Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus Vol. 4.1 pp. 109-115 DOI: 10.

1177/1476869006062819 2006 SAGE Publications London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi http://JSHJ.sagepub.com

BOOK LIST

Books on the Historical Jesus

BAILEY, Kenneth E., Jesus and the Prodigal: How Jesus Retold Israels Story (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), pb, 225 pp. ISBN 0830827277. $17.00. Bailey provides a careful analysis of the Parable of the Prodigal Son in discussion with N.T. Wrights analysis of the same parable in Jesus and the Victory of God. Both Bailey and Wright understand the parable to portray the themes of exile and redemption. In Wrights view it is the Exodus story that provides the background to the parable, but Bailey argues that the background is found rather in the story of Jacob in Genesis. Bailey argues that the Prodigal Son must be understood alongside the Parables of the Lost Sheep and Lost Coin, which he discusses briey before turning to his analysis of the Prodigal Son. All three parables contain elements that are scandalous and thus are likely authentic based on the criterion of embarrassment. Before exploring the Prodigal Son in detail, Bailey discusses how the Jacob story was retold in later Jewish literature. The core of the book is a detailed analysis of the fty-one points of contact between the Jacob story and the Parable of the Prodigal Son. In his concluding chapter Bailey identies how this reading of the Parable impacts the understanding of Jesus theology: the denition of sin, the nature of God, the person of Jesus, and the themes of repentance and salvation. This fascinating exploration of the Parable of the Prodigal Son deserves a careful reading, and it will become a major point of departure for future discussions of this signicant parable. RLW

FOSSUM, Jarl, and Phillip MUNOA, Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction to Gospel Literature and Jesus Studies (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2004), pb, xii + 324 pp. ISBN 0534635040. $49.95/. This volume is designed explicitly as a college textbook and would be suitable for an upperlevel undergraduate course. Part 1 introduces Jesus and the Gospels by discussing the terms gospel and Gospels and explores the genre of the Gospels as well as describing the evidence for Jesus, and outlining a history of historical-Jesus scholarship. Part 2 introduces the critical methods used to study the Gospels including textual, source, redaction, form, and tradition

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criticism. Part 3 explores the content and theology of each of the four canonical Gospels, while Part 4 explores the Gospel of Thomas and other Jewish-Christian Gospels. Part 5 places Jesus within the context of his world by discussing the variety of religious groups in Jesus day and then explores in greater detail the role of John the Baptist. Part 6 discusses the life of Jesus focusing in particular upon the nativity, the passion narrative, and Easter. Part 7 explores major themes in the teaching of Jesus including the kingdom of God, parables, miracles, the Law, and his view of himself. At the end of each chapters discussion is a summary, a list of key terms, review questions, and suggestions for further reading. This volume provides a helpful introduction to the historical Jesus and Gospel studies, but it tends to provide only one point of view on issues where there is actually considerable scholarly debate. RLW

FREYNE, Sean, Jesus, A Jewish Galilean: A New Reading of the Jesus-Story (London: T & T Clark International, 2004), pb, xiv + 212 pp. ISBN 0567084574. $31.95. Sean Freyne, an acknowledged expert on Galilee in the Second Temple period, turns his hand to the implications a Galilean context has for understanding the historical Jesus. From a methodological point of view he stresses the importance of Jesus Jewish context, appreciates Theissens criterion of historical plausibility, acknowledges the contributions of social-scientic approaches and the use of archaeology, and the value of Moxnes recent work on the importance of place. For Freyne, Jesus enters the region [of Galilee] from the desert not to go home to the old Galilee, but on a mission to remake it in accordance with his vision. Galilee is not a stage on which he acts out the drama of his life and which determines its direction. It is rather a challenge to compete for his version of Galilee in relation both to the external and the internal relations that existed in the region (18). Freyne stresses the importance of the Hebrew scriptures, and in particular the Torah and Prophets, for Jesus understanding of his mission. The rest of the volume explores various aspects of Galilee from these perspectives. Chapter 2 explores the geographical and natural characteristics of Galilee in order to appreciate the itinerant travels of Jesus and his use of local qualities in his teaching and parables. Chapter 3 considers Galilean identity in light of the history of conquest and settlement, and the tension this created between Jews and Gentiles. Jesus may have seen as part of his mission to reach out to his Gentile neighbours. Chapter 4 considers the rhetoric of the Isaianic Zion traditions and suggests that Jesus understood himself as a prophet in this tradition, seeking to restore an idealized Zion. Chapter 5 considers Jesus in relation to the Roman authority, and explores how Daniels apocalyptic rhetoric may have shaped Jesus vision of an eschatological kingdom of God as a response to the Roman Empire. The nal chapter considers Jesus in relation to Jerusalem and the Temple. Jesus Temple action was a reaction to the realities of the Temple in contrast to the ideals of the eschatological Temple of Isaiah and 1 Enoch. Jesus death as a martyr is consistent with the fate of the Isaianic suffering servant and the righteous maskilim of Daniel. Freynes work, while not creating a new portrait of Jesus, does provide many interesting and helpful insights into the historical Jesus. His emphasis on Galilean distinctives and the importance of the Hebrew scriptures are particularly signicant. RLW

