The Last Week: A Day-by-Day Account of Jesus's Final Week in Jerusalem [Hardcover]

Marcus J. Borg (Author), John Dominic Crossan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 28, 2006

Top Jesus scholars Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan join together to reveal a radical and little-known Jesus. As both authors reacted to and responded to questions about Mel Gibson''s blockbuster The Passion of the Christ, they discovered that many Christians are unclear on the details of events during the week leading up to Jesus''s crucifixion. Using the gospel of Mark as their guide, Borg and Crossan present a day-by-day account of Jesus''s final week of life. They begin their story on Palm Sunday with two triumphal entries into Jerusalem. The first entry, that of Roman governor Pontius Pilate leading Roman soldiers into the city, symbolized military strength. The second heralded a new kind of moral hero who was praised by the people as he rode in on a humble donkey. The Jesus introduced by Borg and Crossan is this new moral hero, a more dangerous Jesus than the one enshrined in the church''s traditional teachings. The Last Week depicts Jesus giving up his life to protest power without justice and to condemn the rich who lack concern for the poor. In this vein, at the end of the week Jesus marches up Calvary, offering himself as a model for others to do the same when they are confronted by similar issues. Informed, challenged, and inspired, we not only meet the historical Jesus, but meet a new Jesus who engages us and invites us to follow him.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Taking Mark, the earliest Gospel, as their guide, Borg and Crossan "retell a story everyone thinks they know too well and most do not seem to know at all." So doing, they offer an alternative passion of the Christ, the primary feature of which is not suffering (Latin passio) but passion understood Anglophonically as "consuming interest, dedicated enthusiasm, or concentrated commitment." Jesus' passion was the kingdom of God declared in terms of God's justice, they say, and the fact that such declaration was seen, despite Jesus' nonviolence, as a threat to the system of domination by Rome and its wealthy Jewish collaborators led to his suffering. Borg and Crossan parse Mark's reportage (so to speak) on the days from Palm Sunday to Easter to demonstrate the challenges Jesus made to Roman and Herodian-temple rule. They point up Jesus' insistence on justice, especially equitable distribution of necessities, and such too-little-noticed matters as Jesus' great popularity, attested by the crowds who hang on his words and his adversaries' fears of angering those crowds; so fearful are they that they must find a traitor, seize Jesus at night, and whisk him through the courts. Written with Crossan's scholarly scintillation rather than Borg's sometimes plodding earnestness, this is politically concerned analysis of Christianity at its best. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

“Borg and Crossan brilliantly chronicle the tension that forced everyone to pledge allegiance -- either to Rome or to Jesus.” (Los Angeles Times )

“[...] Borg and Crossan show one of the most careful and insightful readings of the Bible I’ve ever come across.” (Brian McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christian )

“If there is…one book for the redemption of Holy Week, this is it. A must read.” (Peter J. Gomes, Harvard University )

“It is difficult to overestimate the importance of this volume[...]” (Barbara Brown Taylor, author of Leaving Church and Preaching Life )

“A readable and attractive reinterpretation of Jesus’ death and resurrection. . . .” (Houston Chronicle )

“These controversial Jesus Seminar scholars provide lots to ponder.” (The Kansas City Star )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne; First Edition edition (February 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060845392
• ISBN-13: 978-0060845391
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #195,100 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Marcus J. Borg is professor emeritus in the philosophy department at Oregon State University, where he held the Hundere Chair in Religion and Culture, and author of the New York Times bestselling Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, The Heart of Christianity, The Last Week, and Jesus. He was an active member of the Jesus Seminar when it focused on the historical Jesus and he has been chair of the historical Jesus section of the Society of Biblical Literature.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Destined for Execution, February 17, 2007

By 

Virgil Brown (White Oak, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Final Days in Jerusalem (Paperback)

"Two processions entered Jerusalem on a spring day in the year 30. It was the beginning of the week of Passover." From the East came a peasant procession with Jesus of Nazareth riding on a donkey and cheered by his followers. From the West came the Roman governor of Idumea, Pontius Pilate, who had come up from Caesarea Maritima. That the two processions occurred on the same day is not recorded in the Bible and, in fact, the two processions may not have happened on the same day. However the Roman governor did travel from Caesarea Maritima for festivals such as Passover. Most of all, for Mark, the procession of Jesus was clearly counter to the procession of Pilate.

