Strauss Dr David Frederic (1 results)
More imagesThe Life of Jesus, Or, A Critical Examination of His History / In Four Volumes
Strauss, Dr. David Frederic / Translated from the German Third Edition
Language: English
Published by Taylor (Brimingham) and Hetherington (London), Birmingham, 1842
- Hardcover
- First Edition
Seller: Cat's Curiosities, Pahrump, NV, U.S.A.Cat's Curiosities
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Add to basketHardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. 1st Edition. Complete set of four matching narrow 12mo volumes, dated to title pages 1842-1844, in what we presume is the original brown cloth (slightly mottled) with gilt titles and tiny floral designs still bright to spines, save that gilt is a bit duller to spine of volume III. B&W portr…ait frontis of author to beginning of Volume II (not Volume I.) Volumes II and IV were once damp to bottom of spine and show brown tidemarks (one inch tall X 1-1/2 inches wide) to bottom inside corners of most pages of those two volumes. Set begins with the author's Preface to the German Third Edition, translated into English but dated Stuttggard, April 8, 1838. First edition in English (though the 1846 Chapman edition, translated by Mary Ann Evans / George Eliot, is often so listed.) Translator here not credited nor known. A breakthrough work in the application of historical analysis to the much-rewritten text of the Christian gospels. Strauss applied historical methods to determine that much found in the gospels cannot be literally true, for example the report by two of the evangelists that Joseph and Mary, residents of Nazareth, were required to travel to obscure and far-away Bethlehem in answer to the summons of a Roman census that all men go to the city where their family originated in order to be counted. Such a logistically absurd undertaking would have been foreign to Roman practice, and that's before we even consider that there is no ancient evidence that any such census was ordered or taken in Judea or Galilee at or near that time. The need, of course, was to explain how Jesus -- who everyone knew was from Nazareth -- might have come to be born in little Bethlehem, as supposedly required by certain earlier messianic prophesies. Though neither variant of this 1842-1844 first edition in English is common, we presume this version, listing the Birmingham address first and in larger type, with 1842 date to title pages of Vols. I and II, takes precedence over the version listing the Fleet Street London address first, with NO date to title page. An uncommon set, especially in original bindings. Reduced from $1,875. engraved B&W portrait frontispiece not credited (illustrator).