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McCLYMOND, Michael J., Familiar Stranger: An Introduction to Jesus of Nazareth (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), pb, xii + 212 pp. ISBN 0802826806. $16.00. This volume, written for a general audience, provides an introduction to the historical Jesus. The author sets up the discussion with a series of introductory chapters that provide a brief portrait of Jesus, a history of Jesus research, a discussion of the sources and methods used in the quests, as well as a brief description of the geographical, political, and socio-cultural context in Palestine. Having laid this foundation, McClymond discusses the historical Jesus using the following topics: Jesus relation to John the Baptist, his message of the Kingdom of God, his use of deeds of power including healings and exorcisms, his role as a teacher, the controversies in which he engaged, the events of the nal week, and the resurrection. The nal two chapters explore the identity of Jesus using both wisdom and apocalyptic images, and a concluding chapter which critiques contemporary images of Jesus. The author argues that Jesus should be understood both in terms of wisdom and eschatologyboth sage and prophet. This well-written and easyreading book provides a helpful introduction to the issues surrounding the historical Jesus. RLW

MOXNES, Halvor, Putting Jesus in His Place: A Radical Vision of Household and Kingdom (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2003), pb, x + 222 pp. ISBN 0664223109. $34.95/. Moxnes explores the spatial dimensions of the historical Jesus because identities are located, developed, and sustained in place (2; emphasis in the original). Important locations of identities for Jesus included the household, the village, and Galilee. But place also involves social and ideological places and may include issues of gender, power, etc. Thus, for Moxnes to say that Jesus and his followers were placed in a house or a village also indicated that they were placed in a system of social and gender positions. But Jesus left his own household and dislocated his would-be-followers from their households, and established the possibility of a new place as a basis for identity (2). Moxnes relates his use of place theory to queer theory which understands the socio-cultural context to dene what is normal and who has power, and thus what is central as distinct from the peripheral. In Moxnes analysis Jesus moves beyond the identity provided for him in his household (ch. 2). Jesus rejects his home place and establishes an alternate placea household based on kinship among Jesus followers (ch. 3). By leaving the household and the traditional role as male head of it, Jesus also left male space and entered queer space (a technical term which does not dene sexual identity so much as peripheral identity) in which others are also welcomed who live outside the male space, including women, children, and ascetics (chs 45). The Kingdom is an imagined place built on the image of the household with God as father (ch. 6). Jesus exorcisms are more than healings; they are a challenge to those in power for control of public space (ch. 7). The nal chapter (ch. 8) summarizes the results: Jesus broke with household and community and in imagined places created a new household and community in the kingdom of God by means of his healings, exorcisms, communal meals, as well as his teaching and parables which challenged the dominant power structures in Galilee. This brief summary does not do justice to the complexities and subtleties of Moxnes argument. While not particularly easy to read, this work nevertheless repays a careful reading, for it is an interesting and challenging contribution that uses social-scientic approaches such as models of honour and shame, patron and client, as well as post-modern approaches such as post-colonialism. New light is shed on neglected texts within the Jesus tradition. RLW

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Books on Subjects Related to the Historical Jesus

