the anchor yale bible reference library
A Marginal Jew
Rethinking
The Historical Jesus
Volume One:
The Roots of the Problem and the Person
John P. Meier
Doubleday
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The Anchor Bible Reference Library
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The Anchor Bible Reference Library, Doubleday, and the portrayal of an anchor with the letters ABRL are trademarks of Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
Excerpts from The Gnostic Scriptures by Bentley Layton, copyright © 1987 by Bentley Layton, reprinted by permission of Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
Book design by Patrice Fodero
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Meier, John P.
A marginal Jew: rethinking the historical Jesus / John P. Meier.—1st ed.
p. cm.—(The Anchor Bible reference library)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents: v. 1. Origins of the problem and the person
ISBN 0-385-26425-9 (v. 1)
1. Jesus Christ—Historicity. 2. Jesus Christ—Jewishness. I. Title. II. Series.
BT303.2.M465 1991
232.9—dc20 91-10538
CIP
Imprimatur—New York, June 25, 1991—The Most Rev. Patrick J. Sheridan, V.G.
Copyright © 1991 by John P. Meier
All Rights Reserved
אשת־חיל מי ימצא
Basic Concepts: The Real Jesus and the Historical Jesus
Sources: The Canonical Books of the New Testament
Sources: Other Pagan and Jewish Writings
Sources: The agrapha and the Apocryphal Gospels
Criteria: How Do We Decide What Comes from Jesus?
Conclusion to Part One: Why Bother?
In the Beginning … The Origins of Jesus of Nazareth
In the Interim … Part I: Language, Education, and Socioeconomic Status
In the Interim … Part II: Family, Marital Status, and Status as a Layman
“In the Fifteenth Year” … A Chronology of Jesus’ Life
Map of Palestine in the time of Jesus
Map of The Galilee of Jesus’ Ministry
Chart of the Family of Herod the Great
Chart of the Regnal Years of the Roman Principes (Emperors)
Many people have helped me complete the first volume of this work; only a few can be mentioned here. Various colleagues at the Catholic University of America were kind enough to read portions of the manuscript; chief among them are Professors John P. Galvin, Francis T. Gignac, William P. Loewe, Frank J. Matera, and Carl J. Peter. I have also been blessed by the generous assistance of scholars at other institutions: Professors Myles M. Bourke of Fordham University, N.Y., Harold W. Attridge and John J. Collins of the University of Notre Dame, John P. Reumann of Lutheran Theological Seminary, ...
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About A Marginal Jew, Rethinking the Historical Jesus: Volume One, the Roots of the Problem and the PersonThis book grapples with the greatest puzzle of modern religious scholarship: Who was Jesus? To answer the question, author John P. Meier imagines the following scenario: “Suppose that a Catholic, a Protestant, a Jew, and an agnostic—all honest historians cognizant of first-century religious movements—were locked up in the bowels of the Harvard Divinity School library, and not allowed to emerge until they had hammered out a consensus on who Jesus of Nazareth was and what he intended. . .” A Marginal Jew is what Meier thinks that document would reveal. A Marginal Jew represents the first time an American Catholic biblical scholar has attempted a full-scale, rigorously scientific treatment of the “historical Jesus.” By the “historical Jesus,” Meier means the Jesus whom we can recover and reconstruct by using the tools of modern historical research. Granted the fragmentary state of the sources and the indirect nature of the arguments, the resulting portrait is incomplete and at times speculative. Still, Meier argues, something precious is gained. The “consensus statement” that emerges is open to probing and debate by all interested parties—Catholics, Protestants, Jews, believers, and agnostics alike. It can serve as common ground for ecumenical dialogue and further research. Among the difficult questions Meier confronts: Was Jesus virginally conceived? Did he have brothers and sisters? Was he married or single? Was he illiterate? Did he know Hebrew and Greek as well as Aramaic? Meier’s sober, well-reasoned account of the life of Jesus is nothing less than startling, as though almost 2,000 years late we were seeing Jesus for the first time as his contemporaries would have seen him—“a marginal Jew”—with all the implications and questions raised by this deliberately provocative title. Indeed, the author has here sketched out for us the portrait of Jesus for our times. |
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