Nijay asks...

Over at Crux Sola, Nijay asks a similar question re: Paul scholars. I will be very interested to see the results.

http://nijaygupta.wordpress.com/2012/12/07/your-favorite-jesus-scholar-asks-le-donne-and-paul/

-anthony

And the Winner is....

Lucky number 13...

BHartleyNovember 27, 2012 4:16 AM

I would love to receive your book.

ReplyDelete


Would "BHartley" please comment below with his/her email address (this will not be published)? The fine folks at Fortress will send you your free copy of Soundings in the Religion of Jesus.

enjoy,

-anthony

Over at the Chris Skinner Machine...

Christopher Skinner reviews our book over at pejeiesous.com.

While is overly kind to Rafael Rodriguez, he happens to be spot on with his other compliments.

-anthony

Happy Holidays!

This meme was put on my radar by Drew Lewis...



God bless you, Drew,

-anthony

Was Jesus Ever Married? - Le Donne

This Lodi, CA newspaper attempts to document our public lectures on this topic last night at the University of the Pacific. Here George Randels is pictured alongside an enthusiastic me. Not pictured here is Carrie Schroeder who was integral to the event. Carrie, a Coptic expert, gave a very balanced account of Gnostic Christianity, the Gospels of Philip, the Gospel of Mary, the Gospel of Thomas, and the so-called "Gospel of Jesus' Wife".

Unfortunately, the newspaper article above misrepresents several of Carrie's points and completely missed one of her most important points concerning a very suspicious typo in the Karen King find.  Schroeder is of the mind that Jesus was probably not married.  I am more open to this possibility but think that an "early Church cover-up" is highly implausible. Moreover, Jesus doesn't seem to reflect much interest in the institution of marriage (as this would have been understood by his contemporaries).

My final point: any theory of Christian Origins that appeals to conspiracy theories and suggest that Mary Magdalene was Jesus' lover are not the best explanation of our earliest and best sources for Jesus' life.  The canonical Gospels contain several embarrassing details about Jesus' awkward relationship with his family. If the early Christians were concerned with covering up such details, they failed miserably.  More on this topic in my inexpensive Jesusbuch (which makes a lovely stocking stuffer).

-anthony

Oh Lord... Lodi Again - Le Donne

As I prepare for my public lecture in Stockton today, I am becoming extremely curious about what my co-presenters will bring to the table. Carrie Schroeder is an expert in Coptic and Early Christianity and George Randels is a religious ethicist. It should be a very interesting discussion about the "Gospel of Jesus' Wife" and a few broader but related topics.

Erstwhile, they have been discussing this in Lodi, CA. Somehow, the comments thread turned toward the topic of violence in Islam. It is always fascinating to see where conversations that begin with Jesus end up.

-anthony

Quarterly Quote of the Month about Jesus for this Week

“As obvious as it is, then, Jesus is bigger than any one religion.

He didn't come to start a new religion, and he continually disrupted whatever conventions or systems or establishments that existed in his day. He will always transcend whatever cages and labels are created to contain him, especially the one called 'Christianity'.”

                                         ~Rob Bell

Really Worth a Read - Le Donne

The imitable Larry Hurtado brings us up to speed on the most recent scholarship of New Testament texts. There were a handful of studies here that were new to me.

-anthony

SBL 2013 - Le Donne

I just learned from Joel Watts that the Society of Biblical Literature (Baltimore, 2013) call for papers has been listed. Here are a few units that always interest me:

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The Augsburg Fortress Jesus Studies Collection (19 vol.) from Logos—Chris Keith

We just found out that Logos Bible Software has released into pre-publication a 19-volume Jesus Studies Collection from Fortress press for only $279.95.  This collection includes some absolute classics—Hengel’s Crucifixion, Jeremias’s Jesus and the Message of the New Testament, Juel’s Messianic Exegesis, Witherington’s Jesus the Sage, Vermes’s The Real Jesus.  It also has some newer books like David Watson’s Honor among Christians, which I witnessed receive a really positive book review session last year, and Mary Ann Beavis’s Jesus and Utopia.  And there’s still twelve more!!

