An Inquiry into the Mental Health of Jesus: Was He Crazy?

By Don Havis

The very first thing that should be said about the title and content of this article is that I completely understand that any attempt to make any sort of even reasonably accurate statements about the mental health of a person who may or may not have lived some two thousand years ago is completely absurd! In fact, it is this writer’s opinion that the whole Christian mythology is just that—mythology. Certainly, the divine three-in-one Jesus, born of a virgin, etc. never existed. However, the question of whether or not there ever was a real human being around whom the various Christian legends grew, is still open to some debate. So whose mental health does this paper address, the non-existent mythical Jesus, or the possibly formerly existent human Jesus? The answer is the former, mythical Jesus, not the latter. “But how could this be possible?” you may ask. The answer is that this could be at least a hypothetically possible inquiry if I can persuade the reader to accept one huge and admittedly irrational assumption. What is that assumption? Are you ready? Here it is:

The Christian Holy Bible is the inspired word of God.

Obviously, as the “inspired word of God” it must be entirely true. Would God lie to us in his own book? Hardly! Therefore, we will for the moment, do exactly as the Christians would like us to do. We will accept their word that everything in the Bible is accurate as reported; that all the words that Jesus supposedly said were in fact spoken by Jesus and were accurately recorded and passed down to us without the slightest change.

Additionally, all of the reports of other supposed witnesses to Jesus and his behavior were also accurately recorded in the holy book. We might grant some small “leeway” to this strict provision by allowing that everything that is written down—even something written by a great authority just this morning—may be subject to some “interpretation” by the reader. For example, if it is reported that an angel spoke to or appeared to Jesus, we are at liberty to grant that Jesus thought or imagined that an angel spoke or appeared to him. He reported accurately (or others reported accurately) what he thought to be true. With this one great caveat accepted by the reader, we may now proceed with our inquiry.

. . . .

Fortunately, there is no need for this writer to do “original research” in this area. Several previous writers have examined the question of Jesus’ mental health—including serious questions as to his sanity—in depth. In fact, there seems to have been a veritable outbreak of such research and writing in the latter half of the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th century. Of course, this was the time of the birth and early intense interest in the new field of psychiatry. Since that time, however, there has been a strange silence on this question. There have been many contemporary psychologists and psychiatrists who have written on the general subject of religion and its effect on mental health; perhaps most prominent among these has been Dr. Albert Ellis. However, I have been unable to find any modern mental health professional who has written specifically about Jesus’ mental health. In fact the most recent article this writer was able to find dealing specifically with the question of the sanity, or mental health, of the biblical Jesus was an article by E. Haldeman-Julius entitled “Crazy Jesus” published in 1925. (1) Indeed, this writer would greatly appreciate “feedback” from any reader who may have discovered more recent writings, particularly by modern psychiatrists, on this subject. My many hours at a local library and doing several “web-searches” have failed to produce any result. There was, however, a fairly recent mention of Jesus’ mental ill health by a modern psychiatrist named Dr. Clifford Allen (Probably Clifford Edward Allen, a British psychiatrist born in 1902) in a pamphlet published by the American Atheist Press. Dr. Allen was quoted as saying that he would “classify Jesus as a paranoid schizophrenic.”(2) Unfortunately, this quote was not footnoted and I was unable to verify it.

. . . .

A thorough review of all the well-known writings on this question is beyond the scope of this paper. However, I will mention a number of the most well know authors who have tackled the question of Jesus’ mental health, and will present, very briefly, a summary of their opinion on this subject.

Probably the most famous critic of Jesus of the past two hundred years was David Friedrich Strauss. In his first book on the life of Jesus, published in 1835, he opined that Jesus was simply a religious “fanatic.” However, in his second Life of Jesus, 1864, he considered Jesus’ fanaticism, “close to madness.” (3.) (Schweitzer. P. 35.)

Another early work on Jesus’ mentality was Oskar Holtzmann, War Jesu Ekstatiker? , 1903. (Was Jesus Ecstatic?) Yes, he felt he was. “Ecstatic” was kind of a nice way of saying that he felt Jesus was not in really strong contact with reality.

