1. THE SEARCH FOR THE HISTORICAL JESUS: Recent Studies

 

John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus (New York: Doubleday, 1991-2001) 3 volumes to date, hardcover, $42 per volume.  This is the most thorough and well-balanced study of historical Jesus in decades.  It is an extraordinary achievement—and massive (volume 2 alone is nearly 1000 pages).  Meier writes with great clarity, and relegates technical issues to the (very lengthy) endnotes.  Basically for more advanced students.  At least one more volume is forthcoming.

• Vol. 1: The Roots of the Problem and the Person (1991)

• Vol. 2: Mentor, Message, Miracles (1994).

• Vol. 3: Companions and Competitors (2001).

Luke Timothy Johnson, The Real Jesus: the Misguided Quest for the Historical Jesus and the Truth of the Traditional Gospels (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995) paperback, $14.  Through the 1990s, the Jesus Seminar (John Dominic Crossan, Marcus Borg, & Burton Mack) made headlines in Time, Newsweek, and U.S. New & World Report with their extravagant claims about the historical Jesus.  Johnson brilliantly demolishes their claims, and sets out an excellent mainstream response.

 

John Dominic Crossan, The Historical Jesus: the Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992) paperback, $20.  Crossan is flamboyant, outspoken, and co-founder of the Jesus Seminar.  One reviewer has rightly noted that Crossan “seems incapable … of thinking a boring thought or writing a dull paragraph”; this book “is a book to treasure for its learning, its thoroughness, its brilliant handling of multiple and complex issues, its amazing inventiveness, and above all its sheer readability … It is all the more frustrating, therefore, to have to conclude that the book is almost entirely wrong.”  Crossan thinks of Jesus as a social revolutionary.  He treats apocryphal gospels like the Gospel of Thomas or the Gospel of Peter on par with the 4 canonical gospels.  His most radical interpretations come out most clearly in his later books: Jesus: A Radical Biography (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1994) and Who Killed Jesus? Exposing the Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story of the Death of Jesus (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1996), in which he argues that Jesus’ body was never buried, but was eaten by dogs and birds and dumped by the Romans in a trash heap.  His later answer to his many critics is found in Excavating Jesus: Beneath the Stones, Behind the Texts (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 2001) paperback, $30.

 

N.T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, Vol. 2 of Christian Origins and the Question of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997) paperback, $40.  Like Johnson, Wright offers a shrewdly argued (and often humorous) challenge to the Jesus Seminar.  But his deeper concern is to offer a plausible interpretation of Jesus which takes seriously his Galilean context and his character as a 1st-century Jew—in all its complexity and variegated textures.  Wright understands Jesus as an eschatological prophet whose message and ministry offered a radical retelling of Israel’s story in light of the coming Kingdom.  Wright does not share the fashionable skepticism about the accuracy of Gospel accounts.  He has been labelled a “traditionalist”—but this is the freshest and most original traditionalism to appear in many a year, and traditionalists, I would guess, will find this portrait deeply offensive.  Wright has taken this massive 700-page study and pared it down to a much simpler form, pruned of footnotes and scholarly asides: The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is (Downers’ Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1999) hardcover, $15. 

 

Marcus J. Borg & N.T. Wright, The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions (Harper SanFrancisco, 1999) paperback, $16.  Marcus Borg, like John Dominic Crossan, is one of the leaders of the Jesus Seminar and, while he claims to be a Christian, his Jesus is far removed from the Jesus of the mainline Christian churches.  This book brilliantly illustrates the clash of interpretation between the (extremist) views of the Jesus Seminar and mainstream scholarship.  Borg and Wright, while at opposite sides of the debate, are good friends and co-wrote this book, alternating chapters, with each putting forward his view on teaching of Jesus, on the death of Jesus, on the resurrection, etc.  It is well written and accessible to beginning students—so much so that I have used it as a textbook for classes on the historical Jesus

 

N.T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God, Vol. 3 of Christian Origins and the Question of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003) paperback, $40.  Another 700+-page tome from Wright.  This award-winning book, as the title indicates, focuses not on the pre-Easter Jesus (and thus not the “historical Jesus”), but on the post-Easter Risen Lord.  Given the huge mass of recent literature on the “historical Jesus,” this in-depth study of the Gospels’ resurrection narratives is refreshing.

