In this popular version of his more scholarly The Historical Jesus, John Dominic Crossan attempts to pare Christ's life down to only those events for which we have the best evidence from: the Gospels; Gnostic Gospels; Roman history; archaeology; and anthropology. This makes for fascinating reading and he wields the various sources masterfully, but it leads to a Jesus whose centrality to world history seems to make little sense.

Crossan presents his arguments for what is most likely and most unlikely to have occurred and what it all means.  For instance, he traces the various translation possibilities in the term leper and looks at the Jewish kosher laws and concludes that healing the unclean may simply have meant being willing to break bread with them.  Likewise, by examining Roman criminal law practices and burial traditions for convicts, he argues that none of the disciples could possibly have known what happened to the body of Christ after the crucifixion and that he must have been left to the dogs.  Ultimately, by imposing such textual rigor, Crossan leaves us with a Jesus stripped of miracles, which is fine, but also one who is, oddly, stripped of godliness.  Instead, he presents him as merely a radical egalitarian Mediterranean Jewish Peasant.  This may also be the case, but how then do we explain his followers' belief in the miracles and in Christ's divinity?  And how do we explain his subsequent influence on the course of human history?

I disagreed with many of the interpretations and with this broader deChristifying of Jesus, but found Crossan's arguments to be consistently thought provoking.  It is quite an enjoyable read, even if dubious.

(Reviewed:)

Grade: (B) Orrin C. Judd

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