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The Sage from Galilee: Rediscovering Jesus' Genius

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Table of Contents:
Forward, by R. Steven Notley
Introducing David Flusser's Jesus, by James H. Charlesworth
Preface
1: The Sources
2. Ancestry
3. Baptism
4. Law
5. Love
6. Ethics
7. The Kingdom of Heaven
8. The Son
9. The Son of Man
10. Jerusalem
11. Death
12. Epilogue
Chronological Table
Bibliography
Index of Subjects
Index of Scripture References

From Chapter 1 to the end of Chapter 12 it is 165 pages.

In David Flusser's own words, "The main purpose of this book is to show that it is possible to write the story of Jesus' life." This work is the conclusion of many decades of research and dedication to understanding the second temple period and Jesus. Originally, this was German book published in 1968. From that time, this book was translated into English in 1997. The content of the book has matured since the first editions in German and English through the archeological discoveries and maturing of David Flusser's own thinking. The first edition can be considered a mere beginning of his investigations and this edition is the culmination of his life's work. As such, this book should be treated more as a new work rather than a revision.

Some of Flusser's driving belief structures are discussed in chapter 1 and continue to be divulged through the course of the book. Some of these beliefs are 1) it is possible to tell the story of Jesus through the Gospel accounts 2) foundationally, Jesus functioned as a miracle worker and preacher; not a "kerygmatic" risen Lord 3) Jesus learned Judaism (thus was impacted by His contemporary teachers/movements) and revolutionized certain aspects of Judaism 4) the gospel accounts are based on one or more non-extant with Luke being the most accurate at preserving the early source of the historical Jesus.

Pros: David Flusser does a great job of combing through tons of second temple (and post temple period) literature and showing parallels between Jesus and other movements. Flusser did not set down all the technical details of those things which will ease the load for the average reader and provide a foundation for further research. Among varies literatures that the author utilizes, he most often went back to Essene for comparisons which is relatively new scholarship. Flusser also show examples of other people who were similar to Jesus, such as the Galileans Abba Hilkia and Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa. Flusser does a great job in highlighting what Jesus revolutionized: 1) "radical interpretation of the commandment of mutual love" 2) "the call for a new morality" and 3) "the idea of the kingdom of heaven."

Cons: I can't mention many cons for myself, but one I know would be important to others. Flusser does not accept that the so called "kerygmatic" is the actual Jesus. As such, he believes there has been some tampering to the gospel accounts to make a "kerygmatic" Christ. This would be the largest stumbling block for some Christians I know.

Conclusions: David Flusser has built the historical Jesus, and this book is well worth reading and studying. Even though David Flusser does not accept the full gospel story, it should not prevent the reader from making his/her own judgments on a great deal of material.

In my strong disagreement with the previous review - The principal topic of this book - as one can actually see from its title - is not the history or archeology of Galilee. Rather, it is - the teaching and the figures of "historical" Jesus and his disciples (as they appear in the New Testament) in the context of contemporary Jewish Tradition (Talmud, Midrash, "Hitsonim", apocrypha, Qumran texts) and history. The author (Prof. D. Flusser, of blessed memory) was a leading expert of New Testament Studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Being not a Christian himself, he saw and studied Jesus as a historical personality and a Jewish sage of a major scale - the one that changed the course of human history. His book (which is a new edition of his known book "Jesus") is written with great knowledge, respect and love. Personally, I could not find any significant inconsistencies or mistakes in this work, as related to its subject. As to the previous review - probably someone studying the history or archeology of the region could really find some better sources, more relevant to this particular field of his interest. I am sure he will - and wish him good luck in his research. Pavel Landsman, Ph.D.

Davis Flusser was Professor of Early Christianity and Second Temple Judaism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He held that post for years and was in constant contact and in working relationships with Christian scholars in Jerusalem. He sees Jesus as a Jew of the first century. He respects the Gospel records. He thoroughly understands the more contempory accounts: Josephus, Philo, etc. He is also immersed in the Dead Sea Scrolls and what they teach us about the various currents of Judaism in the time of Jesus.

We lost David Flusser to death in 2000. There is not likely to be a scholar rise up to equal him. He was in many ways unique. He wrote in Hebrew, German and English. This volumn is the fourth English edition and has been brought up to date by Steven Notley, Professor of Biblical Studies at the New York City campus of Nyack Collage.

