Footnotes:
1For an assessment of Nietzsche’s view of Christianity, in the light of recent Bible scholarship, see Henk Van Gelre: Friedrich Nietzsche en de Bronnen van de Westerse Beschaving (Dutch: “Friedrich Nietzsche and the Sources of Western Civilization”), vol. 1, Ambo, Baarn 1990.

2Sigmund Freud: Der Mann Moses und die Monotheistische Religion: Drei Abhandlungen (1939), republished in vol. 13 of The Penguin Freud Library.

3Ch. Binet-Sanglé: La Folie de Jésus (French: “Jesus’ Madness”), Paris 1908-12; W. Hirsch: Religion und Civilisation, Munchen 1910., G.L. de Loosten: Jesus Christus vom Standpunkt des Psychiaters (German: “Jesus Christ from the Psychiatrist’s Viewpoint”), Bamberg 1905.

4A. Schweitzer: Die psychiatrische Beurteilung Jesu, Tubingen, 1913.

5Excerpts in Elke Schlinck-Lazarraga: “De vraag naar de psychischgeestelijke gezondheidstoestand van Jesus” (Dutch: “The question of Jesus’ psycho-mental health condition”), in Teksten Kommentaren en Studies, December 1981.

6Hermann Werner: “Der historische Jesus der liberalen Theologie - ein Geisteskranker?”, in Neue Kirchliche Zeitschrift 22 (1911), p.347-390, quoted in Elke Schlinck-Lazarraga: op.cit.

7With these quotes from John’s Gospel, it should be kept in mind that they are part of the most “theological” Gospel, the one most unscrupulously tailoring stories to fit the emerging Christian theology and also the Church’s missionary programme, which rejected Christianity’s Jewish roots and therefore exaggerated the opposition between Jesus and “the Jews” Nonetheless, even if John concocted these incidents, this proves that he expected his audience to accept them as realistic.

8The classic on the magician’s role which Jesus played or was considered playing, and at the same time a very informative work on the role of the missionary/polemical context in which the Gospels were written, is Morton Smith: Jesus the Magician, Victor Gollancz Ltd., London 1978.

9In Anglo-Saxon textbooks of psychopathology, paraphrenia will be subsumed-under the larger category paranoia. This should, according to Dr. Somers, be considered a recrudescence and loss of an essential distinction.

10The number 666 has also some numerical properties, e.g. it is the triangular number of 36 (= sum of all numbers from 1 to 36); but then, many numbers have remarkable properties, so this is not sufficiently distinctive. Incidentally, Jesus’ name in Greek, Iesoys, has the numerical value 888; and 8 was a sacred number for early Christians, signifying the “eighth day”, the completion of the 7-day Creation, viz. the Resurrection. See C.F. Dumermuth: “Number Symbolism: a Biblical Key”, in Asia Journal of The Theology, 1/1990.

11Suetonius mentions the measures against the Christians among Nero’s praiseworthy reforms, and calls this sect “a new superstition involving the practice of magic”.

12E.g. M.J. Lagrange: Le Messianisme chez les Juifs, Paris 1909; id.: Le Judaisme avant Jésus-Christ, Paris, 1931; and E. Schillebeeckx: Jesus, het verhaal van een levende, Brugge 1975.