Morton Smith

Religious people might be put off by the implication of this book's title, but the late Morton Smith's "Jesus the Magician" is not quite what you might think. It begins by exploring what will be instantly recognized by the biblically literate person: that Jesus' enemies accused him of being a magician. Smith quotes every scriptural passage he can find to explore this fact. Ironically, the gospels defend Jesus against this charge over and over even though the modern reader would hardly know that the accusation was ever made if the gospels did not repeat it.

If the book has any weakness, it is that it never answers the questions of whether or not Jesus was a magician or, more importantly, of what the difference between magic and religion is, precisely. The reader, however, will be in a better position to answer this question for himself when he has read it.

A bonus to reading this book is that Smith has done two very illuminating things. He has explained a great deal about what magic is in general, and he has reconstructed the world of magic in Jesus' era in particular. There was, for example, a social hierarchy among magicians. The magi whom Matthew tells us came to see the new-born Jesus represented the highest class of magicians. The "go-es" or itinerant street magician, was what Jesus was accused of being, and it was truly an insult.

My favorite insight from reading this book is that I understood for the first time why a magic spell can take a very long time or a very short time. It is because there are two stages to a magic spell, preparation and execution. A magic spell is like a computer program. Setting up a spell is like writing the code for the computer. Once the spell has been "encoded," a word or phrase can now set it in motion, just as a single key stroke, or combination of a few strokes, can be used to set off an elaborate computer program.… (mere)