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

~ 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...)

3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (39 customer reviews)

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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: #125,841 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in these categories: (What's this?)
#11 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Authors, A-Z > ( C ) > Crossan, John Dominic
#65 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Jesus > Historical Jesus

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
The first century of the common era is obscured from our contemporary view by three giant filters. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
plural attestation, apocalyptic sanctions, sapiential kingdom, martyrdom vindicated, apocalyptic layer, single attestation, detailed miracle, apocalyptic judge, decremental deprivation, open commensality, multiple independent attestation, millennial prophets, itinerant radicalism, retainer class, apocalyptic return, twin versions, primary stratum, fourth philosophy, first stratum, rural bandits, twin modes, fifth empire, fourth stratum, messianic claimants, prophetic passion

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Jewish Antiquities, Sayings Gospel, Gospel of Thomas, Secret Mark, Cross Gospel, Richard Horsley, New Testament, Shaye Cohen, Babylonian Talmud, Gospel of Peter, Jesus of Nazareth, John the Baptist, Judas the Galilean, Simon Peter, Egerton Gospel, Bryan Wilson, Coming One, Hanina ben Dosa, Musonius Rufus, Dead Man Raised, Psalms of Solomon, Blind Man Healed, Helmut Koester, John Kloppenborg, Book of the Similitudes

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 100 books:

Josephus: Jewish Antiquities, Book 20 (Loeb Classical Library No. 456) (Bk.XX v. 13) by Josephus on 51 pages
Secret Gospel by Morton Smith on 5 pages
On Agriculture (Loeb Classical Library) by Cato on page 47, page 51, and Back Matter
The Quest of the Historical Jesus by Albert Schweitzer on page 225, page 227, and page 395
Against Apion by Flavius Josephus on page 92, page 93, and page 94

See all 100 books this book cites

100 books cite this book:

Der Historische Jesus: Tendenzen Und Perspektiven Der Gegenwartigen Forschung (Beihefte Zur Zeitschrift Fur Die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft Und Die Kunde Der Alteren Kirche) by Schroeter Jens on 4 pages
The Gospel According to Mark (Pillar New Testament Commentary) by James R. Edwards on page 51, page 178, and page 486
Jesus Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus by Michael J. Wilkins in Front Matter, page 71, and page 228
Re-Imagine the World by Bernard Brandon Scott on page 137, page 157, and Back Matter
Transcendence: Critical Realism and God (Critical Realism: Interventions) by Margaret S. Archer on page 61, and page 167

See all 100 books citing this book

Books on Related Topics (learn more)

Jesus by John Dominic Crossan

Discusses:

The Birth of Christianity by John Dominic Crossan

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Lord Jesus Christ by Larry W. Hurtado

Discusses:

Dictionary of New Testament Background by Craig A. Evans

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	75% buy the item featured on this page: The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasa 3.6 out of 5 stars (39) $15.59
	13% buy Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography 3.6 out of 5 stars (54) $10.19
	5% buy God and Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now 4.4 out of 5 stars (20) $11.92
	4% buy The Birth of Christianity : Discovering What Happened in the Years Immediately After the Execution of Jesus 3.4 out of 5 stars (47) $17.15

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Customer Reviews

39 Reviews

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3.6 out of 5 stars (39 customer reviews)

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37 of 39 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 "sacrilicious!" (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.

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90 of 111 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.

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33 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Programatically Retrojecting Postressurrectional Manifestations, January 5, 2006

By	Smallchief - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE)

When I read a book that I don't understand, I try to determine if it's the author's fault or my ignorance and mental deficiencies. In the case of "The Historical Jesus" it's mostly the author's fault.

First of all, the cover misdescribes the book as "the first comprehensive determination of who Jesus was, what he did, what he said." But Jesus is barely mentioned until page 227. Before that, in Chapter 8, for example, the author embarks on a long essay on magic and Elijah that is hundreds of years removed from Jesus. In 500 pages the author says practically nothing about who Jesus "was, what he did, and what he said." This is a book about Mediterranean society of the first century of the Christian era rather than Jesus. Parts are interesting and enlightening which is why Crossan gets three stars from me; parts are relevant; parts are incomprehensible.

