Jesus: A Life

I have been motivated, over the past month, to read about Christianity. This volume is, in a sense, revisionist. It purports to discuss the latest scholarship as of the date of its publication, 1995, and presents a view of the historical Jesus. The gospels, it points out, were written in about

60-100 CE (for Common Era), and represent as much an attempt to present a Hellenized theology, and to keep the all-powerful Romans from becoming suspicious of revolution, as to record the doings of an actual person. Nonetheless, Wilson tries to identify, by internal textual criticism, elements that are likely memories of Jesus. John's gospel is very different from the other three, and may draw on a different tradition or witness; Matthew Mark and Luke may have a common source document known as Q. Paul's epistles are the earliest works, and he is the true organizer of the wider and hellenized chuch, whereas James, Jesus' brother, and a group in Jerusalem, remained true to Jewish teaching and insisted that converts follow Jewish law. Wilson suggests that Jesus was involved in a failed civil revolution when he was taken to the crucifixition.

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