Emil Rasmussen wrote in 1904 a book in Danish, which was promptly translated into German in 1905. The book’s title was Jesus—A Comparative Study in Psychopathology.

Rasmussen concluded that Jesus was an epileptic. He points to evidence of both types of epileptic attack, a petit mal in Gethsemane, and a grand mal at the cleansing of the temple. He offers little other evidence, however, and his book is pretty much roundly condemned by most of the other writers on the subject.

Another early writer on the subject was Dr. George de Loosten who published, Jesus Christ from the Standpoint of a Psychiatrist in 1905. De Loosten explains Jesus’ apparent bizarre behavior on a number of occasions as being tainted by a bad heredity which made him a “degenerate” with a “fixed delusional system.” Naturally, Dr. de Loosten was not wildly popular among the Christians of his time, nor of the present time. His ideas were not widely accepted.

Another writer who took up the question of Jesus’ mental heath around the turn of the century was Charles Binet-Sangle. His book, La Folie de Jesus (The Dementia of Jesus) was published in Paris in 1910. The title says it all. Dr. Binet-Sangle diagnoses Jesus as “Demented.” Specifically, he calls Jesus’ illness “religious paranoia.” Dr. Binet-Sangle’s psychiatric study of Jesus placed particular emphasis on the various reported events which the doctor concluded were hallucinations. He specifically identified seven hallucinations. Of these seven, two were, “purely visual and five which are described as both visual and auditory-verbal.” (4)

Two more books on this subject would complete what I earlier referred to as an “outbreak” of sudden interest in Jesus’ mental health in the early part of the 20th century.

The books referred to above were originally published in a language other than English, so they were not at first given much notice in this country.

In 1912, a prominent New York psychiatrist, Dr. William Hirsh published a book entitled, Religion and Civilization—Conclusions of a Psychiatrist. Dr. Hirsh enumerates various incidents of aberrant behavior on Jesus’ part, agrees with Binet-Sangle’s opinions regarding Jesus’ hallucinations, and points to his “megalomania, which mounted ceaselessly and immeasurably.” Dr. Hirsh’s conclusion was quite strong. He said that Jesus was “paranoid”, pure and simple. He added that, “Everything that we know about him (Jesus) conforms so perfectly to the clinical picture of paranoia that it is hardly conceivable that people can even question the accuracy of the diagnosis.” (5) I must add here that I found this statement to be a bit “dogmatic”, especially coming from a psychiatrist. Dr. Hirsh felt very sure of his “conclusion,” and didn’t mince his words.

Just after Dr. Hirsh published his book, the famous Dr. Albert Schweitzer wrote, in German, his book, The Psychiatric Study of Jesus. The book was written primarily to counter what Dr. Schweitzer—ever the apologist for Jesus—felt were, in his opinion, the then several unwarranted and vicious attacks on Jesus’ sanity. He makes some good points, such as it is unfair to take events out of the context of the culture and superstitious times during which these events supposedly took place. However, overall, I found his defense of Jesus’ sanity “strained” to say the least. One valuable part of his book, however, is that he vary fairly summarizes the arguments of all of Jesus’ previous critics mentioned above.

The most recent book that I was able to find on this subject, and one of the most helpful books published after the initial rush of books in the early 20th century, is The Psychic Health of Jesus by Dr. Walter Bundy, 1922. Dr. Bundy, like Albert Schweitzer, turns out to be a very strong apologist for Jesus. However, also like Dr. Schweitzer’s 1913 book, Dr. Bundy’s book is an even better and slightly more recent summary of all of what Dr. Bundy calls the “psychopathology books” written earlier about Jesus. In the end, Dr. Bundy concludes that, “A pathography of Jesus is possible only upon the basis of a lack of acquaintance with the course and conclusions of New Testament criticism and an amateur application of the principles of the science of psychiatry.” (6) (p. 268.) It is interesting that Dr. Bundy accuses several eminent psychiatrists in both Germany and the United States of “amateur” conclusions. Throughout Dr. Bundy’s book one gets the impression that these many other researchers, except Dr. Schweitzer of course, simply were not as smart or aware of the true facts as was Dr. Bundy.

