Ecce Homo! An Eighteenth Century Life of Jesus (History of Religions in Translation, No. 1)

Ecce homo!, evidently the first published "Life of Jesus", appeared anonymously in 1770. The text, by the atheist Baron d'Holbach, presents events contained in the gospels from a rationalist, free-thinking point of view. In order to "demystify" the scriptures, d'Holbach depicts Jesus as a normal human being, who had a normal birth, whose miracles were staged, in short who was an unrealistic visionary. This represented a vehement attack on the Bible, Christian dogma and morality, and all aspects of Christian institutions. In 1799, George Houston translated the banned text from French into English with the result that he was sentenced to two years imprisonment and fined two hundred pounds; such was the controversial nature of d'Holbach's ideas. Little of d'Holbach's work survives in print, the present volume being the first critical edition of an English translation. Andrew Hunwick enriches the original text with an introduction which assesses the work in its historical and cultural context, and provides us with useful biblical commentaries. Even today, Ecce homo! is a revolutionary text and, for believers and non-believers alike, Ecce homo! will seem startling.