Second, is the issue of an index -- or lack thereof. Crossan has eighteen pages at the end of the book in appendices filled with mysterious numbers and references that bear no relationship whatsoever to a conventional index. Crossan reveals at page 421 that, in his opinion, Jesus was a "Jewish peasant cynic." Well, that's interesting, please explain. What's his definition of a cynic and how does he arrive at that conclusion? Perhaps it was divine inspiration because there's no index to lead you back to additional information. Thumbing through the book I finally found on page 74, a brief, incomplete, and confusing description of cynicism. That's all folks. You'd think that if an author was going to conclude that Jesus was a cynic, he'd give us a bit more background on the subject. OK, maybe I can figure out what a cynic is. but what's a peasant cynic? And what in the world is a "Jewish peasant cynic?"

Then, there's his multi-syllabic language -- as exemplified by the title of this review which is taken from a sentence on page 396. If you understand this phrase, perhaps you will like the book.

That's just a sample of my criticisms of this book. Along the way, however, the author explores some interesting issues: the honor code of the Mediterranean, the role of bandits in society, etc. Interesting -- but to spend more time on a discussion of banditry than the highlights of the life of Jesus seems a bit odd for a book titled, "The Historical Jesus." If you're interested in learning about Jesus and his life this is not the book for you.

Smallchief

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed
The first 100 or so pages enthralled me as Crossan analyzes the writings of Josephus and others in regard to Palestine for the 100 years prior to the destruction of the Temple in... Read more

Published 19 months ago by M. Strong

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible work of history and textual criticism
This is a very thorough textual analysis of primary documentation for the life of Jesus. It is also not a book for everyone. Read more

Published 19 months ago by Atheen M. Wilson

4.0 out of 5 stars Massive Scholarship, But Not Concise Enough
This is an enormous collection of material about the world at the time of Jesus. It's difficult and very long reading. Read more

Published 22 months ago by Searching the Stars

4.0 out of 5 stars Christ in Context
"The Historical Jesus" by John Dominic Crossan is a scholarly work that is intended for those willing to undergo a baptism in detail that will leave them fully immersed in the... Read more

Published on December 29, 2007 by Thomas Cordle

4.0 out of 5 stars Historical Jesus, a serious study
This is an essential work for any serious understanding of Jesus today.
I do not agree with all Crossan's interpretations, but he gives essential background for study of... Read more

Published on December 14, 2007 by L. J. Austin

4.0 out of 5 stars Massive, Important Scholarship
For all its flaws, John Dominic Crossan's "The Historical Jesus" is certainly essential reading for anyone interested in, well, the historical Jesus. Read more

Published on August 21, 2007 by Rudiger

3.0 out of 5 stars Crossan's Jesus
Crossan writes well, and his "historical Jesus" is a must-read and a fast-read for anyone interested in Jesus or Christianity. Read more

Published on November 22, 2006 by Jim

1.0 out of 5 stars Kross'n Crossan
I'm not a card shark, so I'm going to tip my hand. I am both a Christian and a scientist. I want you to know at the outset that as brilliant as this man is, and as logical as... Read more

Published on November 3, 2006 by K. Ross

1.0 out of 5 stars Do Not Take Up Your Crossan and Follow Him
In "The Historical Jesus" John Dominic Crossan attempts to de-mythologize the New Testament in order to recover the Jesus of history (as opposed to the Jesus of faith)... Read more

Published on August 30, 2006 by Kungpowell

5.0 out of 5 stars Who to follow?
Great book. Author is sensitive to likely human need for faith and belonging, while remaining fearless and faithful to the task of asking difficult questions. Read more

Published on January 21, 2006 by Kyle L. Baymiller

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