. . . . .

Now it is time to turn to the evidence that is most usually cited by the above authors and others which either supports—or fails to support according to some such as Schweitzer and Bundy—a “diagnosis” of some form of mental pathology in the biblical Jesus. After examining the “evidence” as quoted directly from the inspired word of God, I will leave it to the reader to draw his own conclusions as to Jesus’ mental health.

First of all, it must be said that many of the writers mentioned above have pointed to scores of different quotations from the New Testament to substantiate a great variety of observations concerning Jesus’ state of mind at various times during his brief—perhaps three years—ministry. In order to present at least some of this material in an organized manner, it will be necessary to select only a few categories of possible pathological symptoms, and then to list quotations within these categories which may support substantiation or non-substantiation of a diagnosis of mental illness. All biblical quotations are from the KJV translation, and are taken exclusively from the four Gospels, the presumed authoritative accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry.

In a personal communication (1996), Dr. A. J Mattill, Jr. listed 14 categories within which most of the “points” of writers on Jesus’ mental health could be categorized. Dr. Mattill’s categories included Jesus’ “chronic vagabondage” and his “habitual retreat to solitude.” I have omitted these and others of Dr. Mattill’s categories both to save space and because it may be argued that some of these behaviors, although perhaps a bit odd, cannot in and of themselves be considered supportive of mental illness. Therefore, I shall consider only eight categories that seem to be those most frequently mentioned and those that are most closely associated with possible mental health problems. They are, in no particular order, as follows:

1. Jesus’ hallucinations/visions/voices

2. Jesus’ cleansing of the temple

3. Jesus’ cursing of a fig tree

4. Jesus’ vituperative verbal explosions and calls for violence

5. Jesus’ relationship with his own family

6. The belief of Jesus’ family and contemporaries that he was insane/possessed/beside himself.

7. Jesus’ exalted messianic self-consciousness/megalomania

8. Jesus’ call for self-mutilation.

Category 1: Jesus’ hallucinations/visions/voices. The perhaps “grandest” and most frequently sited hallucination (or if not a hallucination, we must believe a true event) is the reference to what is reported when Jesus is baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. Matt. 3:16-17 tells us, “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighted upon him: And, lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

In Luke 22:43-44 Jesus thought he saw an angel which “strengthened him.” However he was still in agony so he prayed so hard that “sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” In Matthew 4-11 we are told that the devil appeared to Jesus and teleported him into “the holy city and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple.” It occurs to me that this experience might have been a bit painful for Jesus, though from the biblical report Jesus seems to have suffered no ill effects from this experience. Later he was transported to “an exceedingly high mountain,” but Jesus was not tempted to worship the devil, we are told.

In John 12:27-33, when Jesus foretold his own death in Jerusalem, he reportedly hear a “voice from heaven” which promised him that his name would be glorified. Apparently others shared in this hallucination because John 12:29 tells us, “The people therefore that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered. Others said an angel spake to him.”

In Mark 9:2-8 we are told that Peter and James witnessed Jesus being “transfigured before them. And his raiment became shining, exceedingly white as snow. And there appeared unto them Elias, with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus.” Incidentally, Schweitzer argues that this incident reported by some of Jesus’ “pathographers” was a hallucination of Peter’s and James’, so it is “unfair” to lay this hallucination on Jesus. Numerous other events and voices speaking to Jesus have been pointed out as being able to be explained only as hallucinations.

It is interesting to note in passing that most fundamentalist Christians accept the situations above as “true”, but refer to them as “visions.” Note that it sounds far “less crazy” to speak of someone—perhaps in a state of great religious fervor—as having a vision rather than speaking of that same person as hallucinating.

Category 2: The cleansing of the temple. This incident refers to Jesus’ emotional outburst when he comes into Jerusalem and enters the main Jewish temple and “overthrew the tables” of the money-changers and the “seats of them that sold doves,” and tossed them all out of the temple. (Matt. 21:12-13.) The story is repeated in John 2: 14-16. In John’s version Jesus carried and apparently used a whip as mentioned in “Category 4” below. This certainly does not seem like the behavior of an entirely rational person.

