We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,752,034.94 | Books Available: 730,161 | Members Online: 253

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - The Historical Jesus : The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant

The Historical Jesus The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant
Author: John Dominic Crossan

"He comes as yet unknown into a hamlet of Lower Galilee. He is watched by the cold, hard eyes of peasants living long enough at a subsistence level to know exactly where the line is drawn between poverty and destitution. He looks like a beggar yet his eyes lack the proper cringe, his voice the proper whine, his walk the proper shuffle. He s... more »peaks about the rule of God and they listen as much from curiosity as anything else. They know all about rule and power, about kingdom and empire, but they know it in terms of tax and debt, malnutrition and sickness, agrarian oppression and demonic possession. What, they really want to know, can this kingdom of God do for a lame child, a blind parent, a demented soul screaming its tortured isolation among the graves that mark the edges of the village?"

-- from "The Gospel of Jesus," overture to The Historical Jesus

The Historical Jesus reveals the true Jesus -- who he was, what he did, what he said. It opens with "The Gospel of Jesus," Crossan's studied determination of Jesus' actual words and actions stripped of any subsequent additions and placed in a capsule account of his life story. The Jesus who emerges is a savvy and courageous Jewish Mediterranean peasant, a radical social revolutionary, with a rhapsodic vision of economic, political, and religious egalitarianism and a social program for creating it.

The conventional wisdom of critical historical scholarship has long held that too little is known about the historical Jesus to say definitively much more than that he lived and had a tremendous impact on his followers. "There were always historians who said it could not be done because of historical problems," writes Crossan. "There were always theologians who said it should not be done because of theological objections. And there were always scholars who said the former when they meant the latter.'

With this ground-breaking work, John Dominic Crossan emphatically sweeps these notions aside. He demonstrates that Jesus is actually one of the best documented figures in ancient history; the challenge is the complexity of the sources. The vivid portrayal of Jesus that emerges from Crossan's unique methodology combines the complementary disciplines of social anthropology, Greco-Roman history, and the literary analysis of specific pronouncements anecdotes, confessions and interpretations involving Jesus. All three levels cooperate equally and fully in an effective synthesis that provides the most definitive presentation of the historical Jesus yet attained.

ISBN-13: 9780060616298
ISBN-10: 0060616296
Publication Date: 2/26/1993
Pages: 544
Rating:

Currently 4.3/5 Stars.

4.3 stars, based on 2 ratings

Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Read All 2 Book Reviews of "The Historical Jesus The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant"

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

Darinda M. (Darinda) reviewed The Historical Jesus : The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant on 1/15/2007 + 51 more book reviews

The San Fransico Chronicle :
"Crossan sees Jesus as a radical social reformer, an egalitarian peasant leader who challenged the religious and political powers of his day by preaching that everyone has immediate access to the divine through their everyday life."

Share/Like this Review?

Judi S. reviewed The Historical Jesus : The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant on 12/20/2005 + 19 more book reviews

For the religious historian .

Share/Like this Review?

Read All Book Reviews of "The Historical Jesus The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant"

Genres:

Biographies & Memoirs >> Leaders & Notable People >> Religious
Religion & Spirituality >> Religious Studies >> History
Religion & Spirituality >> Authors, A-Z >> ( C ) >> Crossan, John Dominic
Christian Books & Bibles >> Church History >> General
Christian Books & Bibles >> Jesus >> Historical Jesus

Back to the Top ↑

Search - The Historical Jesus : The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

Loading...