One Who
Is to Come?
The Historical Jesus
and the Messianic Question
Michael F. Bird
Foreword by Stanley E. Porter
Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bird, Michael F.
Are you the One who is to come?: the historical Jesus and the messianic question / Michael F. Bird; with a foreword by Stanley E. Porter.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 978-0-8010-3638-5 (pbk.)
1. Jesus Christ—Knowledge of his own divinity. 2. Jesus Christ—Messiahship. I. Title.
BT216.5.B57 2009
232′.1—dc22
2009000915
Short Scripture phrases are the author’s translation. Unless otherwise indicated, longer Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked RSV are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
1. “Jesus Who Is Called the Christ”
2. Messianic Expectations in Second Temple Judaism
3. Messiah Jesus—a Role Declined?
4. Messiah Jesus—a Role Redefined?
5. Messiah Jesus—a Crucified Messiah?
6. Toward a Messianic Christology
Index of Scripture and Other Ancient Sources
What did Jesus know, and when did he know it?1 This is a question that has been asked not only of American presidents but also, and perhaps more importantly, of Jesus regarding his messianic awareness. It is the specific question that Michael Bird asks and answers in this important book on Jesus’s messianic knowledge.
Scholars interested in the historical Jesus have for some time shied away from offering positive answers to two important questions: Can you re-create the self-consciousness of an ancient person such as Jesus so as to examine what he thought about himself? Did Jesus say or do anything of significance to indicate that he thought of himself as the Messiah?
As Bird so ably points out, scholars have been hesitant to acknowledge that Jesus may have claimed to be the Messiah or that the Gospels clearly depict him as such. The major burden of this volume is to reexamine the question of whether in fact the ...
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About Are You the One Who Is to Come?: The Historical Jesus and the Messianic Question“Jesus understood himself as designated by God as the Messiah of Israel.” This thesis may strike many historical-Jesus scholars as dangerously bold. But through careful study of the Gospels, Second Temple literature, and other period texts, scholar Michael Bird makes a persuasive argument that Jesus saw himself as performing the role attributed to the messiah—in the Scriptures of Israel—and believed that Israel’s restoration hinged on the outcome of his ministry. Bird begins by exploring messianic expectations in the Old Testament and in Second Temple Judaism. In them he finds in them an evolving messianism that provides historical context for Jesus’ life and teaching. He examines the prevailing contention that the messianic claim originated not with Jesus himself, but in the preaching of the early church. Bird argues that such contentions lack cogency and often skew the evidence. Examining the Gospels and related literature, he shows that what Jesus said and did demonstrates that he believed he was Israel’s messiah. His career was “performatively messianic” in a way that shows continuity in eschatological terms between Israel and the church. |
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