Jesus: According to the Earliest Witness [Paperback]

James McConkey Robinson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2007

Who was Jesus, really? In these pages Robinson, one of the premier scholars of the New Testament and the Sayings Gospel Q, asks what we can know of Jesus from what many believe was the earliest written source behind the Gospels. Surprising insights abound and the author includes an autobiographical essay charting the important currents in New Testament scholarship over the last fifty years. The book also includes a translation of Q.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...Robinson elaborates a portrait of the historical Jesus and his utopian vision of the Kingdom of God..." -- John S. Kloppenborg, Centre for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto

"...a series of classic essays by one of this generation's most creative minds." -- Stephen J. Patterson, Professor New Testament, Eden Theological Seminary

About the Author

James M. Robinson is Emeritus Professor of New Testament at Claremont Graduate University and the Director of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity. He is the editor of the Nag Hammadi Library and the author of numerous books.

He first became known for his New Quest of the Historical Jesus and (with John Cobb) the trilogy on New Frontiers in Theology: The Later Heidegger and Theology, The New Hermeneutic, and Theology as History. He edited for UNESCO The Facsimile Edition of the Nag Hammadi Codices, in eleven volumes accompanied by a one-volume English translation, The Nag Hammadi Library in English, and a critical edition, The Coptic Gnostic Library (in seventeen volumes).

As co-chair of an International Q Project co-sponsored by the Society of Biblical Literature and the Claremont Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, he edited (with John Kloppenborg and Paul Hoffmann) The Critical Edition of Q, a Hermeneia Supplement. He is also the editor of the Facets volume The Sayings of Jesus: The Sayings Gospel Q in English. Robinson is a past president of the Society of Biblical Literature.

Product Details

• Paperback: 258 pages
• Publisher: Fortress Press; 1ST edition (March 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080063862X
• ISBN-13: 978-0800638627
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,443,127 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Finest Scholarship by the Finest Scholar We Have, May 2, 2007

By 

Adaire Cain (Midvale, UT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jesus: According to the Earliest Witness (Paperback)

I have just finished James M. Robinson's new book - Jesus According to the Earliest Witnesses - and it is a treat.

Not only is it the culmination of the study and research of arguably the most well-rounded and dedicated scholar of this genre, but it is also a memoir of the path he followed. Born in 1924, he was on the cusp of modern New Testament studies. From youth till the present his interest and study led him to incredible knowledge and acumen on the subject. He states his chronologies flatly without embellishments but the stories are amazing, both in the casual disclosure of his multilingual abilities, his doggedness in getting things done and penchant for doing what needed to be done when no one else would. So much of the infrastructure of early Christian studies was created or enhanced by him. At the time he was Professor of New Testament and Theology at the School of Theology at Claremont, he founded the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity of which he became director. He doggedly perused the papyri of the Nag Hammadi in the hands of government in Egypt till he was able to photograph the intact pages for translation. Then he was able to unwrap the boondoggle that had tied up the remaining fragments, involved waiting, and anxious scholars and freed the text to the waiting world.

I have long been a follower of his work and I have ephemera from his lectures and career but this book is the best. It is a compilation of writings from various points in his career. The insight he has gained on the subject-Jesus According to the Earliest Witnesses-is deep and rich.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars highly recommendable, October 11, 2009

By 

Mario Svigir "offering book" (croatia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jesus: According to the Earliest Witness (Paperback)

Jesus ;According to the Earliest Witness is a highly recommendable book for all those seriously interested in tracing delicate paths in the process of reconstructing a genuine legacy given to humanity by the historical person of Jesus from Nazareth. This book expands and fortifies moderate and advanced level of understanding of Source Gospel as one of the focus points in the area of New Testament biblical studies. James M. Robinson is by no means one of the greatest interpreter of Q and one of most renown of the 20th century theologians. The book involves a set of analytically valuable essays that could be regarded as a biblical studies gate of the highest quality admitting you in to the world of depth inquiry about Q Sayings Gospel. It offers scholarship information about reality to complement the mystery of Jesus Christ in the same time alarming possible paths and offering a wide range of reference paths to further scholarship appreciation of Jesus.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Meaning of Q and the Historical Jesus, February 8, 2009

By 

David Adams (Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jesus: According to the Earliest Witness (Paperback)

This is a collection of extremely fine essays that really explain the history of early Christianity much better than any other source I have read so far. There is a lot of information about Q out there these days, but only Robinson explains what it actually meant to early Christians, why it contained the true sayings of Jesus, and how the message of Jesus was changed by the gospels and the church. This is not a polemic, but solid scholarship that does not trash Christianity but explains how and why it changed over time. His autobiographical chapter also covers the entire history of the search for the historical Jesus in the most thorough fashion. The entire text of Q is included at the end. A solid book on the historical Jesus, and in my opinion one of the best.