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The Historical Jesus of the Gospels

Craig S. Keener (Eerdmans: Nov 15, 2009), 876 pages.

The earliest substantive sources available for historical Jesus research are in the Gospels themselves; when interpreted in their early Jewish setting, their picture of Jesus is more coherent and plausible than are the competing theories offered by many modern scholars. So argues Craig Keener in The Historical Jesus of the Gospels. In exploring the depth and riches of the material found in the Synoptic Gospels, Keener shows how many works on the historical Jesus emphasize just one aspect of the Jesus tradition against others, but a much wider range of material in the Jesus tradition makes sense in an ancient Jewish setting. Keener masterfully uses a broad range of evidence from the early Jesus traditions and early Judaism to reconstruct a fuller portrait of the Jesus who lived in history. ~ Book Description

Table of Contents

    • Acknowledgements    xxvi
    • Preface   xxvii
    • Introduction   xxxi
  • I. Disparate Views of Jesus Scholarship
    • 1. The Development of Jesus Scholarship   3
    • 2. Jesus the Cynic Sage?   14
    • 3. Jesus and Judaism   33
    • 4. Other Gospels?
  • II. The Character of the Gospels   71
    • 5. The Gospels as Biographies   73
    • 6. Luke-Acts as History   85
    • 7. Ancient Historiography as History   95
    • 8. Ancient Historiography as Rhetoric   109
    • 9. The Gospels’ Written Sources   126
    • 10. The Gospels’ Oral Sources   139
  • III. What We Learn about Jesus from the Best Sources   163
    • 11. John the Baptist   165
    • 12. Jesus the Galilean Jew   178
    • 13. Jesus the Teacher   186
    • 14. Kingdom Discipleship   196
    • 15. Jesus’ Jewish Ethics   214
    • 16. Conflicts with Other Teachers   223
    • 17. Jesus the Prophet   238
    • 18. Jesus as Messiah?   256
    • 19. More Than an Earthly Messiah?   268
    • 20. Confronting and Provoking the Elite   283
    • 21. Jesus’ Arrest and Execution   303
    • 22. The Resurrection   330
    • Conclusion   349
  • Appendix
    • Appendix 1: Zealots and Revolutionaries   350
    • Appendix 2: Mack’s Case for a Wisdom Q   352
    • Appendix 3: Jewish Biographical Conventions   356
    • Appendix 4: Jesus’ Sayings about the End   361
    • Appendix 5: John and the Synoptics on Passover Chronology   372
    • Appendix 6: Roman Participation in Jesus’ Arrest?   375
    • Appendix 7: Capital Authority   377
    • Appendix 8: What Really Happened at the Tomb?   379
    • Appendix 9: Some Postresurrection Teachings   389
    • Notes   394
    • Bibliography of Sources Cited   604
    • Index of Authors and Modern Names   714
    • Index of Subjects   739
    • Index of Scripture References   745
    • Index of Ancient Sources   764