The Life of Jesus Critically Examined was written by David Strauss in 1835 and Eliot translated the text into English in 1846. The work was hugely controversial in Christian Europe, with the Earl of Shaftesbury declaring it as being ‘the most pestilential book ever vomited out of the jaws of hell’ and later Strauss was immediately pensioned by the University of Zurich before he had even began his duties there, due to the fervid opposition to his views and writings. Carl August von Eshenmayer, a much respected philosopher and physician, made comparisons between the book and Judas Iscariot’s betrayal and much anger was generated over its publication. The Life of Jesus Critically Examined was intended as a work that examined the historical aspects of Jesus’ life and the accuracy and truth of the biblical account of his existence and miracles.
The work focused on the first four books of the New Testament, the Gospels, rousing a furore by assessing the miracles as mythical and therefore untrue. The topic of the miracles had generated keen scholarly discussion after the Enlightenment, when the emphasis on reason became the predominate philosophy. There were some who adopted a rationalist approach to the miracles and found logical explanations for them, while there was another school of thought that maintained that miracles, meaning a supernatural act performed by a divine entity, absolutely occurred as written in the Gospels. Strauss read each of the miracles as entirely mythical and influenced by the Jewish notions and aspects of the coming Messiah, which those who composed the Gospels then projected onto Jesus.