BURRIDGE, Richard A., and Graham GOULD, Jesus Now and Then (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), pb, xii + 215 pp. ISBN 0802809774. $16.00. As suggested by this volumes title, the nine chapters explore the impact that Jesus had in his original context and traces this impact through the NT as well as through the centuries of church history to the present day. After the opening chapter discusses the parameters of Jesus Now and Then, the second chapter provides a brief overview of the historical Jesus and the subsequent quests. The next three chapters explore Jesus in the Gospels, Jesus and Paul, and the variety of NT views of Jesus. The nal four chapters develop this understanding through the subsequent centuries, and include discussions of the early church and Jesus teaching, the role of Jesus in early Christian worship, the church debates concerning Jesus as human and divine, and the modern understandings of Jesus. Originally given as nine public lectures at Kings College, London, this volume provides a helpful overview of these topics for a general audience or college textbook. RLW

BURRIDGE, Richard A., What are the Gospels?: A Comparison with Graeco-Roman Biography (The Biblical Resource Series; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2nd edn, 2004), pb, xiv + 366 pp. ISBN 0802809715. $34.00. The rst edition of this work has been widely inuential in shaping the scholarly discussion concerning the genre of the Gospels, and so this second edition is welcome. In it Burridge updates the discussion in all ten chapters, but the most signicant development is the addition of chapter 11 which provides responses to both written reviews as well as scholarly oral debates. In addition, it engages other, more recent, discussions concerning the genre of the Gospels. The second half of this chapter explores implications Burridge sees arising out of his work to which he has given attention in his subsequent research, including the Gospels as christological narrative, the social setting of the Gospels, the absence of rabbinic biography, and the relation of biographical narrative and NT ethics. This second edition also includes an appendix which reprints Burridges earlier essay, Gospel Genre, Christological Controversy and the Absence of Rabbinic Biography: Some Implications of the Biographical Hypothesis. RLW

GIBSON, Shimon, The Cave of John the Baptist: The Stunning Archaeological Discovery that has Redened Christian History (New York: Doubleday, 2004), hb, xvi + 382 pp. ISBN 0385503474. $26.00. This volume is a fascinating account of an archaeologists initial discovery and subsequent exploration and interpretation of that discovery. In November 1999, Gibson discovered a cave

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about two kilometres east of the Jordan River and about one kilometre from the ancient site of Suba. The cave itself is like an elongated hall about 24 metres by 3.5 metres, and it had plastered walls, on which were drawings including that of a man (p. 13). Associated with the cave is a water source which suggests that the cave was used for ritual bathing. This is interpreted by Gibson as a drawing of John the Baptist, and that the cave was used by him and his followers. Much of the book does not discuss the archaeology of the site so much as the history and traditions concerning John the Baptist. While this book makes for interesting reading, I remain unconvinced that the cave actually has any connection with John the Baptist at all. The evidence is just too tenuous. Unfortunately the books subtitle claims far more than it delivers: This is neither a stunning archaeological discovery, nor has it redened Christian history. Furthermore, the broader discussions concerning John the Baptist do not adequately engage recent scholarship on the subject. RLW

GOODACRE, Mark, and Nicholas PERRIN (eds.), Questioning Q: A Multidimensional Critique (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004), pb, xiv + 201 pp. ISBN 0830827692. $19.00. The Q hypothesislong considered one of the assured results of scholarshiphas always had a few opponents. But the work of Goulder and more recently of Goodacre has raised new questions about the existence of Q. This collection of essays raises questions using a number of methodological perspectives, including historical, literary, source, and redaction criticism. The essays conclude: Introduction: Reasons for Questioning Q by Nicholas Perrin; The Q Hypothesis and the Role of Pre-Synoptic Sources in Nineteenth-Century Scholarship by John C. Poirier; Order in the Double Tradition and the Existence of Q by Jeffrey Peterson; Lukes Rewriting of the Sermon on the Mount by Mark A. Matson; The Limits of a Reconstructed Q by Nicholas Perrin; Reconstructing Mark: A Thought Experiment by Eric Eve; When Is a Text Not a Text? The Quasi Text-Critical Approach of the International Q Project by Mark Goodacre; Unpicking on the Farrer Theory by Ken Olson; How Minor? Assessing the Signicance of the Minor Agreements as an Argument against the Two-Source Hypothesis by Richard Vinson; Some Implications of Dispensing with Q by Nicholas Perrin; and A World without Q by Mark Goodacre. Whatever ones position on the Q hypothesis, this collection of essays provides a carefully reasoned critique which should be read by all sides of this debate. RLW

