Introduction by James H. Charlesworth This new edition of David Flusser's classic study of the historical Jesus, revised and updated by his student and colleague R. Steven Notley, will be welcomed everywhere by students and scholars of early Christianity and Judaism. Reflecting Flusser's mastery of ancient literary sources and modern archaeological discoveries, The Sage from Galilee offers a fresh, informed biographical portrait of Jesus in the context of Jewish faith and life in his day. Including a chronological table (330 BC - AD 70), and twenty-eight illustrations, The Sage from Galilee is the culmination of nearly six decades of study by one of the world's foremost Jewish authorities on the New Testament and early Christianity. Both Jewish and Christian readers will find challenge and new understanding in these pages.

Essential reading for anyone interested in the historical Jesus debate, this volume offers a comprehensive and balanced account of research into the person of Jesus.

For more than three decades, Professor David Flusser of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem has pioneered new understandings of the Jewish background of early Christianity. Many have been fascinated by his unique monograph on Jesus, translated into several languages. Most of his scholarly articles in English, including some new contributions as well as many published in not easily accessible journals, have been collected in this one volume. A must for New Testament scholars, and students of early Judaism, it will also be welcomed by the many lay persons for whom Professor Flusser has provided illumination on the origins of Christian faith.

Not since David Strauss' Life of Jesus shook European Christianity to its foundations in the nineteenth century has any scholarly discussion of the historical Jesus made the impact on a popular level that the Jesus Seminar is presently making in America. Popular magazines have provided a remarkable amount of space for the Jesus Seminar, including Time and Newsweek which made their work cover stories. At the forefront of the movement lies the work of John Dominic Crossan and Burton L. Mack, who have popularized the Jesus as Cynic sage view. The growing popularity of this new paradigm should be of significant concern for all who hold to the historic Christian faith. To date, however, no thorough evangelical response has been provided to these revisionist views of the historical Jesus. This book is written to fill this void. It provides a serious critique of the Cynic thesis, accessible to laypeople and of interest to thoughtful observers. With interest in the quest for the historical Jesus continuing anew, Boyd's Cynic Sage or Son of God? provides an orthodox defense of the biblical Jesus.

"In Honest to Jesus, Robert Funk, one of the preeminent biblical scholars of our time, embarks on a radical investigation into the transformation of Jesus the social rebel and iconoclast into Jesus the religious icon. Founder of the Jesus Seminar - the group of writers, philosophers, and theologians spearheading new research into the historical Jesus and the authenticity of the gospels - Funk has never before articulated his own bold and fearless vision of who Jesus truly was and how his legacy should be approached by the modern world." "Funk's investigation concludes with an explosive call to arms. In twenty-one theses, Funk articulates a revolutionary new vision of Jesus and Christianity for the next millennium. Freed from religious and political propaganda, liberated from the cobwebs of orthodoxy, this is a Jesus restored to the roles of social critic, dissident, and sage. Funk envisions a revitalized Christianity - shaped by history rather than orthodoxy and based not on the Christ of the creeds but on the teachings of Jesus in all their original power. Forthright, penetrating, and as radical as the mysterious figure it investigates, Honest to Jesus is a new classic in the debate over the search for the real Jesus and its implications for modern Christianity."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved