The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant (Paperback)

by John Dominic Crossan (Author) "The first century of the common era is obscured from our contemporary view by three giant filters..." (more)
Key Phrases: plural attestation, apocalyptic sanctions, sapiential kingdom, Jewish Antiquities, Sayings Gospel, Gospel of Thomas (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
This monumental work by a leading biblical scholar combines history, literary analysis, and social anthropology into a comprehensive picture of the historical Jesus. Crossan clearly addresses textual problems of the tradition, its chronology, and its attestation in a well-documented and succinct manner. The Jesus who emerges from the inclusive (rather than the exclusive) strain of Judaism resembles a magician more than a prophet, a messianic claimant, a bandit leader, or a nonviolent protestor. He preaches "a religious and economic egalitarianism" through "miracle and parable, healing and eating . . . calculated to force individuals into unmediated physical and spiritual contact with God . . . and one another." Essential for all academic and large public libraries.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Adds color to the interpretation of faith." -- -- Martin Marty, author of A Cry of Absence

"Crossan's Jesus isn't gentle, meek, or mild. Crossan's Jesus is an illiterate peasant, both healer and social revolutionary--a Jesus without the Lord's Prayer, the Last Supper, the Virgin Birth, or the Sermon on the Mount." -- Associated Press

"Elegant . . .masterful. There is nothing like [Crossan's book] for thoroughness, readability, fairness, and clarity." -- -- Harvey Cox, author of The Secular City andMany Mansions

"Every couple of years someone tries to prove that Jesus was a Zealot who carried a dagger, or that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and the French monarchy are their descendents, or that Jesus was a member of a mushroom-munching cult. Crossan in is neither of those camps. It may not be an orthodox portrait, but he's not doing it for sensation or headlines. He is a very honest literary critic and he has worked very quietly for a lot of years. What he's doing adds color to the interpretation of faith rather than being a displacement of it." -- Martin Marty, University of Chicago

"Lively and idiosyncratic in the great tradition of the historical Jesus genre begun by Schweitzer." -- -- The Christian Science Monitor

"Lively and idiosyncratic in the great tradition of the historical Jesus genre begun by Schweitzer.... Crossan leads the reader on a meandering bumpy ride through the back streets of Judea as he searches for a rabble-rousing peasant named Jesus and his ragtag followers." -- Christian Science Monitor

"The most important scholarly book about Jesus in decades." -- -- Marcus Borg, author of Jesus: A New Vision

"[Crossan] argues that Jesus. . .became a wisdom teacher using Zen-like aphorisms and puzzling parables to challenge social conventions." -- -- The New York Times

"[Crossan] argues that Jesus...became a wisdom teacher using Zen-like aphorisms and puzzling parables to challenge social conventions." -- New York Times

"Adds color to the interpretation of faith." -- Martin Marty, author of A Cry of Absence

"The most important scholarly book about Jesus in decades." -- Marcus Borg, author of Jesus: A New Vision

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne (February 26, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060616296
• ISBN-13: 978-0060616298
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #134,443 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Plunge into the quest for the Jesus of history!, September 26, 2004

By	John Dewey Remy "www.mindonfire.com" (Irvine, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant is but one of a long list of controversial works that J. D. Crossan has produced. To be honest, I struggled through the first half of this 500+ page study--Jesus is barely mentioned until chapter 11. Instead, Crossan spends the first ten chapters carefully laying the groundwork for his research. By the time I reached page 225, I had covered social relationships unique to the Mediterranean region, a variety of peasant responses to political and religious oppression (especially in Palestine during the first century C.E.), Jesus' philosophical and religious contemporaries (especially from the poorest in society). Crossan approaches his study of Jesus armed with anthropological, sociological, historical and literary tools, and focuses especially on where all of his tools converge.

Especially noteworthy is his approach to the documentary evidence of Jesus' words and deeds. He draws upon 200+ years of New Testament exegesis and Christian Biblical studies to create "An Inventory of the Jesus Tradition by Chronological Stratification and Independent Attestation." I was probably more excited by this Appendix than by most of the book. The first stratum (30-60 C.E.) contains: several Pauline epistles; non-canonical gospels and fragments, including the Gospel of Thomas, and the Gospel of the Hebrews; and finally sources now embedded in the canonical Gospels, including the Sayings Gospel Q, the Miracles Collection and the Cross Gospel. The Gospel of Mark, which I had always considered one of the oldest sources, falls into the second stratum (60-80 C.E.), and Matthew, Luke, and John fall in the third stratum (80-120 C.E.) (along with many other documents/fragments in these strata). He then creates a hierarchy of sayings and stories based on the strata and the level of independent attestation. The lower the stratum (i.e. the closer in time to Jesus) and the greater the number of independent sources, the greater the weight/probability that Crossan assigns to that tradition.

Armed with all of these powerful tools, Crossan reaches the following conclusion about the original Jesus of history: Jesus was a "peasant Jewish Cynic." He preached and practiced radical egalitarianism symbolized by an open table at which the despised and outcast (including women) were welcome, and where he, though teacher and healer, was also a lowly servant. At some point he left rural Galilee for Jerusalem, and after creating a disturbance at the temple, was promptly crucified. The passion and resurrection stories were slowly built up from scriptural exegesis as scribal followers tried to make sense of what had happened to their master.

The Historical Jesus is heavy reading on multiple levels (regarding both faith and scholarship). If you haven't read anything yet on the historical study of Jesus, I highly recommend the approachable (and much, much shorter) Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, which is a popularized and condensed version of The Historical Jesus.

89 of 110 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for anyone interested in the historical Jesus, September 22, 1997

By	Frederick Polgardy (Algonquin, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Crossan's book is a rigorous exploration of the anthropological, historical, and literary issues surrounding what we can know about Jesus of Nazareth. Though Crossan himself is not a Christian, this work is by no means an unfavorable portrait of the Galilean. In fact, reading this book may make you realize what it was about this peasant and his "ragtag followers" that has made a 2,000-year impact on Western Civilization.

The backbone of this book is the primary literary material from the Jesus tradition, ranked according to "stratum" and "multiple independent attestation." The earlier a saying or event in these sources can be dated, and the more independent sources attest to it, the higher a ranking it receives in the inventory, and the more likely it is to be authentically spoken or done by Jesus. Being careful to use only materials from the primary stratum (c. 30-60 CE) which have a number of independent attestations, Crossan paints his portrait of Jesus--one, he hopes, which is relatively free from the accretion of later biblical and Christian tradition.

On a personal note, this book has helped me to stick with a Jesus and a religion I was almost ready to give up on. It is always quite exhiliarating to realize that each generation has the renewed challenge to integrate into itself its new discoveries. New discoveries about old origins are no different. I encourage anyone who is interested, at any level, in Jesus of Nazareth and his relationship to Christianity or Western Civilization, to read this book thoroughly. It will definitely change your mind. It might just change your life.

34 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not for amateurs, June 10, 2000

By	Joshua Villines (Atlanta) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Crossan's work is a complex and thorough approach to the Jesus material in the New Testament, as well as to the socio-political period in which Jesus lived. In his preface, Crossan clearly outlines the assumptions that undergird his understanding of both; and I would caution any reader to keep those assumptions in mind. Taking that caveat into account, however, this is a brilliant magnum opus by an outstanding scholar; but one that will take considerable effort for someone not already familiar with the field to understand.