Excavating Jesus
Beneath the Stones, Behind the Texts: Revised and Updated
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Historical understanding of the world in which Jesus lived has grown by leaps and bounds in the last few decades. However, lesser known but still spectacular advances in first-century Palestinian archaeology also explain a great deal about Jesus, his followers, and his teachings. Excavating Jesus is the first book to combines these two fields of knowledge, and it does it in a fresh, accessible way that will interest biblical scholars, archeologists, and anyone with an interest in early Christianity.
Written by John Dominic Crossan, the world’s premier Jesus scholar, and leading archeologist Jonathan L. Reed, each chapter of Excavating Jesus focuses on a major modern archaeological or textual discovery and shows how that discovery opens a window onto a key feature of Jesus’s life and teachings.
John Dominic Crossan is generally regarded as the leading historical Jesus scholar in the world. He is the author of several bestselling books including The Historical Jesus, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, The Birth of Christianity, and Who Killed Jesus? He lives in Clermont, FL.
Jonathan L. Reed teaches New Testament and Christian Origins at La Verne College, La Verne, CA. He is a leading authority on first-century Palestinian archaeology, has been involved in several major digs, and is now the lead archaeologist at Sepphoris. He is the author of Archaeology and the Galilean Jesus. He lives in Upland, CA.
“This is a fascinating and exhilarating study, which breathes new life into the quest for the historical Jesus.” - Karen Armstrong, author of A History of God
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In his monumental The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant, Crossan brilliantly challenged conventional historical Jesus scholarship. Using social-scientific and literary critical methods, he uncovered the layers of the Jesus traditions in the Gospels, excavating not an eschatological prophet preaching a future divine kingdom, but an itinerant Galilean peasant preaching a kingdom based on "commensality," or the just distribution of food. Many critics disagreed violently with Crossan, contending that his book was full of outlandish assertions. Now Crossan partners with archeologist Reed to demonstrate the material basis of his earlier textual arguments. With exceptional skill, the authors weave a spellbinding tale of the ways that recent archaeological finds support the rich textual layers of the Gospel stories. For example, Crossan and Reed show the radical nature of Jesus' kingdom of itinerancy and commensality by using the archeology of Herod's palace to demonstrate that his meals, far from the all-encompassing feasts associated with earlier temples, had become elite affairs. Jesus' invitations to the marginalized and outcast to sit at the table flew in the face of this social and political structure. Like any other book that uses archeology to support its claims about biblical texts, this one will be criticized for using material remains to read the Bible in a particular way. However, Crossan and Reed's book provides a fascinating, beautifully illustrated and elegantly written account of the life and times of Jesus, providing readers with one of the richest glimpses into Jesus and his world now available.