 

Dale C. Alison, Jesus of Nazareth: Millennarian Prophet (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998) paperback, $20.

Charlotte Allen, The Human Christ: The Search for the Historical Jesus (New York: The Free Press, 1998).

Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006) paperback, $32.  NEW.

Marcus J. Borg, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time: the Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith  (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1994) paperback, $13. 

Marcus J. Borg, Jesus: a New Vision: Spirit, Culture, and the Life of Discipleship (San Francisco: HarperSan Francisco, 1991) paperback, $15.

James H. Charlesworth, ed., Jesus’ Jewishness: Exploring the Place of Jesus within Early Judaism (New York: Crossroad, 1991).

James H. Charlesworth, Jesus Within Judaism: New Light from Exciting Archeological Discoveries, Anchor Bible Reference (New York: Doubleday, 1988).

James H. Charlesworth, Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Anchor Bible Reference (New York: Doubleday, 1992) paperback, $25.

James H. Charlesworth, ed., Jesus and Archeology (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2006) paperback, $50.  NEW.

Bruce Chilton, Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate Biography (New York: Image Books, 2000) paperback, $15.

J.D.G. Dunn & S. McKnight, eds., The Historical Jesus in Recent Research, Sources for Biblical and Theological Study 10 (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2005) paperback, $43.

Paul Rhodes Eddy and Gregory A. Boyd, The Jesus Legend: A Case for the Reliability of the Synoptic Jesus Tradition (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007) paperback, $25.  NEW.

Bart D. Ehrman, Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999) paperback, $15.

Craig A. Evans, Jesus and His Contemporaries: Comparative Studies (Leiden: Brill Academic, 2001) paperback, $40.

Craig A. Evans, Life of Jesus Research: An Annotated Bibliography, rev. ed. New Testament Tools and Studies 24 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996).

C. Stephen Evans, The Historical Christ and the Jesus of Faith: the Incarnational Narrative as History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).

Joseph A. Fitzmyer, A Christological Catechism: New Testament Answers, revised and expanded edition (New York: Paulist  Press, 1991) paperback, $12.  A dense summary of what contemporary scholars are saying about the historical Jesus.

Paula Fredriksen, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: A Jewish Life and the Emergence of Christianity (New York: Vintage Books, 1999) paperback, $14.

Sean Freyne, Jesus, A Jewish Galilean: A New Reading of the Jesus Story (New York: T&T Clark, 2004) paperback, $25.

Robert W. Funk, ed., The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1997) hardcover, $28.  This gives the results of the Jesus Seminar’s voting on Jesus' words.

Robert W. Funk, ed., The Acts of Jesus: The Search for the Authentic Deeds of Jesus (Polebridge Press, 1998) hardcover, $35.  This gives the 2^nd half of the Jesus Seminar’s voting.

Robert W. Funk, Honest to Jesus: Jesus for a New Millennium (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1997) paperback, $16.  Funk, the founder of the Jesus Seminar, gives his take on who Jesus is.

David B. Gowler, What Are They Saying About the Historical Jesus? (New York: Paulist Press, 2007) paperback, $15.  NEW.

Joel B. Green, “In Quest of the Historical: Jesus, the Gospels, and Historicisms Old and New,” New Scholar’s Review 28 (1999) 544-560.

Richard A. Horsley, Jesus and Empire: The Kingdom of God and the New World Disorder (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002) paperback, $17.

Philip Jenkins, Hidden Gospels: How the Search for Jesus Lost Its Way (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001) paperback, $18.

Leander Keck, Who Is Jesus? History in Perfect Tense, Studies on Personalities of the New Testament (University of South Carolina Press, 2000) paperback, $20.

Howard Clark Kee, What Can We Know About Jesus, Understanding Jesus Today (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995) paperback, $13.

