Foreword by James D. Tabor
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Quest for the Grail
PART ONE
The Roots of Jewish Christianity
1. An Unheralded Family: The Bloodline of Jesus
2. “Who Do You Say That I Am?”: The Quest for the Historical
Jesus
3. In the Beginning: The Nazarenes and the Jewish Origins of
Christianity
PART TWO
The History of Jewish Christianity
4. The Caliphate Begins: James and the Jerusalem Church
5. James versus Paul: A Parting of the Ways
6. Storm Signals: The Nazarenes and the War with Rome
7. Aftermath: From Nazarenes to Ebionites
8. The Ebionite Evangel: The Mission of Jewish Christianity
9. Ebionite Theology: A Third Religion between Church and
Synagogue
PART THREE
The Legacy of Jewish Christianity
10. From Ebionites to Elkesaites: The Evolution of Jewish
Christianity
11. Jewish Christianity in Arabia: Muhammad and the Rise of
Islam
12. From Elkesaites to Cathars: The Heresy Moves West
13. Heresy in High Places: The Rise and Fall of the Knights
Templar
14. From Jesus to Freemasonry: The Founding Fathers and the
Building of a New Jerusalem
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Jeffrey J. Butz is an ordained Lutheran minister and an adjunct professor of world religions at Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of The Brother of Jesus and the Lost Teachings of Christianity.
“Bütz . . . is eminently readable and accessible to nonscholars
while being thorough in [his] research. [He] raises the specter of
a revisioned Christianity and challenges readers to rethink the
nature of both orthodoxy and heresy.”
*Publishers Weekly*
“The Secret Legacy of Jesus is masterful, nothing less than the new
definitive work on Jewish Christianity. It’s the whole story of
what happened to the religion of Jesus, in one place. Immensely
readable, this insightful book will challenge those who continue to
believe that Paul’s Gentile Christ Movement was the only form of
early Christianity.”
*Barrie Wilson, professor of Religious Studies, York University,
Toronto, and author of How Jesus Bec*
“Many books are informative; this remarkable book is also
important. Rev. Bütz traces an ‘underground stream’ of
Jewish-Christian (Ebionite) affirmation of the humanity of
Jesus--from his family and original apostles through nearly two
millennia, culminating in Freemasonic traditions of the Founding
Fathers who wrote the Constitution of the United States.”
*Margaret Starbird, author of Magdalene’s Lost Legacy and Woman
with the Alabaster Jar*
“I just read Jeffrey Bütz’s latest brilliant work and am more
convinced than ever that America is the New Jerusalem. Bütz lays
out clearly and convincingly that the original teachings of Christ,
as handed down by Jesus’s brother James, impacted Freemasonry. When
the Freemasons threw their support behind Thomas Jefferson,
Benjamin Franklin, and others, they were able to manifest the
greatest expression of a democratic republic this planet has ever
seen: the U.S. Constitution. This book is superb!”
*Robert R. Hieronimus, Ph.D., author of Founding Fathers, Secret
Societies and United Symbolism of Am*
“The Secret Legacy of Jesus is a major contribution to the study of
the historical Jesus. Bütz manages to deal with extremely complex
phenomena yet retain an easy reading style. Such an accomplishment
is made even more challenging by the scarcity of facts surrounding
the Desposyni, which makes this book as much a mystery solver as a
historical document. One of the great joys of reading this book is
that Bütz gives us a sweeping panorama stretching across two
millennia. This is a must read for anyone interested in
Christianity.”
*Dr. James Gardner, author of Jesus Who? Myth vs. Reality in the
Search for the Historical Jesus and*
“What a pleasure it was to read The Secret Legacy of Jesus! It is
well written, unconventional, conversational, and engaging. His
tone and relaxed writing style convey the very tolerance and
universalism that he sees in early Christianity. This is an
important addition to the growing body of literature on early
Jewish Christianity, a subject that has been heretofore largely
ignored.”
*Keith Akers, author of The Lost Religion of Jesus*
"While evidence for an unbroken tradition is tenuous at best,
Bütz's book provocatively reminds readers of the persistence of
non- and even anti-Pauline types of Christianity; for spiritual
seekers, scholars, and open-minded Christians."
*Library Journal, Jan 2010*
" . . . a pick for any spirituality collection including secret
societies and Christian history."
*The Midwest Book Review, Apr 2010*
"Butz has uncovered details that other authors have missed . .
.
*Nexus New Times Magazine, Vol. 17, No. 4, June/July 2010*
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