“Vad hände på vägen till Damaskus is as thrilling as a crime novel. Clue after clue is revealed without your ever being able to work out the solution to the riddle.”
Ulrika Kärnborg, Dagens Nyheter
”No book has delved so deeply into the Christian mythology, especially the story of Jesus, in a very long time. I read it with ever growing amazement and fascination. /…/ It is the calmly reasoning, logical voice of a researcher that leads the reader from one point to the next, where it stops for a moment and asks questions before continuing its line of argument. /…/ The best I can do is to warmly recommend this book.”
Thomas Nydahl, Kristianstadsbladet
”’What is truth?’ This question that, according to the gospel of John, Pontius Pilate posed to Jesus could very well be described as the basic theme in Lena Einhorn’s fascinating book about the historical Jesus. /…/ She adeptly demonstrates that it is possible to interpret the source material in such a way that a picture emerges that is rather different from the traditional one. /…/ The entire account is imbued an unusually humble regard for truth.”
Magnus Zetterholm, Svenska Dagbladet
”For believers in the bible, this book requires courage to read … Just as she herself points out, we are stuck in our own perceptions. To shake them in order to widen our perspective is perhaps this books greatest asset.”
Karin Bernspång, Västerbottens-Kuriren
”Only those who enrich the discussion by contributing new material or new perspectives can count on getting attention. Lena Einhorn is undeniably one of those who has added a new perspective to the debate. /…/ Certainly not all readers will be convinced by this book, but it is intelligently written. And therefore it deserves attention. /…/ Even those who doubt the veracity of the premise can learn a lot from this text. Einhorn has written a book that engages by formulating questions that are seldom posed – and offer new answers to age-old questions.”
Jesper Svartvik, Sydsvenska Dagbladet
“Einhorn, who has produced documentaries and feature films (Loving Greta Garbo ), writes in a style that is definitely cinematic: no dry, dusty walk through history here. Rather, Einhorn presents information as though she were writing a mystery. Step-by-step, starting with the question of whether Jesus ever existed, she brings together all the known (and little-known) clues about the Jesus story and follows them to what she finds a logical conclusion – that Jesus and Paul were one and the same… this Swedish import does a remarkable job of pulling the evidence together and presenting it in a way that should garner a good chunk of the seemingly insatiable Da Vinci Code audience.”
Booklist (American Library Association)
“Intriguing, disturbing, and always compelling: intriguing because it is a theological thriller; disturbing because it shows how malleable the small amount of evidence we have is; and compelling because it contains new, strong arguments about Jesus, arguments that present it inevitably as a history to be taken seriously”.
Theodore Riccardi, Professor Emeritus, Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University
“I had not read many pages before I was hooked. Known and unknown facts, assumptions and hints are mixed with each other in a way that brings out new perspectives… But to extract the knowledge is one thing, to meld it into exciting reading is another. The result is magnificent.”
K.G. Hammar, Archbishop of Sweden 1997–2006 in Dagens Nyheter
In “The Jesus Mystery: Astonishing Clues To The Identities Of Jesus And Paul”, filmmaker Lena Einhorn writes with historical accuracy the true story of Jesus of Nazareth utilizing a combination of New Testament writings and texts from contemporary Jewish and Roman historians. Of special note is what Einhorn writes with respect to the legends about Jesus’ birth and childhood, death and resurrection that survived both within and outside of Christianity during the first centuries after the Nazarene’s crucifixion at the hands of the Roman occupation of Jerusalem and Palestine.
“The Jesus Mystery” addresses such controversial issues as whether or not there was a historical Jesus, the Paulinian influence and the role of Church politics in the opening decades of the Christian movement on the perceptions concerning Jesus. An engaging, informative, articulate, and sometimes iconoclastic work of admirable historical research and scholarship, “The Jesus Mystery” is very strongly recommended reading for Christians and non-Christians alike.
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
