The Real Messiah : The Throne of St. Mark and the True Origins of Christianity

It’s hard to imagine how the world would have evolved if Jesus of Nazareth hadn’t been proclaimed savior of the world, with the accompanying religious institutions and their impact on societies throughout history.  Huller suggests in this intriguing and challenging book that, when the true history of the period is studied, it will reveal that Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah, but instead acted as a herald of the coming one, Marcus Agrippa, who, Huller argues, is the real author of the Gospel of Mark. Huller, a descendant of Jacob Frank, founder of an 18th-century religious sect that combined Judaism and Christianity, draws on extensive knowledge of ancient sources to answer the question, [D]id Jesus build the Church or just as likely and in some ways more so did the Church build Jesus?” Is the entire Christian tradition a case of mistaken identity?  Huller wants us to abandon 2,000 years of worship and scholarship, a tall order and one likely to be widely challenged. (Mar.) -- Publisher's Weekly