Customer Reviews

Jesus: According to the Earliest Witness

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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.

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.

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.