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A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Vol. 2 - Mentor, Message, and Miracles

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With the first two volumes of "A Marginal Jew," Meier has proved himself one of the premier New Testament scholars in the English language. "A Marginal Jew" is not an easy read but rewards the reader with solid scholarship. Throughout, Meier confronts 20th century commentators (such as the Jesus Seminar) and reveals the degree to which preconceptions have colored their conclusions regarding the historicity of the four gospels. The extensive treatment of John the Baptist, the Kingdom of God, and Jesus' miracles are each worthy of publication as stand-alone texts and would be accounted among the leading works on these subjects. I eagerly await volume three.

Of the three volumes of John Meier's study of the historical Jesus, this is probably the most difficult for the average reader. Much of it consists of complex discussions of the historicity of various bible passages, considered in extensive and exhaustive detail. It is not an easy read, but Meier's research is vital to understanding the real Jesus. As the subtitle indicates, Meier discusses John the Baptist, the basically eschatological message of the Kingdom of God, and the question of Miracles. On John the Baptist we read of how the embarassment of Jesus' baptism is effaced by the Gospel writers. We learn how Jesus accepted a baptism for the forgiveness of sins, which does not necessarily mean that he personally thought he was a sinner (many such confessions are of a communal nature). We learn about John's fundamental belief in the approaching end of the world. We learn how Mark muddled certain details of John the Baptist's execution, such as the identity of Herodias' first husband, and we find that many of the passages dealing with the Baptist likely go back to the historical Jesus. As for Jesus' message, Meier argues that Jesus did believe in a quickly approaching future kingdom. We can see this from his study of the Lord's Prayer, the Beatitudes, and such passages as Mark 6:10 and Matt 8:11-12. Meier also agrees that in some way Jesus viewed the Kingdom as already present, the first century Galilean mind not sharing the same interest in clarity and non-contradiction. Meier makes two vital points. First off, if John the Baptist believed in the near end of the world, and the early church believed in the near end, then it is likely that Jesus shared this incorrect belief. Second, if Jesus was an experienced teacher and if he "used the symbol of the Kingdom of God in a sense directly counter to the eschatological connotations with which it was often connected, he would have made his own usage clear--all the more so if he wanted to negate any or all eschatological expectations."

Meier then spends the second half of the book discussing Jesus' miracles. As a historian he claims that he cannot judge whether Jesus actually carried them out or not. This may seem like a cop-out, but it is not. Many past biographers of Jesus have wanted to split him from the miracles, but this assumes that Jesus was fundamentally rational and modern. Clearly this is not the case, and it also led to peculiar explanations of how people incorrectly thought a miracle took place. Instead, Meier notes we can examine which miracles go back to the historical Jesus and which do not. Certain kinds of miracles take place more than others, others show the redactional tendencies of the particular Evangelist. As such Meier concludes that Jesus was an exorcist, and was believed to carry out some remarkable healings. There are three accounts in the bible of Jesus raising someone from the dead. Here Meier believes there is a historical core to the events, though he is unsure whether they originally involved an actual resurrection. By contrast, nearly all of the nature miracles are creations of the Early Church. After one strips the allusions to the Eucharist and to Elijah in the Feeding of the 5,000 there may have been a remarkable, if not miraculous, meal in Jesus's life. But once one strips all the allusions and Johannine redaction in the turning of wine into water there is, as Meier clearly shows, nothing left. The walking on water, the stilling of the storm and the miraculous catch of fish are all reshifted resurrection appearances, while the cursing of the fig tree is clearly an exercise in Matthean theology.

