The Original Jesus: The Life and Vision of a Revolutionary [Paperback]

Tom Wright (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1997

In reply to the rampant confusion today, the former dean of Lichfield Cathedral crisply outlines the churchs position regarding who Jesus was, what he taught, and how he died. Illustrated throughout with color photographs.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (August 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802842836
• ISBN-13: 978-0802842831
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #127,498 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

N.T. Wright is Bishop of Durham and was formerly Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey and dean of Lichfield Cathedral. He taught New Testament studies for twenty years at Cambridge, McGill and Oxford Universities. Wright's full-scale works The New Testament and the People of God, Jesus and the Victory of God, and The Resurrection of the Son of God are part of a projected six-volume series entitled Christian Origins and the Question of God. Among his many other published works are The Original Jesus, What Saint Paul Really Said and The Climax of the Covenant. He is also coauthor with Marcus Borg of The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions and the volume on Colossians and Philemon in The Tyndale New Testament Commentary series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A clear, insightful introduction to the historical Jesus, January 22, 2003

By 

Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Original Jesus: The Life and Vision of a Revolutionary (Paperback)

In The Original Jesus, author Tom Wright examines Jesus in the historical perspective. He attempts to take you back to Jesus' own time in order for the reader to recognize the message Christ was actually proclaiming and to interpret it and the Gospels in the context of those times. In other words, Wright tries to "take you there" to see Jesus as he was two thousand years ago. It is a short and seemingly uncomplicated book, filled with a number of illustrations of Jesus in the Holy Land, yet it does succeed surprisingly well in its aims. I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about the subject of Jesus' words and deeds, and Wright gave me new perspectives that certainly enhance my understanding. He calls Jesus a revolutionary in the sub-title, and he does a great job of showing just how revolutionary his message was based on the context of the time. Under Wright's guidance, even as seemingly esoteric a fact as the nature of the area in which Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount becomes theologically important. The history of Israel and her covenant with God serve as the lynchpin of the message Wright gleans from the Gospels. He argues that the Gospels were written for two main reasons: to tell the story of Jesus and to address the contemporaries of the individual Gospel writer. It is in this context, he says, that the discrepancies between the Gospel accounts can be explained, and he offers a helpful summation of the purposes and target audiences of each of the four books. By understanding the worlds out of which the Gospels were penned, one can gain greater insight into the good news revealed in each book.

Wright mentions the ideas of the Jesus Seminar and clearly disagrees with their practice of questioning everything in the Gospels hypercritically. He clearly believes the Gospels are meant to show us the true life and work of Jesus, despite any differences in facts between their accounts, and that one's depth of comprehension can be greatly increased by understanding the historical context of Jesus' time on earth. This book can easily be read in one sitting and is a great starting point for anyone interested in pursuing his/her own search for the historical Jesus. Wright includes a bibliography of recommended sources for those who wish to continue the quest.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 4 stars, because it succeeds in addressing it's audience, January 18, 2004

By 

Abba Poemen the Ubermensch (Boston, Ma US) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Original Jesus: The Life and Vision of a Revolutionary (Paperback)

I found this to be a very enjoyable, _very_ accessible, but perhaps slightly uneven book. The first seven chapters were originally aired on TV, if I recall correctly, with Wright narrating (pictures of the holy land are included throughout the book to supplement what is lacking in the transition to print). It's aimed at a large audience - so large, that sometimes I felt like it got too thin, lacking the detail and depth _I_ wanted. That being said, it's worth reading.

The book begins with a chapter on Jerusalem. I found that it picked up kind of slow, but the reader eventually breaks upon the simply phrased nuggets of insight he's scattered throughout this book. He mentions that you can't be neutral or objective when you study history, especially the patch of history he's dealing with here. "If you pin the history to the wall like a butterfly, you may be able to study it analytically, but you mustn't be surprised that it won't fly again. To get to the heart of it all, you have to live within the story and see what it does to you. That's what this book invites you to do." I should note here, in case I'm misread, that he certainly thinks that we can make a historical study of Jesus and his context.

He then goes on to talk about the various aspects of the religious/political situation in 1st century Palestinian Judaism, trying to take you into their mindset, situating Jesus' actions within that context, from the event where he issued the beatitudes, to his "coded actions" in the temple. In one chapter he talks about the nature of a story. It isn't the case that stories are for children, while abstract ideas are the real meat, he argues. Stories are more powerful than naked abstract ideas, they create worlds. If you change the story (especially when most of your hearers live _inside_ of the story) then you change the world. The stories were a way of "getting to grips with reality." He then says that understanding these stories requires that we try to understand the 1st century mindset, so we can understand what they meant to Jesus' audience.

Starting with chapter 8, he departs from the original BBC presentation (which concluded with chapter 7), and talks about how to read the Gospels "for all they're worth." This chapter and the ones to follow, I think, are where most of the meat is. There is some excellent, simple advice here.

There's a large list of books for further reading at the end of the book, to follow up on various aspects of historical Jesus studies. Wright has coupled the titles to the books he's recommended with some brief comments of his.

Some people might want to pick up this book, especially if you've got a short attention span, little time, or you're new to the field. Otherwise, you should probably move up to one of Wright's more scholarly works, where he tackles the same material, writes a bit less simply (but still quite accessibly), and goes into much more depth on assumptions and statemtents he never cracks open in this book. People who're interested enough to pursue this stuff seriously should just pick up his _Jesus and the Victory of God_ or _The New Testament and the People of God_. If you really don't want to read through 400 to 500 pages of text, you might want to pick up _The Challenge of Jesus_, as well as this work.

23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Powerful, May 2, 1998

By 

Ken Hinton ([e-mail]) (Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Original Jesus: The Life and Vision of a Revolutionary (Paperback)

Dean Wright is masterful in relating, simply but not simplistically, how Jesus, as a Jew, related his mission to the great themes of the Jewish Scriptures. This is no Sunday School 101 approach to the person and work of Jesus. Many questions that have lingered in the recesses of my spiritual closet are clearly answered without being technical or weighty. This is a wonderful book to share to anyone, especially those in a Judeic or Arabic background or faith tradition, who is asking about the Messiah from Nazareth.