It will give the reader a fresh look at Jesus within his own time and culture. It will place him within the religious ferment of his time and show what he accepted and what he rejected of the various Judaisms that surrounded him. It is less difficult to read than some of Flusser's work and not overly long. This edition runs 191 pages.

Like its author "THE SAGE OF GALILEE" is unique. It reflects an enormous respect for Jesus, and a focused attempt to understand him as a Jew of his time and place.

David Flusser was a Jewish New Testament scholar who taught at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Many people cite him as an expert on the Jewish backgrounds of Jesus and the New Testament. This expertise was evident in this book. However, his expertise also made the book difficult to read. It's not that he used big words or difficult concepts. The book is not overly academic.

No, his book reminded me of an absent-minded professor who has not prepared well for the class he's teaching. Sure, he knows the material forward and backward, but it all comes out in a "stream-of-consciousness" way that makes it difficult to follow and harder still to grasp his ultimate point.

The chapters are loosely connected around some major theme, such as baptism, love, ethics, the Kingdom of Heaven, and the Son of Man. And while each chapter did indeed contain some helpful background information on each of these subjects, such information was too scattered and disorganized to be of much benefit to the reader.

As I read more and more books on Jewish backgrounds, this type of book organization (or lack thereof) seems to be a common theme. Of course, many of the other authors I have read learned under Flusser, and so maybe now I have simply found the wellspring of this merry-go-round way of thinking.

Maybe this is just the Jewish (Eastern?) way of thinking and writing.

Now that I think about it, much of Jesus' teaching as recorded in the Gospels also appears to be rather...scattered. So ultimately, maybe the difficulty is not with Flusser and his disciples and the books they write, but with my own western desire to see outlined organization and point-by-point argumentation. Someday I hope to find a book on Jewish backgrounds written with western thought-flow patterns.

I always have found Dr. Flusser's work fascinating, and I have been following the scholars that are part of his team and the different organizations that study under him. I have used David Flusser as reference in much of my work in achieving my BS at Liberty, and today working on masters in Middle Eastern studies.

This book fills some of the gaps left by some his previous works and adds to already extremely scholarly outlook of Yeshua and early first century rabbinics. The problem has been that much of work in seminaries and by scholars have been done on a Greek or Hellenistic basis, where as the actual thinking and historical occurrences in history are Hebraic.

There are so many books that I just start and put down, forgetting to ever pick them up again. This is NOT one of those books. I took my time on this one, but read it from cover to cover, enjoying and appreciating every minute of my time reading it.

This is the kind of book that makes one see things from the viewpoint of a different time and culture. I have it as my goal to know more about Jesus. I took this book everywhere I went, in case I had a few moments to read. If you want to know more about Jesus, this is not a light, easy read, but it does explore Jesus from his Jewish roots. I highly recommend it.

A treasury for all believer's in one God, Jew and Gentile alike. Honest and candid yet highly scholarly for anyone open minded enough for Jewish roots Christianity.

This book in its first incarnation was simply called "Jesus". It had a lot of David Flusser's points of view about the place of Jesus in the world, as well as his personal experience with Bohemian and Mennonite Christians. It then proceded with a series of scholarly esseys and various themes of the teachings and life of Jesus. And it finished with several shorter esseys of lesser priority. This book had one major revision. This last revision, the current book has been tidied up a bit, brought up to date a second time, and given a more popular format. I particularly enjoyed the first version (translation, actually). Flusser provides a really important 1st century Jewish background to the historical Jesus.

When I first read the book, it was not available so my son at Univ. of Washington got it out of one of their libraries. Then it was available and I bought and reread it. It was, the second edition. Finally this one came out and I have read it too. If I have confused or got some of this wrong please provide corrections.

I had been reading a series of books on the culture, geography, archaeology, and history of Galilee when I picked up "The Sage of Galilee". For the first few chapters I carefully read each page, underlining, making notes in the book, noting what to cross-check with other references, etc. But with the book's randomly inconsistent approach to the text of the New Testament, then some plain errors of fact, I found myself paging through the rest of the book to find something useful and reliable. Evenutally I set the book on a shelf wishing I had chosen to purchase and read another one. It's a good thing that there are other good books to read on the background of Galilee. I believe I'll read one of those other books now...