Publisher description

Gathers key extra-biblical writings that provide the necessary background for Gospel passages in one handy volume.

Recent years have seen an explosion of talk about the historical Jesus from scholarly settings as well as media outlets (including sensational TV documentaries and national magazines). How is the student of the Bible to assess these various claims about Jesus? And what difference does knowledge of his time and place make for Christian faith, theological thinking, and historical research? James Charlesworth presents the solid results of modern study into the life and times of Jesus, especially regarding the role of the Essenes, the significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the nature of messianic expectation, and much more. No one today is better equipped than James Charlesworth to lead students through the thickets of controversy that surround much of contemporary historical Jesus research. This Abingdon Essential Guide will fulfill the need for a brief, substantive, yet highly accessible introduction to this core area of New Testament studies. Drawing on the best in current scholarship, written with the need of students foremost in mind, addressed to learners in a number of contexts, this Essential Guide will be the first choice of those who wish to acquaint themselves or their students with the broad scope of issues, perspectives, and subject matters relating to modern quests for the historical Jesus. It will also be a preferred text for those who need or want to refresh their knowledge regarding the context within which Jesus lived in preparation for leading church discussion groups in studies of the Gospels.

An informed, scholarly approach to the study of the historical Jesus that takes the Gospels seriously as a source of historical information.

Using a carefully defined approach to historical Jesus studies and historical method, this collection of essays examines twelve key events in the life of Jesus that were part of a decade-long collaborative research project. Each essay examines the case for the event's authenticity and then explores the social and cultural background to the event to provide an understanding of the event's historical significance. The first six events are related to the public ministry context of Jesus, mostly associated with his Galilean ministry, while latter six events involve his final days in Jerusalem. The final essay closes with suggestions about how these events cohere and what they can tell us about what Jesus did.

The earliest substantive sources available for historical Jesus research are in the Gospels themselves; when interpreted in their early Jewish setting, their picture of Jesus is more coherent and plausible than are the competing theories offered by many modern scholars. So argues Craig Keener in The Historical Jesus of the Gospels. In exploring the depth and riches of the material found in the Synoptic Gospels, Keener shows how many works on the historical Jesus emphasize just one aspect of the Jesus tradition against others, but a much wider range of material in the Jesus tradition makes sense in an ancient Jewish setting. Keener masterfully uses a broad range of evidence from the early Jesus traditions and early Judaism to reconstruct a fuller portrait of the Jesus who lived in history.

V. 1. How to study the historical Jesus -- v. 2. The study of Jesus -- v. 3. The historical Jesus -- v. 4. Individual studies.