NEW YORK BOSTON |#Popular: Irish Celebrity Gossip Irish in US Politics Irish Festivals Irish Roots Irish Entertainment Offbeat Irish

Home Page > News > Irish priest disciplined after claims Jesus never existed in controversial book

Irish priest disciplined after claims Jesus never existed in controversial book

Father Tom Brodie removed from office at Dominican Biblical Institute

PATRICK COUNIHAN,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Monday, January 21, 2013, 7:55 AM

Updated Monday, January 21, 2013, 7:55 AM

Larger Text

E-mail

18 Comments

See more: Irish Catholic Priest

Cover of "Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus" by Father Tom Brodie

A top priest has been forced to quit a bible teaching job thanks to his work of pulpit fiction which denies the existence of Jesus Christ.

Fr Tom Brodie has been removed from his post in Limerick after the publication of his book ‘Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus.’

The Irish Sun reports that the priest was removed from his post at the Dominican Biblical Institute in Limerick which he helped set up.

The paper has gained access to documents which confirm that the scholar was also banned from any lecturing, teaching or writing while a probe is underway.

The report says that Father Brodie has questioned the existence of Jesus since the Seventies but has only made his views public now.

The book, which took 12 years to write, came as a shock to his superiors when it was published last October.

Father Brodie claims in the book that many of Jesus’s acts were a rip-off of the Hebrew Bible or, in some cases, of earlier texts.

A well-placed source told the Irish Sun: “Tom’s book has caused quite a stir and some considerable upset.

“The whole premise of his book has been questioned by biblical scholars. He was asked to step aside from his ministry and the Provincial Council unanimously backed that decision.

“A committee is now examining his work and will meet with Fr Brodie to discuss it.”

Another source said: “The theory is a bit strange, a bit out there. He was 12 years researching it and nobody knew he would come out with something like this.”

Fr Gerard Norton, his replacement at the Institute, told the Irish Sun that Fr Brodie had resigned at the end of his term.

He said: “He had reached the end of his term in office, and had served three terms instead of the usual two.

“He said he was not going forward for another one. His resignation was accepted.”

The paper made efforts to contact Fr Brodie through the publishers of his book but these proved unsuccessful.

See more: Irish Catholic Priest

Nster.com

E-mail

18 Comments

See all comments

peadarm | Jan 23, 2013, 05:57 PM EST

This shouldn't be a remarkable proposition - as Brodie says, much of the words and deeds of the gospels are drawn from the OT. Often word for word from the Greek of the Septuagint. And from the earlier epistles of the NT. They're very much literary rather than oral constructs. Nor should it be particularly controversial - though realistically Brodie was brave to 'come out', I understand that he continues to believe in a mystical Jesus as a manifestation of God, without any need for a literal historical person matching the description in the gospels.

Report abuse

Gearoid4 | Jan 23, 2013, 12:56 PM EST

A name-change, Seano, is significant in biblical terms, as it denoted a new context for the one who received it. The patriarch Abram received the new name "Abraham" which mean't in Aramaic "father of the multitude" which was to be significant for this iconic biblical personage as he would be the progenitor of many descendants and a tribal leader Likewise, Simeon received the title/name "Peter"(Gk root "petros"-rock) which bestowed on him the leadership of the Church on earth built figuratively on a solid foundation of rock(Matthew 16:19). James admittedly led the assembly temporarily in Jerusalem but when the apostles fanned out across the world the leadership mantle went with Peter to the Eternal City i.e Rome where he was martyred in the Faith in 67 A.D.

Report abuse

seanomelb | Jan 22, 2013, 06:22 PM EST

Gearoid This "rock" terminology reflected in Peters name and the imagery related to it were actually in use contemporaneously in Palestine in both the literature of qumranand in what were the documents of the Jerusalem CHURCH. Acts15:14 refer to peter as Simeon-at a time when peter had supposedly fled palestine under pain of death James (the brother of Jesus) inherited the leadership of Chritianity not the paulines.