What can we say about all this? First, this is a remarkably researched book. There are at least 380 pages of notes in this 1,049 page book. There are exhaustive discussions of linguistic questions, stylistic questions, and redactional ones. Meier is excellent on providing the wider historical context, such as the origins of the Kingdom of God, the Old Testament backgrounds to the walking on the water, and the Hebrew practice of exorcism. Meier is also acute on distinguishing between Jesus' miracles, (which emphasizes Jesus and God's free gift, are symbols of the coming end time, and [with one exception] do not hurt anyone) with contemporary magicians (who coerced deities for often petty purposes, provides no church and engaged in esoteric secrets and mysterious, often nonsensical spells). Many of his discussions, such as the raising of Lazarus, or the Miracle of Cana, are tour de forces. Naturally they are caveats with this book, as there must be in one so learned and complex. It may be true that the miracles of the Greek Apollonious and the Jewish Honi the Circle Drawer are not really contemporary with Jesus. But it is reasonable to assume that there were Greek and Jewish miraculous contemporaries, and had not Christians destroyed exactly this sort of literature once mastering the empire we would find more of them. Meier tends to concentrate on differences of technique in Jesus' healing and exorcisms, while forgetting that while we can trace the fact of exorcism and healing back to Jesus, we are less certain about his techniques. Nevertheless this is an important major work, especially so since it remembers that Jesus was a very different person from the man 21st century Christians of all denominations would like him to be.

If you're willing to concentrate, this book, like the preceding volume, is highly worthwhile even for non-Christian readers who want to be maximally informed on an important world figure. It can be tough going because Meier is not writing primarily for lay readers, but anyone with a healthy interest in logic, history and the critical tools of historians can enjoy it. On the other hand, Meier's erudition and dry humor augment and humanize his exhaustive scholarship. I've found Meier's criteria for historicity to be useful in gaining a deeper understanding and appreciation of scriptural material in general. I, too, and eagerly awaiting Volume 3.

Every once in a while, public attention turns to the person of Jesus of Nazareth. A few years ago, it was the "Jesus Seminar." Lately, Dan Brown's book THE DA VINCI CODE sparked some interest, particularly among the conspiracy minded. The impression that many people have is that the conventional story about Jesus is wrong, and the more established churches don't want you to know it.

What many people haven't been told is that there is a large body of work in recent years which is supportive of the historical accuracy of the Gospels. One such work is John Meier's series A MARGINAL JEW. Meier is a Catholic priest who teaches at Notre Dame. In 1991 he came out with the first volume. It might not be the first book you want to read on the subject, but it's a work that anyone interested in the historical Jesus should tackle. Volume two and three are out, and a fourth and final volume is promised.

There are a few things to keep in mind when reading this series. First, Meier is writing a book on the historical Jesus. There is minimal theological reflection. Second, it is not an old-fashioned "life of Jesus" which presents a chronological discussion of Jesus' life (Meier probably doesn't have enough confidence in the historicity of the Gospels to write such a work). He arranges his material topically.

Volume 2 is a 1118 page monster which discusses three subjects: (1) John the Baptist; (2) Jesus' teaching on the Kingdom of God; and (3) Jesus' miracles. This book is well organized and Meier has an introduction which tells you where he is going. For example, he tells you flat out that he disagrees with Crossan and Smith's claim that Jesus was a magician. There are tons of footnotes, which are unfortunately placed at the end of each chapter. The footnotes/endnotes are informative and contain lots of interesting barbs directed at other scholars.

Meier's discussion of miracles is illustrative of his approach. Meier concludes that there is no reason to doubt that Jesus was perceived to be a miracle worker. In addition, through an exhaustive look at other miracle workers and magicians in antiquity, he shows that Jesus was not a magician in any traditional sense. At the same time, when and if any particular miracle occurred as written is an open question. Thus, he thinks it unlikely that the miracle in Mk. 3:1-6 (the man with the withered hand) occurred at all. Yet the curing of Bartimeaus (Mk. 10:46-52) is probably historical at its "core." Even here, he thinks Mark "worked up" the oral tradition. If your view of biblical inspiration swings toward the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, you might be disappointed.

Ben Witherington provides a review of Meier's project up to the second volume in THE JESUS QUEST. Witherington reaches more conservative conclusions while using a similar methodology.

This book is excellent follow-up to volume one. Tough but readable for the non-theologion. The author is a Roman Catholic scholar, but is not an apolegetic for the Catholic tradition. The endnotes provide good direction for the serious student but are not necessary to follow the main argument. Presents a strong argument against much of the Jesus Seminar publications. My money is hot in my pocket for volume three.