Category 3: Jesus’ cursing of a fig tree. Even though this category includes only one incident, it has figured so prominently in all the prior inquiries into Jesus’ mental health that it is deserving of this special mention. Interestingly this event is reported only a few verses after the report of Jesus “flip out” at the temple. Apparently, still angry, Jesus got hungry the next morning, and on his walk into the city with some buddies he spotted a fig tree. Matthew 21:19 tells it this way: “And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came upon it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away.” Apologists have always said that this is just a “parable” to illustrate the power of faith because in the next two verses he explains to his companions that, “Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, it shall be done.” (Matt. 21:21.) However, it should be pointed out that this “explanation” of the power of faith has to be considered a bit “crazy” too, if it is meant literally. To this date we still have no reports of any Christian whose faith is “deep” or “pure” enough to have performed this bit of telekinesis.

Category 4: Jesus’ vituperative verbal explosions and calls for violence. The most frequently quoted biblical passage in the vituperative words category is Matthew, chapter 23. Nearly all 39 verses of Matthew 23 are devoted to an “upbraiding,” before a general “multitude,” all the “scribes and Pharisees.” He calls them “hypocrites,” “blind guides,” “fools,” “whited sepulchres,” “serpents,” and a “generation of vipers.” One gets the idea pretty clearly that he doesn’t like them.

In the area of calls for violence is the oft-quoted Matt. 10:34-35. “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I am come not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.” Pretty much this same advocacy of family strife is repeated in Luke 12:49-53 where he says, in part, “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division.” (vs. 51) Seems clear enough to me! At Luke 22: 36, Jesus, knowing that trouble is brewing, tells his disciples, “He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.”

In John’s version of the cleansing of the temple Jesus was reported to have made a “scourge (whip) of small cords” which he used to drive the merchants and money-changers out of the temple (John 2:15)

In addition to frequent calls for his followers to smite this or that other group of non-believers, Jesus apparently desires especially malevolent death for his enemies when he says, “But mine enemies, which should not that I should reign over them, bring them hither, and slay them before me.” (Luke 19:27)

Lastly, Jesus seems never to tire of speaking about the horrific and unending torments that non-believers and other “wicked” people will suffer in the Hell. Some of the gospel references are as follows: Matt. 3:12; 5:22,29-30; 8:12; 13:40-42, 49-50; 22:13, 25:41,46; Mark 9:43-44; Luke 3:17; 12:5; 13:27-28; 16:23-26. At Luke 16:19-25 Jesus tells us the parable of the rich man who died unrepentant and a true believer beggar named Lazarus. Seems they both died but the rich guy was sent to Hell. He pleads for just a tiny bit of mercy to ease his unending torment. He asks the Lord to, “send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.” “No way,” as Jesus tells the parable, for there is a “great gulf” which prevents such passage. Then the rich man asks again if Lazarus could at least be sent to his five brothers to warn them “least they also come into this place of torment.” The rich man seems convinced that “if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.” The parable continues saying that even this small act of kindness could not be allowed because his brothers had probably had plenty of opportunities in the past to listen to “Moses and the prophets” but no doubt didn’t. Therefore, he says, “If they hear not Moses and the prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.” (Luke 16:31)

Jesus’ persistent habit of speaking approvingly of the unrelenting tortures of Hell may not in itself indicate mental illness; however, it is an attitude that can certainly be pointed to as not particularly supportive of mental health.