Amy-Jill Levine, Dale C. Allison & John Dominic Crossan, eds., The Historical Jesus in Context,  Princeton Readings in Religions (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006) paperback, $23.  NEW.

Amy-Jill Levine, The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of a Jewish Jesus (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2006) paperback, $25.  NEW.

Bruce J. Malina, The Social Gospel of Jesus: The Kingdom of God in Mediterranean Perspective (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000) paperback, $19.

John P. Meier, “The Present State of the ‘Third Quest’ for the Historical Jesus: Loss and Gain,”  Biblica 80 (1999) 459-487.

Robert J. Miller, The Jesus Seminar and Its Critics (Polebridge Press, 1999) paperback, $17.  A leading member of the Jesus Seminar fires back at critics.

E.P. Sanders, The Historical Figure of Jesus (New York: Penguin Books, 1993) paperback, $15.  A very good and balanced account from a leading Protestant scholar.

E.P. Sanders, Jesus and Judaism (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985) paperback, $25.

Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz, The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1998) paperback, $38.  Thorough introduction.

Graham H. Twelftree, Jesus the Exorcist: A Contribution to the Study of the Historical Jesus (Peabody, MN: Hendrikson, 1993) paperback, $20.

Robert E. Van Voorst, Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2000) paperback, $22.

Geza Vermes, The Religion of Jesus the Jew (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993) paperback, $20.

Geza Vermes, Jesus the Jew: a Historian’s Reading of the Gospels (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1981) paperback, $19.  A very influential interpretation.

Geza Vermes, The Changing Face of Jesus (New York: Penguin Books, 2001) paperback, $15.

Ben Witherington III, The Jesus Quest: The Third Search for the Jew of Nazareth, 2^nd ed. (Downer’s Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1997) paperback, $19.  A valuable roadmap of the recent debate.

Ben Witherington III, Jesus the Sage: The Pilgrimage of Wisdom (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000) paperback, $20.

 

 2. THE SEARCH FOR THE HISTORICAL JESUS: 18th-mid 20th Centuries

 

Albert Schweitzer, The Quest for the Historical Jesus, ed. John Bowden (Fortress Press, 2001) paperback $33.   This book, published originally in German in 1906, is a work of genius, brilliantly charting the 18th and 19th-century quest, showing how each of the early questers created a Jesus in his own image—one quite removed from the Jesus of history.  This is the first complete edition in English.  A reprint of a translation from the 1920s is also available from Johns Hopkins Press (1998).

 

Leander E. Keck, ed., Lives of Jesus Series (Philadelphia: Fortress Press).  In the early 1970s, Keck oversaw the editing and translating of the great 18th- & 19th-century lives of Jesus done during the first quest, the one so sharply criticized by Schweitzer.  The volumes in the series are:

• Hermann Samuel Remairus, Fragments, ed. Charles A. Talbert, trans. Ralph S. Fraser (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1970).

• Friedrich Schleiermacher, The Life of Jesus, ed. Jack C. Verheyden (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975).

• David Friedrich Strauss, The Life of Jesus Critically Examined, ed. Peter C. Hodgson, trans. George Eliot (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1972).

• David Friedrich Strauss, The Christ of Faith and the Jesus of History: A Critique of Schleiermacher’s The Life of Jesus, trans. Leander E. Keck (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1977).

• Alfred Loisy, The Gospel and the Church, trans. Bernard B. Scott (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976).

• Johannes Weiss, Jesus’ Proclamation of the Kingdom of God, trans. Richard H. Hiers & David L. Holland (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971)

 Gregory W. Dawes, ed., The Historical Jesus Quest: Landmarks in the Search for the Jesus of History (Nashville: Westminster John Knox, 1999) paperback, $25.  An excellent anthology of sources from the first two quests (from Reimarus and Strauss to Kähler and Käsemann).

 Gregory W. Dawes, ed., The Historical Jesus Question: The Challenge of History to Religious Authority (Nashville: Westminister John Knox, 2001) paperback, $30.