This book is valuable for the mind-boggling wealth of historical information it covers in careful detail regarding the historical Jesus. Of course, it is only the first of a series, but anyone interested in what history has to offer on Jesus will benefit greatly from this book. The extensive endnotes for each page make reading tedious. I would have preferred footnotes, though some notes run over one page, so there is probably no real way to avoid this inconvenience. Even where a reader may not agree with Meier's assessment of the data, they are all presented with such detail, and the bibliography is so extensive, that the reader will know where to pursue other avenues easily. Works are cited in German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, and Latin, with indications of translated versions in English, where applicable. A great resource.

This book studies John the Baptist, Jesus' message, and Jesus' miracles. Meier goes through every passage and extracts history from them. He manages to go through every miracle story and determine whether the passage is historcal or not. You just can't find such an in-depth study in too many places. For this reason I think anyone interested in the historical Jesus should own this book (and probably the rest of the series).

Meier takes you as far as you can go into historical Jesus research without knowing Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic. The book summarizes and evaluates the current state of research using a well-defined methodology and comes to its own conclusions. It's not easy to read: footnotes are about equal to text, and the print is uncomfortably small, but if you really want to know as much as you can about Jesus, you need this book.

In this second volume of John Meier's "A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus" series Meier gets down to the meat of his subject. Here Meier tells us about Jesus relationship to John the Baptist (Mentor), his enunciation of the "kingdom of God" (Message) and his great deeds (Miracles).

The first two parts here I regard as solid stuff, building a picture of Jesus as an eschatologically minded individual following after John the Baptist who talks about God's domain on earth. This is a very (exclusively) Jewish Jesus. But then with the miracles Meier gets a bit silly. Apparently "what happened" with the miracles is, for Meier, an "unhistorical" question to ask; it is beyond history's bounds to investigate. Faith, of course, may have its opinions but that is not history and history is what Meier repeats that his study is about.

I think Meier cops out here. Its precisely the historian's business to say what they think happened and why. Meier, in effect, has his faith considerations which he intends to keep but not talk about. Maybe he finds caution a virtue. Funny, though, that Meier can write several hundred pages about things he claims not to be able to expedite! This is one place in this book where I sense that Meier is being too uptight about what "history" is. Meier seems to me to be at his best when he's doing history rather than talking about it.

However, that is but a little fault in a largely professional and standard volume on the historical Jesus.

Volume 2 of John P. Meier's magisterial series sets the stage for Jesus' public ministry by focusing on John the Baptist. It then goes on to expound upon Jesus' identity as a miracle-worker.

John the Baptist is a crucial figure in understanding the historical Jesus. His relationship to Jesus as an inspiring mentor could not have been invented by the early church. Meier points out that by submitting to John's baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin, Jesus accepted and embraced his message of imminent judgement and his urgent call for all of Israel to repent in light of that judgement. Jesus did not start his ministry in a vacuum. It was inspired by those who came before him, the prophets of Israel and John the Baptist. Meier suggests that Jesus may have been one of John's disciples. The Gospel of John (John 1:35-37) has two of John the Baptist's disciples following Jesus. This hardly could have happened if Jesus had not been well known to them prior to starting his own ministry.

Jesus began his own ministry by continuing John's message..."Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand". (John 3:22-26) records Jesus and his disciples performing John's style of baptism of repentance.

The idea of an Elijah-like prophet coming in the last days to prepare for the Lord's coming by calling Israel to repentance was popular among many pious first century Jews. Meier suggests that John was part of a Jewish penitential movement which included the Qumran community and solitary ascetics like Bannus. John's clothing and ascetic lifestyle signified a life of repentance. Meier dismisses theories linking John the Baptist to Qumran as unlikely. John's baptism was open to the public and was a once-and-done event, not a ritual cleansing. Most of the recipients of John's baptism went back into society.

