4.2 Crossan & Reed (2001, 2nd edition 2003)
Crossan, John Dominic & Reed, Jonathan L. (2001, 2nd edition 2003) Excavating Jesus: Beneath the Stones, Behind the Texts. New York: HarperSanFrancisco.
Quick Look
Author
John Dominic Crossan, professor emeritus at DePaul University, is widely regarded as the foremost historical Jesus scholar of our time. In the last forty years he has written twenty-five books on the historical Jesus, earliest Christianity, and the historical Paul. Five of them have been national religious bestsellers for a combined total of twenty-four months. The scholarly core of his work is the trilogy (1) The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant (1991), (2) The Birth of Christianity: Discovering What Happened in the Years Immediately After the Execution of Jesus (1998) and (3) In Search of Paul: How Jesus’s Apostle Opposed Rome’s Empire with God’s Kingdom--A New Vision of Paul’s Words & World, also co-authored with the archaeologist Jonathan L. Reed (2004). His work has been translated into twelve foreign languages, including Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Russian. He co-founded the Jesus Seminar and has served as president of the Society of Biblical Literature. I've also reviewed on this site Crossan's God & Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now (2007) (see 6.3), The Greatest Prayer: Rediscovering the Revolutionary Message of the Lord's Prayer (2010) (see 6.8) and The Challenge of Jesus (DVD Set and Resource Guide) (2011) (see 4.14), The Power of Parable: How Fiction By Jesus Became Fiction About Jesus (2012) (see 4.12). How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian: Struggling With Divine Violence From Genesis Through Revelation (2015) (see 4.18). |
Jonathan L. Reed is Professor of New Testament at the University of La Verne, CA. He is also on the research council of Claremont Graduate University’s world-renowned Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, where he is directing their Galilean Archaeology and the Historical Jesus project. Dr. Reed is recognized as a leading authority on the archaeology of early Christianity and has excavated in Galilee since 1987, including Sepphoris as chief archaeologist. He has conducted research at the Albright Insitiute for Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, the American Academy in Rome, and the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. He is the author of (1) Archaeology and the Galilean Jesus and (2) The HarperCollins Visual Guide to the New Testament: What Archaeology Reveals about the First Christians and (3) another book co-authored with John Dominic Crossan, In Search of Paul: How Jesus’s Apostle Opposed Rome’s Empire with God’s Kingdom--A New Vision of Paul’s Words & World.
This Resource’s Key Interpretations and Insights Related to the Purposes of This Website
I think this is one of the best books on the historical Jesus; it's written by an unusual, but very fruitful, pairing of co-authors--a renowned biblical scholar and an accomplished archeologist of the Holy Land. While very scholarly in a number of places, my review is designed to capture it's primary points for the general public.
Many consider John Dominic Crossan to be the premiere historical Jesus scholar of his generation. I consider this book by this postmodern liberal/progressive biblical scholar to be the best overview of his lifetime study of the life and teachings of Jesus done in a unique collaboration with an biblical archeologist that illumines the key geographical locations.
I think this is one of the best books on the historical Jesus; it's written by an unusual, but very fruitful, pairing of co-authors--a renowned biblical scholar and an accomplished archeologist of the Holy Land. While very scholarly in a number of places, my review is designed to capture it's primary points for the general public.
Many consider John Dominic Crossan to be the premiere historical Jesus scholar of his generation. I consider this book by this postmodern liberal/progressive biblical scholar to be the best overview of his lifetime study of the life and teachings of Jesus done in a unique collaboration with an biblical archeologist that illumines the key geographical locations.
- This book reveals a great deal about what Jesus' world was actually like as shown through the excavations of modern archaeology. These insights challenge many of the traditional images of that world still quite common today.
- However, what makes this book truly unique is the surprising way the authors metaphorically apply the archaeological term "excavating" to the way modern biblical scholars have to work down through textual "layers" of the gospels in order to reconstruct the historical Jesus' life and teachings. What emerges is an understandings of Jesus that is quite different from many traditional portraits, which leave out his challenges to the social, political and economic injustices of his time.
(Click here for a extended Crossan YouTube lecture summarizing the detailed methodology he uses to reconstruct the historical Jesus.) |
Quotes from Text
"This book is about digging for Jesus, digging down archaeologically amidst the stones to reconstruct his world and digging down exegetically amidst the texts to reconstruct his life." (p. 1)
"Why did Jesus happen when and where he happened?" (xvii)
The authors say this about the Jesus movement: "...even though non-violent, it certainly was resistance against the distrubutive injustice of Roman-Herodian commercialization--hence Jesus' emphasis on food and health--and it was enacted in the name of the covenant, the land, the Torah, and the God of Judaism." (xxi)
"This book is about digging for Jesus, digging down archaeologically amidst the stones to reconstruct his world and digging down exegetically amidst the texts to reconstruct his life." (p. 1)
"Why did Jesus happen when and where he happened?" (xvii)
The authors say this about the Jesus movement: "...even though non-violent, it certainly was resistance against the distrubutive injustice of Roman-Herodian commercialization--hence Jesus' emphasis on food and health--and it was enacted in the name of the covenant, the land, the Torah, and the God of Judaism." (xxi)
Endorsements
“The premier historical Jesus authority and a brilliant archaeologist search the texts and stones of antiquity to offer the most complete picture of Jesus ever presented. Joining the best of biblical studies and archaeology, John Dominic Crossan and Jonathan L. Reed dig down to the earliest layers of the Bible and the ancient world, focusing on the most significant modern discoveries as a window into Jesus’s life and the struggles that gave birth to his teachings. This fascinating and highly readable journey is enhanced with extensive illustrations and photographs to help illuminate your journey as you walk with two of the world’s experts in the footsteps of Jesus.” (my emphasis) ~ from the back cover of the 1st edition hardback
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"Closing the gaps between science and theology, history and faith, this book makes the world--and meaning--of Jesus more vivid than ever." ~James Carroll, author of Constantine's Sword, from the back cover of the 2nd edition paperback
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"This is a fascinating and exhilarating study, which breathes new life into the quest for the historical Jesus." ~Karen Armstrong, author of A History of God, from the front cover of the 2nd edition paperback
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