Jesus of Nazareth: Millenarian Prophet‪.‬

Jesus of Nazareth: Millenarian Prophet, by Dale C. Allison, Jr. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1998. Pp. xii + 255. $20.00 (paper). Perhaps the most surprising development in the latest phase of the continuing quest for the historical Jesus has been the willingness of many scholars to abandon the century-old consensus that Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet. It has certainly been the most hotly contested development. The acrimonious nature of the debate surrounding this issue ensures that anyone who dares to jump into the fray will do so with no small amount of trepidation. Yet this is where Dale Allison has chosen to center his book Jesus of Nazareth: Millenarian Prophet. Whatever else one might say about this latest contribution to the so-called Jesus wars, one must above all credit Allison's effort as an act of courage. But it is more than that. In his Jesus of Nazareth, Allison offers a creditable defense of the Weiss-Schweitzer hypothesis, engaging its opponents with thoughtful arguments and measured tones: an exercise in scholarly apologetics of the first order.