The inevitable confrontation may be described as the "domination system" which had developed in Jerusalem. Borg and Crossan explain that domination system is a shorthand for political oppression, economic exploitation, and religious legitimation. Jerusalem had become a society where only a few ruled, the monarch, the nobility, and the wealthy. A high percentage of the society's wealth came from agriculture. Structures of laws of land ownership, taxation, and indenture of labor, put between a half and two-thirds of all of the wealth into the coffers of the few. In ancient societies, these structures were legitimized by religious language: the monarch ruled by divine right and the social order was the will of God.

The day after Jesus made his procession into Jerusalem, he drove the moneychangers from the Temple and aroused the severe wrath of the temple priests. The next day, Tuesday, was a day of challenges. Jesus returns to Jerusalem. As he is walking Jesus is challenged by the chief priests, scribes, and elders who want to know the authority he has for committing his prophetic act in the Temple. Jesus parries and asks about the authority of John the Baptist. Most readers know the story and know that the priests lose face. If that were not enough Jesus counterchallenges with the parable about the vineyard. Borg and Crossan emphasize that the priests et al realize that that parable was spoken against them.

So was Jesus destined for execution? From the point of view of the will of God, Borg and Crossan maintain an emphatic negative response: "It is never the will of God that a righteous man be crucified." Judas did not
*have* to betray Jesus. The Temple priests did not *have* to seek execution. (There is a similar story in Josephus of another who preached against the Temple. Interestingly this other man was only flogged.)
Rather it was the inevitability of the domination system that sent Jesus to death. Borg and Crossan wonder what it was about Jesus and his followers that so provoked the authorities.

Certainly the death of Jesus stunned his followers. Borg and Crossan find various ways for the followers of Jesus to come to grips with this within the New Testament and in subsequent centuries. For example, many Christians believe that the real reason (substitutionary atonement) for the death of Jesus was best explained by St Anselm in 1097. But how soon did the followers of Jesus try to begin to explain his death as an atonement? Have a look at 1 John 2.2 and 4.10.

80 of 92 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Timely, Thoughtful, Well Researched and Written, March 4, 2006

By 

A. E. Persico - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Last Week: A Day-by-Day Account of Jesus's Final Week in Jerusalem (Hardcover)

If you are looking for well researched insights, interpretations, and translations of current and historical contexts for the meanings of biblical parables and perhaps more importantly the historical contexts of St. Mark's gospel, read this timely and well researched interpretation of the Passion of Christ and the details related to the 7 days from Palm (Passion) Sunday to Easter Sunday by Borg & Crossan.

Whether you are researching or interested in the fundamental roots of Christianity or curious about the historical context of the Roman and Jewish framework of the times surrounding the events of easter week you will not be disappointed by the scholarly research and interpretations presented regarding the 'cipher' meanings embedded in St. Mark's account.

I truly enjoyed the author's viewpoints expressed and this book is a welcome addition to the bookshelf of those who are interested in the probable nature of how these events transpired.

84 of 98 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important new approach to understanding Jesus's message, March 12, 2006

By 

David J. Krause (Petoskey, MI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Last Week: A Day-by-Day Account of Jesus's Final Week in Jerusalem (Hardcover)

This book is far more than just two prominent biblical scholars combining to tell us what they think "really" happened during Easter week. Rather, Borg and Crossan focus their skills on what they call a much "simpler" and "humbler" task: retelling and explaining "the last week of Jesus's life as given in the Gospel According to Mark. . . a story everyone thinks they know too well and most do not seem to know at all." Virtually every biblical scholar agrees that Mark's gospel is the first to be written, but anyone who thinks that its author viewed Jesus's passion and death as an atonement for our sins and the way to heaven for those who "accept" that fact simply MUST read this book. It represents a genuine step forward in understanding the New Testament on its own terms, rather than on the terms that we today impose on it.