaving an abundant legacy which includes the following, all book-length … Continue reading →