HARPUR, Tom, The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light (Toronto: Thomas Allen, 2004), hb, xiv + 244 pp. ISBN 0887621457. $34.95. Harpurs thesis is that Jesus never existed and that the NT is a development of the Christos myth that is the core of all ancient religions. The Christos is the name given to the incarnate presence of God within (p. 24). The Jesus Christ presented in the NT draws upon these ancient traditions. The later church has misunderstood the NT by understanding Jesus to be a historical gure. Harpurs conclusion is that people must abandon this historicized reading of the NT and seek rather to allow ones inner Christos to be unleashed and to spiritualize our nature (p. 25). This work is a pastiche of poor arguments and half-baked claims. It shows little

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real awareness of the primary literature and the relevant secondary literature. While it has a bibliography and some footnotes, it is poorly documented and badly supported. It is sad day for critical scholarship when a book like this gets foisted upon an unsuspecting public and gets on a best-seller list. RLW

INSTONE-BREWER, David, Prayer and Agriculture, Vol. 1 of Traditions of the Rabbis from the Era of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), hb, xxvi + 456 pp. ISBN 0802847625. $60.00. This is the rst volume of an anticipated six-volume set which, as the series title indicates, collects together the rabbinic traditions dated prior to 70 CE and provided commentary on them with reference to their relevance for the NT. This rst volume begins with an introduction to the rabbinic traditions and literaturea helpful survey for the non-specialist. Also included is a discussion of the problems and methods for dating individual sayings and traditions. InstoneBrewer builds upon the work of Neusner in the methods used for dating. He provides a scale of 1 to 13 to rate the condence of assigning a pre-70 CE date to a tradition. The layout follows the order of tractates in the Mishnah, with this rst volume covering the eleven tractates in the rst division, Zeraim. Each tractate is divided into sections and a summary provided for the contents of the section. Individual units of tradition in the section are cited with the Hebrew text provided along with a quite literal English translation. Parts of the English translation that can be dated prior to 70 CE are printed in bold. This is followed by a brief commentary on the text followed by a discussion of the dating of the particular tradition and a condence rating. The nal part of each unit is a discussion of how this relates to particular NT texts. Indices include proper names (persons and places), subjects, and ancient literature. Past generations of NT scholars made indiscriminate use of rabbinic traditions (with heavy dependence upon Strack-Billerbeck), but when rightly criticized, the pendulum swung to virtually ignoring these traditions altogether. Instone-Brewer is to be commended for providing this invaluable tool which will hopefully bring the pendulum into a more balanced position. While I am sure that scholars will differ with him on individual decisions made, the endeavour as a whole is an invaluable new tool. We look forward to the future volumes. RLW

LOADER, William, Sexuality and the Jesus Tradition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), pb, viii + 288 pp. ISBN 0802828620. $30.00. This volume is a careful exegetical examination of the Jesus traditions concerning matters of human sexuality. The texts considered are drawn primarily from the Gospels, but 1 Cor. 7 is also included. Chapter 1, Sex and Danger: Passion and Responsibility, considers Jesus saying concerning looking upon a woman to lust after her (Mt. 5:2728), the excision sayings (Mk 9:4348 par.) and other similar texts and so draws out an understanding of the view of sexual immorality implied in these texts. Chapter 2, Order and Chaos: Marriage and Divorce, examines the sayings concerning divorce in the Gospels and 1 Cor. 7. Loader explores the tension between traditions which appear absolute in their prohibitions and those which are not so

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absolute. Chapter 3, Celibacy and Hope: Interim Choices, explores texts relating to a variety of issues including eunuchs, celibacy, virgins, widows, etc. The Conclusion draws together themes arising out of the earlier chapters from the perspective of their implications for biblical theology. While Loader is sensitive to matters of Jesus Jewish context, the exegetical consideration is primarily at the level of the Gospel material (thus the term Jesus traditions) rather than that of the historical Jesus. RLW RLW = Robert L. Webb