The Historical Jesus?: Necessity and Limits of an Inquiry

Description

A very active member of the Ecole Biblique et Archeologique Francaise de Jerusalem that has done so much to introduce historical criticism into the believer's reading of the Scriptures, Etienne Nodet proposes here a beautiful history book. Certainly, in putting forward to the general public an accessible synthesis of scholarly and dense works carried out successfully in these recent years, he spares the reader the ponderousness of a critical apparatus and consigns to Appendix I the citation of his principal ancient sources. He invites the reader to a fascinating effort of the intelligence and of the heart that constitutes the profession of a historian: documentation, appraisal of documents, examining witnesses, comparisons, inductions and deductions; even textual criticism is sometimes called upon: for example, he is one of those who postulates the existence of a "Western Text" of the New Testament, and draws interesting hypotheses from its comparison with the standard text of the critical editions. In a second appendix, not found in the original French work, he presents a new translation of Josephus' War of the Jews for hints of authentic non-Christian evidence about Jesus and John the Baptist. Beginning with the Gospel accounts of the infancy of Jesus, the author opens up for us the main features of the life of Jesus in a reading that oscillates between the questioning of the historical reference and the penetrating understanding of their verbal expression. Finally, there is the very suggestive sketch of the figure of James, "the brother of the Lord" and the head of the early Jerusalem church.

Etienne Nodet, O.P., is Professor of Ancient Jewish Literature at the Ecole Biblique et Archeologique in Jerusalem. J. Edward Crowley is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Windsor where he taught biblical studies for 27 years. Since his retirement in 1984 he has translated into English numerous important scholarly French works on the Bible, early Judaism and the New Testament.

Mention -New Testament Abstracts, Vol. 53 No. 1, 2009 "There are many fresh and illuminating arguments to be found in this book." International Review of Biblical Studies, vol. 54:2007/08 "this book is something very special... I would not recommend this book as basic information for somebody who wants to get the first idea of what Historical Jesus research is about. ..good example of the courageous and unconventional thinking that seeems top be characteristic of the Ecole Biblique" Academici, May 2009 -- Markus Vinzent