Jesus the Rabbi Prophet: A New Light on the Gospel Message (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Restores the historical context of the gospels and the Jewish nature of the message of Christ

• Uses the latest historical findings to explore the life of Jesus in its true historical setting

• Shows that Jesus was a Jewish teacher who sought to restore dignity to the ostracized members of his society

The canonical gospels were in large part written by authors who were not eyewitnesses to the events they described, and their writings were slanted to fill the needs of the new Church. As a result, a huge gulf exists between the Christ of the Christian church and the historical Jesus. In Jesus the Rabbi Prophet scholar and historian Jacques Baldet seeks to restore the historical context and true nature of the Jewish society in which Jesus lived, and through which his actions assume on an entirely different meaning.

The research of modern historians has shed much new light on the historical circumstances at work in Judaea and the Roman provinces that Jesus knew. Looking at the life of Jesus in its broader historical setting has given Jacques Baldet answers to many of the questions that have puzzled historians, such as when did Jesus really live and what was the true nature of his family, convictions, and spiritual beliefs. From this vibrant and highly informed perspective the deeper story of the man from Galilee emerges: Rabbi Jesus was both a Jew imbued with the monotheistic teaching of the Torah and a visionary who preached of the kingdom within. Viewed in their proper historical context, the Stations of the Passion and Christ’s betrayal by Judas and death on Calvary take on a new light. Baldet shows that the true life and original message of Jesus were concealed beneath the literary creations that primarily reflected the agenda of the early Church. Jesus was not trying to start a new religion. He was a Jewish teacher who sought to reform the faith of his fathers by restoring dignity to the unfortunate and ostracized members of his society.

From the Back Cover

RELIGION / CHRISTIAN STUDIES

The canonical gospels were written long after the events they describe. Indeed, some of them may have been written by authors who were not even eyewitnesses to these events and who slanted their writings to fit the needs of the new Church. As a result, a huge gulf exists between the Christ of the Christian church and the historical Jesus. In Jesus the Rabbi Prophet Jacques Baldet seeks to restore the historical context and true nature of the Jewish society in which Jesus lived--a context in which his actions take on an entirely different meaning.

The research of modern historians has shed much new light on the historical circumstances at work in Judaea and the Roman provinces that Jesus knew. Looking at the life of Jesus in its broader historical setting gives us answers to questions that have long puzzled historians: When did Jesus actually live? What was the true nature of his family, convictions, and spiritual beliefs? From this vibrant and highly informed perspective, the deeper story of the man from Galilee emerges: Rabbi Jesus was both a Jew imbued with the monotheistic teaching of the Torah and a visionary who preached of the kingdom within. Viewed in their proper historical context, Christ’s betrayal by Judas, the Stations of the Passion, and his death on Calvary take on a new light. Baldet shows that the true life and original message of Jesus were concealed beneath the literary creations that primarily reflected the agenda of the early Church. Jesus was not seeking to start a new religion. He was a Jewish teacher who sought to reform the faith of his fathers by restoring dignity to the unfortunate and ostracized members of his society.

JACQUES BALDET is a writer, economist, and international consultant who completed graduate studies in economics at the Sorbonne. He has worked for the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and as a consultant for the United Nations Development Program. For many years he has conducted research into the historical Jesus and the Jewish roots of Christianity. He lives in France.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Inner Traditions (August 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594770700
• ISBN-13: 978-1594770708
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,398,625 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fresh look at Jesus the man, September 17, 2005

By	GMD - See all my reviews

I really enjoyed reading this book and discovering many aspects about Jesus the man and the sociological context in which he lived. I particularly appreciated that this book has no theological agenda. It presents conflicting views of Jesus'life, yet no sides are taken.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Make up your own mind, September 29, 2005

By	Sherman "James" - See all my reviews

At last, here is a book that doesn't pretend to tell the true story about Jesus' life but presents a wide spectrum of what has been written about the historical Jesus, including works by non-Christian authors. Confronted by many different views and interpretations of what Jesus may have done or said, the reader is invited to use his own judgment to decide what appears to be the most credible image of this extraordinary man - the one who Christians proclaim to be the Son of God.

10 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A modern gnostic view of Jesus' life, September 15, 2005

By	Luke Wayne "Waz" (Jacksonville) - See all my reviews

If you are not a Christian, this book would be a poor introduction to Christianity and will probably have little appeal to you since it does not present Jesus as a religious figure. If you are a Christian, the mere assumption that there are "literary creations" within the Gospels will draw you away from this book. Of course, if you're an atheist, this book will hold no appeal for you. So this book begs the question: who is it written for?

The writer tries his best to pretend to be impartial in his view of Jesus, but to say he comes up short would be a stretch. Rule number one of an impartial approach to any study is not to bring your own assumptions into your subject. But that is not what the author does. In fact, from page one he assumes that the Gospels are full of mere "literary creations", and that dooms the book from the start. Bottom line about any study performed on the figure, historical or otherwise, of Jesus is to approach the subject willing to consider that whoever wrote the Gospels was either a)inspired by the Holy Spirit as it is widely believed by Christians or b)that the authors had no need to embelish the life of Jesus since His teachings and works were pretty amazing of themselves. If you're not willing to consider any of these two possibilities, you will end up with the biased study contained in this book.

This book takes the gnostic approach to Jesus: that he was simply a man. A great man, whose teachings were intended to start a theological revolution much like Muhammad (Mohammed) or Confucius, but just a man. It casts doubt upon the veracity of the works of Jesus, including the many miracles He performed, by dumping them into the "literary creations" category. Sometimes this is subtly implied, but a lot of the times it stops short of actually denouncing Jesus' life and works as figments of someone's imagination. Instead, this books focuses more on Jesus' ministry being one of teachings in front of an audience, a teacher for the masses. It sort of turns Jesus into a jewish Dalai Lama, all style and nothing to support his claim of divinity. Furthermore, it does not even consider the posibility that the Gospels are reinforced by the Epistoles of Paul, who lived in Judaea during Jesus' ministry and who may or may not have been a witness to it. Certainly, if the Gospels erred (or incurred in "literary creations") chances are Paul or any other New Testament author, like John of Pathmos, would have at some point contradicted them. They never did.

Also, the author fails to acknowledge that in those first 100 years or so after Jesus' ministry, there was no organized church. Christians did not even decide on a time or place where they would meet again, they simply did (guided, Christians believe, solely by the Holy Spirit). We get this from pagan historians of the era (like Suetonius, Marcellinus or Tacitus), not from Christian historians. Therefore the assumption is that a pagan historian, since he has nothing to gain by advancing the early church's "agenda", must be telling the truth. When the early Christians met, it was not to decide on an "agenda" but to either share on the messages of Jesus' ministry or, like the Council of Jerusalem, to discuss differences of opinion on whether gentiles should be approached with Jesus' message and how. Early Christians were, simply put, organized only in the fact that they believed Jesus to be the Messiah and Savior.

Once you fail to take all those facts into consideration you end up with the erratic views expressed in this book. In the old Gnostic church, this would be a best seller. Today, it is merely an unscientific study of one man's life from the point of view of another without taking into consideration the overriding facts surrounding his subject. It pretends to sound scientific and from a historian's point of view, but it never ceases to be a pretender.