Theology: New Testament and Related Literature: Jesus - Historicity

The historicity of Jesus is now widely accepted and hardly questioned by most scholars. But this assumption disarms biblical texts of much of their power by privileging an historical interpretation which effectively sweeps aside much theological speculation and allusion. Furthermore, the assumption of historicity gathers further assumptions to it, shaping the interpretation of texts, both denying and adding subtext. Scholars are now faced with an endless array of works on the historical Jesus and few question what has been lost through this wide-spread assumption of historicity. Is This Not the Carpenter'presents a very valuable corrective: a literary rereading of the New Testament.

"Everyone has his own picture of Jesus - few historical figures have been so overlaid with centuries of mythmaking. But is it possible for us to discover what he was like from the historical evidence? Professor Sanders, author of Paul and Palestinian Judaism and Jesus and Judaism, has placed the study of the relationship between Judaism and early Christianity on a new basis: one that is historical and descriptive rather than theological and antagonistic. In this book he uses a clear and logical approach, carefully distinguishing the 'certain' from the 'less certain' and the 'improbable' to present a fresh and dramatic account of Jesus as a person." "Since scholars first began to analyse the gospels using the tools of critical study, Jesus has proved a tantalizing puzzle. There is enough evidence to offer the hope of a full explanation of who he was and what he did, but on examination it turns out to be difficult and sometimes contradictory." "In the first part of this study Professor Sanders proposes that we can have excellent knowledge about Jesus on a general level where he fits into the history and religious movements of first-century Palestine, the main themes of his teaching, some of his principal activities, and the people who followed him." "More specific questions, such as 'What precisely was he like?', 'What are the nuances of his teaching?' and 'What were his aims', can be answered with less certainty. The second part of the book identifies the range of possible answers and weighs the evidence in favour of each." "Historical research into the life and career of Jesus cannot fully explain the emergence and phenomenal spread of the new religion of Christianity. The author discusses how the disciples decided to put together the reports of Jesus' life which we now have as the gospels, and their desire to present his person in the teachings of what became a powerful religion that spread from the Jews to the Gentiles and throughout the world." "Although we must acknowledge that in some respects Jesus remains an enigma, this account also demonstrates that we know more about the historical figure of Jesus than we ever realized."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

A natural sequel to The Historical Jesus Quest, The Historical Jesus Question offers commentary on the work and significance of the classic writers presented in the earlier volume--Spinoza, Strauss, Schweitzer, Troeltsch, Bultmann, Kasemann--and some additional comment on the work of Pannenberg. Not merely a summary discussion of these important writers, this book goes beyond to follow the implications for theology of the ongoing challenge history presents to biblical authority.

In this definitive book on the real, historical Jesus, one of our foremost biblical scholars meticulously sifts the evidence of 2,000 years to portray neither a rural magician nor a figure of obvious power, but a marginal Jew.

The Gospel of Mark has been studied from multiple angles using many methods. But often there remains a sense that something is wanting, that the full picture of Mark's Gospel lacks some background circuitry that would light up the whole. Adam Winn finds a clue in the cataclysmic destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70. For Jews and Christians it was an apocalyptic moment. The gods of Rome seemed to have conquered the God of the Jews. Could it be that Mark wrote his Gospel in response to Roman imperial propaganda surrounding this event? Could a messiah crucified by Rome really be God's Son appointed to rule the world? Winn considers how Mark might have been read by Christians in Rome in the aftermath of the fall of Jerusalem. He introduces us to the propaganda of the Flavian emperors and excavates the Markan text for themes that address the Roman imperial setting. We discover an intriguing first-century response to the question "Christ or Caesar?"