Publication
Imprint: Edison, New Jersey : Castle Books, 1994, 1998. Responsibility: John Dominic Crossan. Physical: Text : 1 volume : vii, 199 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.
Call number
GT-C / TX / NT
ISBN
0062510444 / 9780062510440
Original publication date
1994
Collections
CSS Library Notes
Description: Here Crossan offers the core of his life's work--a concise and astonishing presentation of the authentic teachings and earliest images of the revolutionary Galilean sage. Crossan's fresh translations of Jesus' sayings show Jesus to be a teacher whose radical message that all are equal before God is as timely today as it was two thousand years ago. This picture is dramatically confirmed by the pre-Constantinian, Christian renderings of Jesus, which sow that he was remembered by the first Christians not as God but as a revolutionary healer and leader. -- from inside flap.
Table of Contents: Contexts --
Texts & Images --
Notes on Texts --
Inventory of Images.
FY2000 /
Table of Contents: Contexts --
Texts & Images --
Notes on Texts --
Inventory of Images.
FY2000 /
Physical description
vii, 199 p.; 22 cm
Description
The author translates Jesus's sayings showing him to be a teacher who lived his own radical message that all are equal before God. The portrait shows that he was remembered by the first Christians not as God, but as a revolutionary leader and healer.
Language
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User reviews
LibraryThing member auntmarge64
This is a book to make one think very hard about what it means to be a follower of Jesus and/or a Christian, and they’re not necessarily the same thing. For instance, I would consider Gandhi a follower, although not a Christian. On the other hand, most people who tout their membership in
Crossan is a well-known member of the Jesus Seminar and a scholar in the historical Jesus school. In this third entry in his biographies of Jesus, he presents the sayings he considers to be authentically spoken by Jesus (mostly parables and aphorisms, designed to provoke discussion among the oppressed) alongside examples of pre-Constantinian Christian art work. Although the art is mostly 3rd c., it was produced before the religion had any governmental organization and backs up the words written down over two centuries earlier, with both reflecting the message the earliest Christians received: radical egalitarianism, open commensality (indiscriminate table fellowship and healing), and the Kingdom here NOW, wherever people are willing to follow Jesus’ example. Crossan differentiates between John the Baptist’s teaching (apocalyptic eschatology, i.e., imminent and cataclysmic divine intervention) and Jesus’ (sapiential eschatology, i.e., living here and now so that God’s power is evident to all). It’s a huge difference, with the easier path clearly being the former, where we can let God take care of changing things when he’s ready and continue as we are in our day-to-day lives. Just as clearly, Crossan sees Jesus’s way as the more difficult and the reason Jesus, out of so many wandering preachers, dissidents, and trouble makers, got the death penalty instead of a lesser sentence: he was looking for a total change in how people acted right then, and he was convincing at it.
Whatever you’re approach to Bible study or belief, this is a provocative look at early Christian thought: that is, what Jesus said and how he was perceived by the people closest to him in time and still untouched by institutional dogma.
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Christian organizations fall considerably short of what one would think is the ideal, given Jesus’ example and lessons. Most egregious, to me, are public figures and institutions who shout their Christianity even as they hoard millions (or billions) which could be used to give basic needs to the hungry and dying. And many of these insist they are “pro-life”, although apparently the already-living are expendable. Anyway, about the book:Crossan is a well-known member of the Jesus Seminar and a scholar in the historical Jesus school. In this third entry in his biographies of Jesus, he presents the sayings he considers to be authentically spoken by Jesus (mostly parables and aphorisms, designed to provoke discussion among the oppressed) alongside examples of pre-Constantinian Christian art work. Although the art is mostly 3rd c., it was produced before the religion had any governmental organization and backs up the words written down over two centuries earlier, with both reflecting the message the earliest Christians received: radical egalitarianism, open commensality (indiscriminate table fellowship and healing), and the Kingdom here NOW, wherever people are willing to follow Jesus’ example. Crossan differentiates between John the Baptist’s teaching (apocalyptic eschatology, i.e., imminent and cataclysmic divine intervention) and Jesus’ (sapiential eschatology, i.e., living here and now so that God’s power is evident to all). It’s a huge difference, with the easier path clearly being the former, where we can let God take care of changing things when he’s ready and continue as we are in our day-to-day lives. Just as clearly, Crossan sees Jesus’s way as the more difficult and the reason Jesus, out of so many wandering preachers, dissidents, and trouble makers, got the death penalty instead of a lesser sentence: he was looking for a total change in how people acted right then, and he was convincing at it.
Whatever you’re approach to Bible study or belief, this is a provocative look at early Christian thought: that is, what Jesus said and how he was perceived by the people closest to him in time and still untouched by institutional dogma.
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LibraryThing member getdowmab
Interesting concept, but requires a lot of flipping back and forth between photographs and descriptions and interpretations. worth checking out, but becomes a little bit cumbersome with all the flipping.
LibraryThing member tuckerresearch
Crossan is a bastard, yet he does well here. He offers up the best of sayings of Jesus with good interpretations without injecting too much of his Jesus was a hippie theology.
LibraryThing member cfhillen
The most interesting aspect of this book is the use of the images from Pre-Constantinian Christian art to illustrate the sayings of Jesus. Plate # 10 is very interesting. It seems that this fresco is the only surviving meal scene which includes a woman in Pre -Constantinian art.
LibraryThing member tony_sturges
After his definitive The Historical Jesus, John Dominic Crossan delivered Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography-a popularized, bestselling account of what we can know about the life of Jesus. Here he offers the core of his life's work-a concise and astonishing presentation of the authentic teachings and
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earliest images of the revolutionary Galilean sage. Crossan's fresh translations of Jesus' sayings show Jesus to be a teacher whose radical message that all are equal before God is as timely today as it was two thousand years ago. This picture is dramatically confirmed by the preConstantinian, Christian renderings of Jesus, which show that he was remembered by the first Christians not as God but as a revolutionary healer and leader. Show Less