The Amazon Review Game

First thing to point out - I am just sour, I wish we had Amazon in Australia. But now to the game.

The rules are simple:

1. Find a scholarly book that is not anti-Christian;
2. Scroll down to the reviews and click on the 1 star reviews;
3. Read the one star reviews and;
4. Cue laughter

At least 80-90% of the time there is a pathetic review. Lets take the review of a book I am reading for example. For Larry Hurtado's book How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God? there is a single one star review. Lets read it together, shall we?

Get a really well-rounded book instead, May 23, 2006
A much better book on this subject is Bart D. Ehrman's "Misquoting Jesus : The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why". It has lots of unbiased insight into early Christianity and the myths surrounding it.

Now, I wonder if this individual has even read the book at all? Surely, he has not read both of them as he is claiming that they are on the same subject. One is about textual critical issues (Ehrman) and the other is about early Christology (Hurtado). Furthermore - Ehrman is now unbiased?

Ehrman has left off a book filled with unqualified statements to be abused in so many ways. Ever heard the 'more variants than words in the New Testament argument' like it actually means something?

Then you come across mega-reviewer people (I don't know the real name - those guys who post heaps of short reviews). There is one I often follow who claims to be a doctor (of what, who knows?) . His most recent review calls N.T. Wright "Angry and confused" and his books are merely erroneous and libelous. Who knew?

On the issue of the TF the reviewer tells us that, "Virtually every Josephus scholar agrees this is a later addition by Christians and not original to Josephus." As far as I, and every scholar par Earl Doherty and other Christ Mythicists, Josephus mentioned Jesus twice. There are interpolations/elaborations on the second mention but there was an original text there.
[I will come back to this guy in my next post]

Now, this is probably my favourite review of A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament:

I don't know what book those other reviewers read, but I was put this on the shelf in 5 minutes. Much is written in Greek. I tried keeping up with a Greek Interlinear Bible on the computer, but still couldn't make sense of it. The author assumes you can understand Greek. If you're not a Greek scholar, DON'T BUY THIS BOOK. Major disappointment.