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Who Was Jesus? (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Think of a Victorian drawing-room, hung with faded portraits..." (more)
Key Phrases: virginal conception, Israel's God, Mary Magdalene, New Testament (more...)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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Product Description

This is a penetrating sketch and critique of recent controversial books on the historical Jesus. Showing that much can be gained from a rigorous historical assessment of what the Gospels say about Jesus, this is a book to engage skeptics and believers alike.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 120 pages
  • Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (March 1, 1993)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0802806945
  • ISBN-13: 978-0802806949
  • Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #304,312 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A damning critique of some media darlings, April 30, 2000
By Wayne Symes (Gawler, SA Australia) - See all my reviews
At the beginning of the 1990's a media bandwagon around `new' outlooks on the life of Jesus was in full swing. In particular the works of Bishop John Spong (USA), A.N Wilson (UK) and Barbara Thiering (Australia) were given popular acclaim. Wright (a well credentialled New Testament scholar) takes each of these `writers' and shows how flawed their accounts are. He is strong, concise and rightly critical of poor scholarship. While the times that occasioned the book may have passed, the issues remain and Wright's discussion of what we can say about Jesus is very helpful.
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Lemonaide from lemons., February 22, 2004
By David Marshall (Seattle area) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
At first glance, this seems a rather odd book. What is a first-class historian like N. T. Wright doing, refuting the likes of Spong and Thiering? Does one need a bulldozer to squash ants? (Wilson, I personally find more intelligent, and thus perhaps rising to the dignity of being run over.) Yet Wright gives their arguments a fair hearing, then a fair and gentle hanging.

But there seems to be method to Wright's mildness. As an alternative to the fumbling and bumbling of his protagonists, he offers a simple and readable description of who he has found the historical Jesus to be. Their errors prove a useful foil for explaining the methods and conclusions of legitimate New Testament scholarship. Wright's critiques of those with whom he disagrees are always a delight -- he shows a sincere appreciation for what is worthwhile, then refutes errors with wit and the gentle precision that comes of great intellectual power matched to thorough knowledge of the subject.

The subject here is Jesus, a fox in pursuit of whom academic hounds have banged their heads on many trees. Wright rightly follows him to the cross. "The Christian doctrine is all about a different kind of God -- a God who was so different to normal expectations that he could, completely appropriately, become human . . . To say that Jesus is in some sense God is of course to make a startling statement about Jesus. It is also to make a stupendous claim about God."

I think Wright over-emphasizes the genius of Biblical scholarship. He tends to give the impression that nobody knew anything worth knowing about Jesus, until the question was brought to the attention of modern academics. Having read many "Jesus Seminar" books, I think credentialed scholars like Crossan, Borg, Mack, and Pagels, are often as foolish as Wilson -- and less truly knowledgeable about the historical Jesus than the average Pentacostal grandmother.

Wright also knocks C. S. Lewis for his "odd" criticism of the "quest for Jesus" as "the work of the devil," in the Screwtape Letters. Aside from the unfairness of ignoring the humor in a satire, I think the substance of Lewis' arguments, made more seriously in Fernseed and Elephants, is entirely sound, and makes an excellent critique of many recent historical Jesus reconstructions. I think Wright's historical reconstruction, and Lewis' literary critique of shoddy skeptical arguments, complement one another nicely.

In sum, I recommend this book both for people who have been bamboozled by the particular works it refutes, and also as an antidote to recent works of a similar nature, like the Da Vinci Code, Jesus Mysteries, The Jesus Puzzle, or perhaps Elaine Pagel's new book, Beyond Belief. I am working on a book that will combine Wright and Lewis' approaches, to answer recent attacks on the Gospels.

author, Jesus and the Religions of Man /

christthetao@msn.com

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Still Relevant Expose of Bogus Scholars, August 4, 2005
Let's be clear that in this book evangelical Anglican theologian N.T. Wright exposes the absurd concocted fantasies of three writers who in 1992 published works on Jesus. The common thread in all three writers is their willingness to invent fantastical portraits of Jesus with no basis in history or Scripture. In the process of his devastating critique of these bogus writers, Wright gives us telling theological insights, especially concerning the relation of first century Jewish monotheism and the emerging Christian belief in the divinity of Jesus and concerning the proper perspective with which to approach the question of the virginal conception of Jesus. In addition, Wright provides an initial chapter that gives the general reader an historical overview of Jesus scholarship and a final chapter that ties Wright's insights together. Reading this small book is like being treated to lunch or dinner with an insightful and witty professor who is generously willing to share his best insights.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Paradigm shifting!
Who would've said that at when I finished reading N.T.Wright's Who Was Jesus? my most of the academic paradigms I used to guide my reading and understanding of the New Testament... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Teófilo de Jesús

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed


I was really disappointed with this book. It is not a book about Jesus. It is a tirade against three authors who happen to disagree with him. (N.T. Wright). Read more
Published 6 months ago by G. Poe

4.0 out of 5 stars Good
Wright's book does two things: (1) it condenses his own understanding of who Jesus is into something actually readable by a lay-person (the more thorough books are Jesus and the... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Brian G Hedges

5.0 out of 5 stars Who Was Jesus?
N.T. Wright has a marvelous way of sifting through the many dissonant voices in the debate about the historical Jesus. In his book, "Who Was Jesus?"... Read more
Published on October 30, 2007 by David D. Flowers

5.0 out of 5 stars A short masterpiece of clarity and sense.
I cannot praise this little book highly enough. Do not be put off by its brevity. Though short - about 100 pages - it contains more substance than many a larger volume, and though... Read more
Published on December 11, 2006 by Dr J

3.0 out of 5 stars Jesus is All Things to All People.
Jesus set an example no one else could duplicate, as he was one in a hundred million, the Son of God. Read more
Published on November 12, 2006 by Betty Burks

5.0 out of 5 stars debunking the debunkers
Wright, one of the world's leading biblical scholars, takes a close look at the writings of three popular debunkers of the Gospel image of Christ. Read more
Published on September 8, 2003 by matt

5.0 out of 5 stars State of the Quest
Each year as we approach Christmas and Easter, we are inevitably greeted at magazine racks by news journals trumpeting the "latest scholarship" on the "historic Jesus". Read more
Published on July 12, 2003 by Christian Book Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A little out of date, a little light, but excellent
I don't have much to add, but I found this book to be an excellent introduction to the 'New New Quest for the Historical Jesus' and the non-scholarly populizers of certain views... Read more
Published on December 28, 2002 by Clayton J. Hanson

5.0 out of 5 stars Too bad this book is needed
Over the course of the last several hundred years a challenge has been once again raised. This challenge is to come to terms with who exactly was this person Jesus of Nazareth... Read more
Published on February 22, 2002 by Patrick Oden

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