The historical Jesus, by John Dominic Crossan

 

The Historical Jesus, The life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant by John Dominic Crossan.

I've been reading this book for a while six months or so; its the type of book which for me I've had to go back to after a month or so. Just to digest properly.

It is one of the most difficult books I've read. Been trained in theology I still needed to go back to dictionaries to understand some of the words that were used. I've listened to Dominic Crossan in intereviews and I've discovered that this book is really for academia. Due to the popularity of this book he has written more for the 'layman'. Ahh if i'd only started there!

Anyway some thoughts so far::

• Josephus:: He is a character which I didn't really know that much about, other than he is often quoted as been one of the few 'writers' supporting the character of Jesus historically. What I didn't know is that Josephus telling of history was often about who he was supporting. There are others who often conflict with Josephus historical telling.
• It would seem that there are other 'gospels' such as 'The Gospel Thomas' which can also shed much light on Jesus. The gospel of 'Q' appears to be influential in many of the 'gnostic' gospels
• Many of the terms such as 'Son of Man' have a long tradition prior to the Jesus and his disciples. The New Testament is oozing with such statements.

I've been coming to the same opinion as Marcus Borg that how the disciples saw Jesus post resurrection was a lot differn't from pre resurrection. It is very difficult to know if Jesus would have had the same opinion as his disciples years even hundred and thousands of them after his death.

 

Anyway there will be another post....

 

Women and Jesus

Yesterdays 26th December's 'The Age' had an interesting piece by Lesle Cannold called 'The Da Vinci Sisters'. In it she explored Jesus relationship with women and how it was counter cultural to a degree. A couple of things of note::

• 'Joshua' was probably Jesus name. Funny I've never heard of this before, I wonder where she got this information from? Interestingly she uses this name throughout the article, I wonder why?
• Quotes from the book of Thomas, always interesting when 'non-canonical' sources are used. But Thomas is a good one, it been one of the older documents around.
• A good point made, Jesus brothers are mentioned but not his sister, out of good probability there would have been at least one. How he related to his sisters would have been of real interest.
• Writing a book which will be published in April, 'The book of Rachael', presumably about Jesus sister'. I think there is a lot to gain by imagining what Jesus would have been like.
• What sources did she use? Crosson? Borg? Albert Schweitzer? As I've come to understand the understanding of the 'Historical Jesus' is of up most importance of what you believe, and in Leslie Cannold's case what you write and want people to take in.

If I remember I'll try to pick up a copy of the book. Great to read a thought provoking article in 'The Age'.

Related articles

• Crossan's absolute certainty in the historicity of Christ Crucified (vridar.wordpress.com)
• Christianity, Jesus- an Islamic Perspective (xeniagreekmuslimah.wordpress.com)
• John Dominic Crossan the Theologian Explaining the Historicity of Jesus (vridar.wordpress.com)