Report abuse

seanomelb | Jan 22, 2013, 06:22 PM EST

Report abuse

seanomelb | Jan 22, 2013, 06:22 PM EST

Report abuse

seanomelb | Jan 22, 2013, 06:22 PM EST

Report abuse

Gearoid4 | Jan 22, 2013, 01:53 PM EST

No warlocks, Jesus clearly gave the keys of authority to Peter(the apostle once known as Simeon) as related in Matthew 16:19. The choice of name Peter was deliberate as it derived from the Greek word "Petros" for rock in the sense that he was going to be the solid foundation stone upon which Christ would build his Church on earth. He subsequently was martyred in Rome in 67 A.D. and the subsequent lineage of popes who acceded to the Chair of Peter followed from this period. Constantine took the dramatic step of legalizing Christianity in 314 A.D. when it was a growing force across the former Roman Empire in the western and eastern parts of it's dominions. He did not establish anything but gave the new religion the freedom it needed to expand without threat of persecution. Your grasp on history is tenuous to say the least regarding the historicity of Jesus. All reputable experts of Ancient History are in agreement that He definitely existed but differ in relation to their opinions on the claims that He made about Himself. The first hand accounts in the Gospels from closest disciples of Jesus and the evidence from extra-biblical sources of the time like the Roman historian Tacticus give the lie to your statement that "The Truth being there was never a Jewish Rabbi named Jesus in History Its created Fiction". Also the reality of over 2 billion believers in the world shows the enduring legacy of the Truth that the Son of God, incarnated in human flesh, left us.

Report abuse

warlocks | Jan 22, 2013, 01:28 PM EST

I Have also researched for the History of the real living Jesus Christ aka Yeshusha Ben Joseph. there were Many Name Yeshua living in what is now the Holy Land a great deal of it is made up by the early church they Corrupted the Truth. one must remember the Roman Catholic Church was not created by anyone named Jesus the Christ ! it was a Creation of the Roman Empire under Emperor Constantine who Chaired the Meetings to elect the then dead Jesus Christ as son of God & head of the State Controlled Roman Catholic Church. The Truth being there was never a Jewish Rabbi named Jesus in History Its created Fiction .the same as the Easter Bunny, Santa Clause , Superman , & The story of Snow white. Wake up Christians you been Had ! use your Brains & Logic.

Report abuse

merefalow | Jan 22, 2013, 09:31 AM EST

brilliant,about time this question was placed under the most intense microscopic intense scrutinisation,i have been trying foe ever,and what you get is obfuscation,fairy stories,total mind numbing crap,from preists,jeovas witnesses ,morons,mormons,the whole bunch of god believing darwin deniers who have brainwashed the world for 2,000 years murdering millions on their merry way.The whole rotten edifice is built on ,woven into the fabric of our constitutions and perverted.I cant see it as any less fantastic than any of the asian religions with thier pantheon of elephant gods,rat gods etc etc,from what i have found out,the whole of that area was awash with messiahs and end of the world second coming fanatics as it is now,so good for this priest and his 12 year study,its hardly hard to see why they have sacked him.

Report abuse

cillowen | Jan 21, 2013, 10:48 PM EST

deny holocaust your in trouble deny in existance of their reject and you're in trouble. can't win for losing.

Report abuse

irishpjk | Jan 21, 2013, 08:19 PM EST

If there was no Jesus it would mean there are no priests so he should be out of a job

Report abuse

Tooreenagrena | Jan 21, 2013, 06:43 PM EST

Jesus is not just mentioned in the Bible but in at least two other non Biblical documents, one by the Roman -jewish historian Josephus.

Report abuse

Will Hamilton | Jan 21, 2013, 06:06 PM EST

Ehhh.....magic space man who was it's own father and son at the same time, appears among desert tribes via a virgin but claims decent from a king thorough the man who was not his father, it performs mind boggling magic, like raising dead bodies (but nobody bothers to write it down when it's supposed to have happened), then despite the fact it ought to have been the most famous being on the planet it disappears for years without trace, then reappears to perform more magic tricks, none of which have ever again been repeated, then it gets itself flailed and nailed to two planks wearing a barbed wire headband, because it had to save the human species it created itself in the first place because a talking snake had sometime before convinced a naked woman to steal an apple....and he's only figured out now that the story is a bit suspect?

Report abuse

seanomelb | Jan 21, 2013, 05:51 PM EST

Counihan should read the book before writing his onesided piece of bull.

Report abuse

mreinhar2001 | Jan 21, 2013, 02:40 PM EST

He must have some inkling of faith; otherwise, it made no sense for him to remain a priest if he did not believe. If he published articles saying either that Jesus did not exists (or that Jesus Christ was not true God and true man) then it was right and proper to remove him from a biblical teaching post. Those are two basic points you have to teach if you want to teach in a biblical insititute.

Report abuse