Check it out here.

My Review of Bauckham's Jesus: A Very Short Introduction

Richard Bauckham

Jesus: A Very Short Introduction

Oxford University Press, U.S., 2011

144 pages

ISBN-10: 0199575274

11.95 USD

pbk

The Very Short Introduction series put out by Oxford University Press aims to package important subjects in slim, concise books written by experts.  Richard Bauckham’s recent introduction to Jesus hits exactly this mark.  Bauckham takes one of the most traversed topics in history and religion and offers a thoroughly sane and balanced treatment.  He begins by discussing the cultural history of Jesus in the western world and ends by discussing the implications of Jesus’ impact for Christian theology.  But the torso of this book is an introduction to Jesus as an historical figure.  Bauckham introduces Jesus’ culture including his (ethnic/religious/national) Jewishness, his political context in Roman occupied Jewish Palestine, and his contemporaries.  He discusses the source material (inside and outside the Christian canon) that historians generally use to reconstruct his life and teaching. 

            Where the book soars is in Bauckham’s introduction to Jesus’ central prophetic speech concerning “the kingdom (or rule) of God.”  In chapter four, Bauckham moves past the cliché portrait of Jesus as passive teacher of ethics. While he affirms that Jesus did teach on ethics, he reminds us that Jewish prophets were known to act out their teachings symbolically.  Thus Bauckham’s portrait shows Jesus to be someone other than familiar to modern, western eyes.  This portrait makes sense of Jesus along the long trajectory of Hebrew Bible prophets, against the backdrop of imperial Rome, and in light of emerging Christianity. 

            One point that deserves criticism is the inclusion of an image of the Alexamenos Graffito on page 96.  The image included in the book is pale, blurred, and will be unrecognizable to those unfamiliar with this etching.  This etched depiction of Jesus with the head of a donkey is an important point of historical data to illustrate the embarrassment caused by his crucifixion and deserves to be rendered visibly.

            Some readers will chafe at Bauckham’s overtly Christian agenda in his treatment of early belief in Jesus’ resurrection.  His move from a primarily historical subject to a primarily theological conclusion will distract many readers, especially those who prefer to keep the two topics neatly separated.  However, to omit discussion of the perceived supernatural in the life and death of Jesus would have been conspicuous.  Readers interested in an introduction to Jesus by a scholar highly respected both in the Church and the Academy will find none better than Bauckham’s.  There is a very good possibility that this becomes a standard text in university courses on Jesus and Christianity.

Anthony Le Donne

BOOK GIVEAWAY! - Soundings in the Religion of Jesus

We’re continuing our giveaways of copies of our books here at The Jesus Blog. The lucky winner this time around will get a free copy of my, Chilton’s and Neusner’s Soundings in the Religion of Jesus: Perspectives and Methods in Jewish and Christian Scholarship (Fortress, 2012). My thanks to the kind folks at Fortress for providing this free book!

There are four opportunities to enter the contest

1) comment here,

2) sign up to follow the blog (and leave a comment saying that you did), and/or

3) share this post on Facebook (and leave a comment saying that you did).

4) share this post on Twitter (and leave a comment saying that you did).

We’ll announce a winner in two weeks next week.

As to the book itself, we have assembled a stellar roster of international scholars from both Christian and Jewish perspectives. This book models a Jewish-Christian dialogue that takes seriously the Jewishness of Jesus. None of the scholars involved aim to smooth over the important differences between our traditions. Rather, we seek a fruitful exchange that reveals our distinctive characteristics and occasional overlaps. In the process, the historical figure of Jesus becomes accessible in new ways.
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The Virgin Birth?

Over at Near Emmaus, Brian suggests a few ways and resources to think about the birth of Jesus this Christmas.

Also, let me congratulate him on the new look for the blog!

-anthony