Customer Reviews

Jesus of Nazareth

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Bornkamm's book was originally published in 1956. As such it has to be considered within its historical context, and Bornkamm suffers from not being able to take advantage of the enormous work in biblical scholarship since that time as well as the release of the Qumran documents. That being said, this is a well written and thought provoking book. It covers much of the same ground as other "Life of Jesus" books, although Bornkamm is neither sysmetic nor comprehensive in his coverage. The most appealing sections of the book are his analyses of the Kingdom of Heaven, the parables, and his approach to the crucifixion and messianic questions. Bornkamm tends to raise issues and avoids offering conclusions. Some readers will find that attractive.

An introductory student of the life of the historical Jesus may find this book valuable. More advanced students should probably look elsewhere.

Günther Bornkamm (1905-1990) was a German New Testament scholar. He was a student of Rudolf Bultmann, as well as other famous theologians. Bultmann was famous (or infamous, depending on one's point of view) for his proposal to "demythologize" the New Testament; that is, remove the legendary accretions to the story of Jesus added by the early Church. Bultmann said that "I do indeed think we can know almost nothing concerning the life and personality of Jesus."

However, in 1956 Bornkamm wrote this influential book, which begins by stating, "No one is any longer in a position to write a life of Jesus," not least because the gospel writers display "an incontestable loyalty and adherence to the word of Jesus, and at the same time an astonishing degree of freedom as to the original wording." Nevertheless, Bornkamm maintained that there was a layer of historical recollection that underlay the gospel accounts, which "do speak of history as occurrence and event."

Bornkamm believed that there were certain events in the life of Jesus that were incontestably historical; for example, "The fact that Jesus let himself be baptised by John belongs to the data of his life which cannot be doubted." Also, that "Jesus had to reckon with the possibility of his own violent end, we have no reason to doubt." He is even willing to credit some historical truth to the gospel stories about Jesus' death, since "nothing would be more wrong than to deny that there is any historical truth in the story in the gospels about Jesus' suffering and death, simply because the church's faith was specially concerned with this piece of tradition."

Bornkamm's book is often overlooked in these days of "Third Quest" Jesus scholars, but it represented a significant turning point from the "No Quest" period exemplified by Bultmann, to the more optimistic investigations of more recent researchers into the life of Jesus. I think it's still well worth reading, if only for Bornkamm's carefully-reasoned and non-polemical presentation.