Jesus Mortal |
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Introduction Jesus is such a compelling and important figure in western culture that he exerts a tremendous gravitational force, like a massive black hole. Anything in his vicinity is warped, conforming to the pull. Some elements are sucked in and made to be part of Jesus’ story even when they originally were not, such as old testament prophecies. Christian traditions about Jesus have distorted historians’ views of 1st-century Judaism, of early Christian belief and practice, and, naturally, of Jesus himself. A lot of this book involves counteracting the distorting effect of Jesus’ gravitational field and trying to get a straight look at him and everything around him.
Translation In Christian tradition, perfectly normal words have been transferred to other languages, where they take on specific meanings not present in the original. Today’s monarchical “bishop,” for example, was once a humble “superintendent.” “Baptism” originally meant roughly “washing.” When the Pharisees reportedly criticized Jesus’ disciples for not “baptizing” their hands, that term didn’t have the sacramental definition that it carries today. All these jargon terms, such as bishop, baptism, eucharist, church, and hell, had common equivalents for the early Christians, in these cases overseer, washing, thanksgiving, congregation, and underworld. To some degree, this text uses common terms for these religious concepts because that’s what they started as: common terms.
Capitalization This text mostly avoids capitalizing terms that are commonly capitalized. In today’s highly literate society, we used capital letters to differentiate proper names from common terms, but Jesus made no such distinctions. His teaching was by spoken word, not text. Furthermore, even the literate early Christians that composed the new testament did so writing all in capital letters. A modern bible translation that picks and chooses how to use capitals is adding a level of interpretation not present in the original. In some instances, the capitalization changes the meaning of the text, such as when the term “son of man” (meaning, a mortal, or oneself) is written as “Son of Man” (meaning Jesus in his divine role). For this text, I’ve stuck with lower case wherever the term is common rather than proper, such as “son of god.”
Sources In addition to standard references, this text relies on recent work by liberal and critical historians of Jesus. Marcus Borg. The meaning of Jesus. A liberal Christian, Borg asserts that the visions that the disciples had of the risen Jesus were valid, even if Jesus’ body wasn’t resurrected. John Dominic Crossan. The essential Jesus. Crossan offers a humanistic view of Jesus and his ministry, emphasizing Jesus’ social program of table fellowship. His paraphrases of Jesus’ sayings are startling, as they were the originally. Will Durant. Caesar and Christ. Durant is sometime out of date but provides a wealth of detail about major early Christians as well as the pagan environment in which Christianity grew. Bart D. Ehrman. Misquoting Jesus. Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene. Truth and fiction in The Da Vinci Code. Ehrman excels at piecing together the earliest versions of the biblical texts, pointing out where scribes altered the texts to suit the developing orthodoxy. Stephen L. Harris. Understanding the Bible. In this textbook, Harris covers the Bible book by book. Significantly, he treats each gospel as a separate account different from the others rather than erroneously paraphrasing what “the gospels” say about Jesus. Jesus Seminar. The five gospels. The acts of Jesus. Several major scholars and scores of other academics spent years poring over Jesus’ words and deeds line by line, and these two books are the result, rating each utterance and deed for its historical plausibility. They describe Jesus as not preaching the fire-and-brimstone apocalypse that the gospels attribute to him, a significant but minority view among mainstream experts. E. P. Sanders. The historical figure of Jesus. Sanders presents largely the mainstream, majority viewpoint on Jesus as an historical figure. If you want to read one book that best represents modern Jesus scholarship, read this one. Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz. Historical Jesus. This weighty textbook covers the history and breadth of Jesus scholarship in brain-busting detail and offers a very recent summation of who Jesus was and what he meant.
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contents table of contents you're already looking at it introduction for the inquisitive reader biographical overview who he was and wasn't
afterlife not Jesus' concern animal sacrifice bloodless religion apocalypse did Jesus preach hellfire? baptism sin wash for Jesus and others beatitudes Jesus' words and others' words beloved disciple witness for the un-gospel bible scripture old and new bishop the unjesus body focus on the physical Buddha Jesus' close kin charity key Christian virtue and legacy of Jesus The Da Vinci Code secret (and false) messages divorce women's status dreams convenient literary device Elijah Jewish prophet with his own second coming equality ancient source of modern egalitarianism exorcist Jesus and demons failure reinterpreting Jesus as a failure faith from trust to blind belief father Jesus on titles of honor Francis of Assisi the most Christlike Christian Gandhi the 20th century's most Christly holy man Galilee Jesus' inauspicious homeland gentiles Jesus' inadvertent audience god how Jesus became god golden rule key to Jesus' success gospels competing accounts heaven from sky to spiritual home hell revenge fantasy humanism Jesus' legacy inerrant Christian treatment of scripture Thomas Jefferson ethics of Jesus Jewish guilt Christian libel John's gospel the un-gospel John the baptist, see John the washer John the washer Jesus' apocalyptic mentor Judaism libeled religion of Jesus kingdom of god what Jesus promised Lao Tzu poet of the cosmic way logos jesus as the word of god C. S. Lewis famous, flawed trilemma little drummer boy Luke beats Matthew logos Jesus as the divine word LORD Yahweh transitioning to the one god of all Luke's gospel the all-around best gospel Mark's gospel the gospel that lost its point Mary of Magdala women, visions, and sex massacre of the innocents bloodshed starts early Matthew's gospel best gospel for church reading Mormon, see Joseph Smith Moses Jewish lawgiver Muhammad a prophet who got it right mystery Orpheus and transubstantiation oppression origin of Jesus' compassion The Passion of the Christ Luke as buzzkill Paul revealer of the revealer private and public public Jesus and secret Christ relativism the secret power of the golden rule sacrifice Jesus' death and Christian sacrament Albert Schweitzer Jesus as a failure sheol dark pit of death show Jesus' deeds as put-ons slavery abolished by Jesus' efforts Joseph Smith flesh-and-blood Jesus Socrates secular Jesus son of god on close terms with the man upstairs soul, see body synoptics three gospels that agree temple center of Jewish religion trinity unifying and divisive doctrinre vision, see dreams Yahweh, see LORD Zoroaster Persian dualistic holy man
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