Category 5: Jesus’ relationship with his own family. Matthew 10, quoted above shows pretty clearly what he thinks of family life. Verse 36 adds, “And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.” When one of Jesus’ disciples requested time off for his father’s funeral, Jesus told him no and rebuked him saying, “Let the dead bury their dead.” (Matt. 8:22) To his own mother, “Woman, what have I to do with thee?” (John 2: 4) At Luke 14:26 Jesus is perfectly clear that we should hate our family members. He says, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” At Luke 12:52-53 we read, “For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

Additionally, there are a number of passages in the Gospels which testify to the idea that Jesus' own family simply did not “believe him”, or “believe in him.” For example, Matt. 13:57-58 states that Jesus’ brothers and sisters were “offended in him.” Therefore, Jesus decided not to do “many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.” The same story of his family’s disbelief in his “own country” is retold in Mark 6:3-6. His brother’s disbelief is restated at John 12:37, and again at John 7:5, just in case you did not “get it” the first couple of times around.

Finally, when Jesus is asked directly, “Who is my mother? And who are my brethren?” he indicates, as all good cult leaders do, that his disciples were now his family. (Matt. 12:48-50.) Well, so much for “family values.”

Category 6: The belief of Jesus’ family and contemporaries that he was insane or possessed. When Jesus asked a group of followers why some of them didn’t trust him and went about seeking to “kill me”? they answered, “Thou hast a devil.” (John 7:20) Later they asked him again if he were, “a Samaritan, and hast a devil?” “Jesus answered, I have not a devil.” (John 8:48-49) Then again at John 10:20, “And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?”

His own family even brought his sanity into question. Writer Gene Kashmar details this incident well with references to original Greek word meanings. Mr. Kashmar’s words in this regard are worth the following lengthy quote:

“He was thought to be insane by his own family and neighbors in ‘when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself…And the scribes said, He hath Beelzebub…’ (Mark 3:21-22 –The Greek existemi translated beside himself, actually means insane and witless), The Greek word ho para, translated friends, also means family. On another occasion, the crowd claims “…He hath a devil, and is mad…” (John 10:20). The Greek word mainomai translated mad, also means manic, raving, and insensate” (7)

Category 7: Jesus’ exalted messianic self-consciousness. It is clear in many places in the Bible that Jesus considered himself to be the foretold Messiah and that he fully expected his majestic return on the clouds of heaven. Ironically, in the earlier Gospels Jesus seems to want to keep this a secret as in Mark 3: 12. “And he straitly charged them that they should not make him known.” And, again, in Mark 9:9, he tells his followers to “Tell no man what they had seen, till the Son of man (referring to himself) were risen from the dead.” And at Matt 12: 15-16 it is said, “…a great multitude followed him, and he healed them all; and charged them that they should not make him known.” We don’t know how big this “multitude” was, nor how many of them were in need of being “healed”, but how likely do you think it would be that every one of them would keep quiet about this event?

By contrast in the book of John Jesus constantly proclaims his messianic dignity (John 6:29, 35, 38, 40, 47-47; 7:38; 8: 12; 11:25-26; 14:6, and 13-14). Jesus’s megalomania and delusion that he is the “chosen one” who was sent by his father (God) to save his “chosen people” seems to grow and grow. As A.J. Mittill Jr. comments in an article in the book, The Book Your Church Doesn’t Want You To Read, “The more trust one puts in the Fourth Gospel’s portrait of Jesus the more difficult it is to defend the sanity of Jesus.” (8) p. 122). Even Albert Schweitzer states that, “Even the most casual reader of the Fourth Gospel must have the impression that here Jesus’ words are exclusively egocentric. The word ‘I’ occurs six times as often in the Gospel as in the Gospel of Matthew. The seven ‘I ams’ of Jesus are found only in the Fourth Gospel.” And later, “In the Synoptics we see Jesus absorbed in the great cause of the kingdom of God, but in the Fourth Gospel he is engrossed in his own ego.” (The Psychic Health of Jesus, (9)

The reader might wonder at this point how Jesus apologist Dr. Schweitzer “gets around” this self-admitted stumbling block to declare Jesus sane. The answer is simple. Dr. Schweitzer simply proclaims the Fourth Gospel “unhistoric.” He states flatly that “…the egocentric words placed in the mouth of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel are not words of Jesus at all, but really the christocentric confessions of the fourth evangelist. And as such they cannot be used as pathographic matter for the diagnosis of paranoia.” (10) sanity, one simply dismisses as “unhistoric." Dr. Schweitzer does the same for much of the other Gospels as well. He states, “The Gospel of Luke agrees in the main with the Gospels of Mark and Matthew. Wherever it goes beyond them it makes a doubtful contribution, which moreover is without any great significance for the criticism of Jesus and so can be left out of consideration.” (10) p. 46) (Emphasis added.) Say, what? Am I reading this correctly? The parts of the holy word of God we don’t agree with we can simply ignore? Incidentally, Mr. Bundy in his book, The Pathology of Jesus makes much the same arguments as does Dr. Schweitzer.

Category 8: Jesus’ call for self-mutilation. Matt. 19: 12 is the usual quotation for this bizarre approval supposedly given by Jesus for men to castrate themselves “for heaven’s sake”, if they’ve got the guts. The quote is, “ …and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it." Church father Origen, as well as some of the more recent believers involved in the Heaven’s Gate cult apparently took this verse literally.

The other call for self-mutilation is given in Matt. 5: 29-30. Jesus’s followers are encouraged to simply get rid of any body part that offends them. “If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee.” And, “If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast if from thee.” Apparently offending left eyes and hands might be saved from this fate.

Again, at Matt. 18:8 Jesus is quoted as saying, “Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than, having two hands or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire.” Does this sound like a rational proposition to you?

In case there is any doubt about Jesus’ call for self-mutilation, these instructions for cutting off appendages and plucking out eyes are repeated again at Mark 9:43-47.

Conclusion:

As mentioned earlier, I will leave it to the reader to draw his/her own conclusions regarding the mental health of the Biblical Jesus. However, in this writer’s opinion, as to the Jesus Christ as reported to us in the “Holy word of God” one can only conjecture—even given the general lack of education and the superstitious nature of the times—that he was at the very least a mentally disturbed religious fanatic. And, if various biblical reports of “visions” can be interpreted as “hallucinations,” and if the egomaniacal claims of missiaship reported to us in the Gospel of John are taken literally, then no less a judgement than a serious psychosis (madness) seems appropriate.

On the other hand, if we allow, as Drs. Schweitzer and Bundy do, that great sections of the Gospels are untrustworthy—“unhistoric” to use Dr. Schweitzer’s word—then, of course, no conclusions at all can be drawn. Clearly, nothing can be vouchsafe if the entire matter of what parts of the bible are authoritative and what parts are not is simply thrown up into the air.

Certainly, a brief query of most any modern mental health professional will suffice to assure one that it would be wise to be extremely suspicious of the “soundness of mind” of anyone who appears to be short-tempered, has auditory and visual hallucinations, and claims a “special connection” to the supernatural. This eminently sensible piece of advice is as sound today as it was some two thousand years ago.



(NOTE: This article was published in the April-June, 2001 issue of The International Atheist Alliance Magazine, Secular Nation.)





Footnotes


1. Haldeman-Julius, E., The Haldeman-Julius Monthly, “Crazy Jesus,” June, 1925. p. 11-18.



2. Maine, Colin, “The Unpleasant Personality of Jesus Christ” (a pamphlet), American

Atheist Press, (No publication date given), p. 12.



3. Schweitzer, Dr. Albert, The Psychiatric Study of Jesus, Boston, Beacon Press, 1913, p. 35.



4. Binet-Sangle, C., La Folie de Jesus, (The Dementia of Jesus) Paris, 1910. p. 392.



5. Hirsh, Dr. William, Religion and Civilization—Conclusions of a Psychiatrist, Truth

Seeker, New York, 1912, p. 99.



6. Bundy, Dr. Walter, The Psychic Health of Jesus, New York, The Macmillan Co.,

1922, p. 268.



7. Kashmar, Gene, All the Obscenities in the Bible, Brooklin Center, MN, Kas-Mark

Publishing Co., 1995, p. 157.



8. Mittill, A. J. Jr., The Book Your Church Doesn’t Want You to Read, Dubuque, IO.

Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., 1993, p. 122.



9. Schweitzer, op. cit., p. 129.



10. Schweitzer, op. cit., p. 132.



The author can be emailed at havis@att.net.