As a charismatic prophet, John operated outside the established channels of the Jerusalem Temple. Salvation from the coming judgement required inward repentance which was manifested by an outward change in one's life and actions. Those who accepted and obeyed John's call to repentance were sealed by his unique form of baptism. In the last days, the Spirit would be poured out upon those who had received John's baptism.

Josephus' independent testimony of John, which shows no reworking by the church, portrays John as a noble figure whose enormous popularity led to his demise at the hands of a paranoid Herod Antipas. Meier notes that Josephus ignored John's role as an eschatological prophet for the sake of his Roman audience.

Jesus never fully disconnected from John's message of fiery judgement. Meier notes that echoes of John the Baptist can be heard in Jesus' harsh judgements of those cities and towns which refused to accept his message. However, Jesus' proclamation was primarily a gospel of good news accentuated with joy whch stressed the forgiveness and mercy of God as a loving father figure. Unlike John, Jesus performed miracles to actively demonstrate the nearness of the Kingdom.

Meier points out the significance of Jesus' reply to John's inquiry in (Matthew 11:4-5) which clearly emphasizes the more joyful and upbeat nature of Jesus' ministry. By quoting from (Isaiah 35:5-6), Jesus is telling John that the Kingdom of God is already being manifested in his own ministry with healing miracles.

Meier notes that the "Kingdom of God" is a unique term used frequently by Jesus which is not found to any great degree outside of the gospels. It denotes God acting as king over His people which is a concept found to a great degree in Isaiah and the Psalms. In Deutero-Isaiah, God's rule as king is characterized by forgiveness, and the regathering and salvation of His people which correlates to the gospel of Jesus.

Meier claims that the idea that scriptural quotations of Jesus in the gospel were inserted into the gospels retroactively is bogus. As a first century religious leader, Jesus would have quoted scripture in regard to his own ministry.

Meier shows Jesus unique message of the imminent Kingdom of God in The Lord's Prayer, The Last Supper, the Beautitudes, and especially the miracles and exorcisms.
The Lord's Prayer encapsulates this message. The use of Abba for God as a tender father-figure is unique to Jesus. God will sanctify His name when He establishes His kingdom.

The Last Supper is a symbol of the messianic banquet Jesus will share with his disciples in the future kingdom.

The Beatitudes illustrate how the present conditions of poverty and injustice will be reversed in the future Kingdom. This does not imply a reformation of the present system, but its destruction and replacement.

This volume focuses on Jesus identity as a miracle worker. Meier stresses the fact that Jesus was not a magician who used spells and incantations for the material benefit of individuals. The miracles of Jesus were signs which demonstrated the nearness of the Kingdom of God which was being manifested in Jesus' ministry. The healing miracles were a fulfillment of (Isaiah 35:5-6) which Jesus wanted to convey to John the Baptist in (Matthew 11:4-5). Jesus' exorcisms demonstrated the power of God in plundering Satan of captive souls. It was an act of liberation in fulfillment of (Isaiah 61:1) which was quoted by Jesus. Another prophetic demonstration of Jesus was driving the moneychangers out of the Temple. This was not so much a cleansing act as it was a prophetic demonstration of the Temple's destruction.

Meier points out that the miracles were an integral part of Jesus ministry. He was known to the masses as a miracle worker. It is unlikely that the gospels would record Jesus' opponents accusing him of being aligned with Beelzebul if Jesus did not have the reputation as a popular miracle worker and an exorcist.

Meier claims that we cannot define Jesus as merely a moral philosopher as Thomas Jefferson and post-enlightenment scholars have done. Modern scholars have watered down Jesus into a philosopher, cynic-sage, or a social and political revolutionary in order to make him relevant to their own social and political agendas. In other words, Jesus becomes a self-portait of the people writing about him. A first century eschatological miracle-working prophet is neither relevant nor useful for them to promote their own agendas.

However, John Meier has demonsrated that modern historical methods can be used to reveal the real Jesus by placing him into his own time and environment. Meier presents us not with a watered-down Jesus but the real Jesus, a first century eschatological miracle-working prophet to whom God's Kingdom which was proclaimed by the prophets and John the Baptist was an imminent reality which was being manifested in his own minstry.