 Gunther Bornkamm, Jesus of Nazareth (New York: Harper, 1960).  A classic presentation from the 2^nd (post-Bultmannian) quest for the historical Jesus.

 C.H. Dodd, The Founder of Christianity (New York: Macmillan, 1970). 

 Joachim Jeremias, New Testament Theology I: The Proclamation of Jesus (London: SCM Press, 1971).  A superb, but technical study of distinctive features of the preaching of the historical Jesus.

 Joachim Jeremias, Jesus and the Message of the New Testament, Fortress Classics in Biblical Studies, ed. K.C. Hanson (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2002) paperback, $15.

 Martin Kähler, The So-Called Historical Jesus and the Historic Biblical Christ, trans. Carl E. Braaten (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1964).

 Ernst Käsemann, “The Problem of the Historical Jesus,” in Essays on New Testament Themes, trans. W.J. Montague, Studies in Biblical Theology 41 (London: SCM, 1964).

 

 3. NEW TESTAMENT PORTRAITS OF JESUS

 

Ben Witherington III, The Many Faces of the Christ: The Christologies of the New Testament and Beyond, Companions to the New Testament (New York: Crossroad / Herder & Herder, 1998) paperback, $20.  A solid survey.  The subtitle says it all.

 

William H. Bellinger & William R. Farmer, ed., Jesus and the Suffering Servant: Isaiah 53 and Christian Origins (Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1998) hardcover.

Raymond E. Brown, An Introduction to New Testament Christology (New York: Paulist Press, 1994) paperback, $15.  Disappointing.

Oscar Cullman, The Christology of the New Testament, rev. ed. (Philadelphia: Westminster John Knox, 1963) paperback, $30.  A classic.

James D.G. Dunn, Christology in the Making: A New Testament Inquiry into the Origins of the Doctrine of the Incarnation, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1996) paperback, $30.

Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The One Who Is To Come (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007) paperback, $18.  NEW.

Paula Fredriksen, From Jesus to Christ: The Origin of the New Testament Images of Jesus, rev. ed. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000; original edition, 1988) paperback, $18.

Victor Paul Furnish, Jesus According to Paul, Understanding Jesus Today (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993) paperback, $10.

Simon J. Gathercole, The Preexistent Son: Recovering the Christologies of Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2006) paperback, $32. NEW.

Suzanne Watts Henderson, Christology and Discipleship in the Gospel of Mark, Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006) hardcover, $90.  NEW.

Howard Clark Kee, Jesus in History: an Approach to the Study of the Gospels, rev. ed. (Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace, 1996).

Jack Dean Kingsbury, Jesus Christ in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, rev. ed. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002) paperback, $17.

Jack Dean Kingsbury & David R. Bauer, eds., Who Do You Say That I Am?  Essays on Christology (Westminister John Knox, 1999) paperback, $30.

Abraham J. Malherbe & Wayne A. Meeks, ed., The Future of Christology: Essays in Honor of Leander E. Keck (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993).

James F. McGrath, John’s Apologetic Christology: Legitimation and Development in Johannine Christology, Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 111 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001) hardcover, $60.

John P. Meier, The Mission of Christ and His Church: Essays on Christology and Ecclesiology (Wilmington, DL: Michael Glazier, 1990).

Mark Allan Powell & David R. Bauer, ed., Who Do You Say That I Am?  Essays in Honor of Jack Dean Kingsbury (Westminster John Knox, 1999) paperback, $30.

Harold Remus, Jesus as Healer, Understanding Jesus Today (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).

Vernon K. Robbins, Jesus the Teacher: A Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation of Mark (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992).

Peter Shafer, Jesus in the Talmud (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007)paperback, $25.  NEW.

Rudolph Schnackenburg, Jesus in the Gospels: a Biblical Christology, trans. O.C. Dean, Jr. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1995) hardcover, $40.

Graham N. Stanton, The Gospels and Jesus, Oxford Bible Series, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002) paperback, $25.

 

Revised: February 27, 2008

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 William Harmless, SJ