Jesus handbook

An authoritative handbook on Jesus, his world, the outcomes of his life, and the quests to locate him in history. The Jesus Handbook is an indispensable reference work featuring essays from an international team of renowned scholars on the significance and meaning of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Rooted in historical-critical methodology, it emphasizes a diversity of perspectives and provides a spectrum of possible interpretations rather than a single unified portrait of Jesus. The Handbook ’s dozens of authors—Jewish, Roman Catholic, and Protestant—all remain committed to the principle of interpreting the life of Jesus in context , while also giving due diligence to the implications of archaeological evidence and recent discourses in the hermeneutics of history. After an introduction that lays out the considerations of the task at hand, the authors survey the history of Jesus research and take a close look at the historical material itself—textual and otherwise. From this foundation, the Handbook then details the life of Jesus before at last exploring the reception and effects of Jesus’s life after his death, especially in the first centuries CE. With this wealth of information available in a single volume, scholars and students of the New Testament and early Christianity—and anyone interested in the search for the historical Jesus—will find The Jesus Handbook to be a resource that they return to time and again for both its breadth and depth. Contributors: Sven-Olav Back, Knut Backhaus, Reinhard von Bendemann, Albrecht Beutel, Darrell L. Bock, Martina Böhm, Cilliers Breytenbach, James G. Crossley, Lutz Doering, Martin Ebner, Craig A. Evans, Jörg Frey, Yair Furstenberg, Simon Gathercole, Christine Gerber, Katharina Heyden, Friedrich W. Horn, Stephen Hultgren, Christine Jacobi, Jeremiah J. Johnston, Thomas Kazen, Chris Keith, John S. Kloppenborg, Bernd Kollmann, Michael Labahn, Hermut Löhr, Steve Mason, Tobias Nicklas, Markus Öhler, Martin Ohst, Karl-Heinrich Ostmeyer, James Carleton Paget, Rachel Schär, Eckart David Schmidt, Jens Schröter, Daniel R. Schwartz, Markus Tiwald, David du Toit, Joseph Verheyden, Samuel Vollenweider, Ulrich Volp, Annette Weissenrieder, Michael Wolter, Jürgen K. Zangenberg, Christiane Zimmermann, and Ruben Zimmermann. Title Page Copyright Contents Foreword by Dale C. Allison Jr. Preface Translator’s Preface List of Abbreviations A. Introduction I. About This Handbook II. The Earthly Jesus and the Christ of Confession: Contours of the Jesus Quest III. The Jesus Quest in the Age of Critical Historiography IV. The “Remembered Jesus”—on the Relevance of a Paradigm of Current Jesus Research V. Historical Material as a Foundation for the Reconstruction of the Deeds and Fate of Jesus VI. Early Impacts of Jesus VII. Literature for Basic Orientation B. History of Historical-Critical Research on Jesus I. Introduction II. The Earthly Jesus in the Piety and Theology of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Reformation 1. Antiquity 2. The Middle Ages/Humanism 3. Reformation III. The Eighteenth Century as the Context for the Origin of Critical Theology 1. Critical Philosophy 2. Critical Philosophy of Religion 3. Critical Theology 4. Historical-Critical Exegesis IV. Critical Historiography of the Late Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries and Its Implications for Jesus Research 1. Critical Historiography of the Late Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: Periodization and Characterization 2. Effects on Jesus Research V. The Concept of Myth in Historical Jesus Research and the Rise of the Two-Document Hypothesis 1. Strauss and the Concept of Myth 2. Reactions against Strauss and the Development of Markan Priority 3. Historical Jesus Studies, 1830–1870 4. The Emergence of the Liberal Lives of Jesus 5. The Nineteenth Century in Retrospect VI. The “Kingdom of God” as an Eschatological Concept: Johannes Weiss and Albert Schweitzer 1. Introduction 2. Weiss’s and Schweitzer’s Kingdom 3. Weiss’s and Schweitzer’s Interpretation 4. Some Closing Thoughts VII. Historical Jesus and Kerygmatic Christ 1. Preliminary Remarks 2. Martin Kähler 3. On Rudolf Bultmann’s Approach 4. Luke Timothy Johnson 5. Review and Prospects VIII. The Literary Designs of the Gospels and Their Relationship to the Historical Jesus 1. William Wrede 2. Form and Redaction Criticism 3. Narrative Study of the Gospel 4. Narrative, Memory, and History 5. Conclusion IX. The Gospels as “Kerygmatic Narratives” of Jesus and the “Criteria” in Historical Jesus Research 1. Ernst Käsemann 2. Günther Bornkamm 3. Ferdinand Hahn 4. Summary X. The “Third Quest for the Historical Jesus” 1. Introduction 2. Developments 3. Characteristic Features 4. Controversies and Debates XI. The “Remembered Jesus”: Memory as a Historiographical-Hermeneutical Paradigm of Research on Jesus C. The Historical Material I. Introduction II. Literary Evidence 1. Christian Texts 2. Non-Christian Texts III. Nonliterary Evidence 1. Archaeological Evidence 2. Inscriptions and Coins D. The Life and Work of Jesus I. Introduction II. Political Conditions and Religious Context 1. Political Conditions: Roman Imperial Rule, Herod the Great, Antipas 2. Religious Context III. Biographical Aspects 1. Jesus: Descent, Birth, Childhood, Family 2. Jesus’s Education and Language 3. Jesus in the Judaism of His Time (Jewish Influence on Jesus) 4. Galilee and Environs as the Sphere of Activity 5. Jerusalem and Judea as a Sphere of Activity IV. Public Ministry 1. Jesus’s Social Context 2. Jesus’s Activity 3. Jesus’s Discourses/Jesus’s Teaching 4. The Ethics of Jesus 5. The Passion Events E. Early Traces of the Wirkungen (Effects) and Reception of Jesus I. Introduction II. Resurrection, Appearances, Instructions of the Risen One 1. Early Christian Talk about the God Who Raised Jesus from the Dead, and Its Traditio-Historical Background 2. The Accounts of Appearances in the Gospels 3. An Innovative Concept of Resurrection in Primitive Christianity: The Connection of One Individual Resurrection with the Dawning of the End Time and the Expectation of a General Resurrection of the Dead 4. Further Developments in the Second and Third Centuries 5. Conclusion III. Early Confessions of Faith 1. Criteria 2. Typologies 3. Traditional Pistis Formulations 4. Homological Predication Statements 5. Other Traditional Formulations with a Kerygmatic or Soteriological Profile 6. Further Christological Confessions 7. Liturgical Forms 8. Conclusion IV. Christological Titles 1. Lord 2. The Anointed One (Christ/Messiah) 3. Son of God 4. Son of Man 5. Son of David V. The Formation of Structures: The Twelve, Wandering Charismatics, the Primitive Jerusalem Community, and Apostles 1. The Twelve 2. Wandering Charismatics/Wandering Radicals 3. The Jerusalem Community 4. Apostles VI. Jesus in Noncanonical Texts of the Second and Third Centuries 1. “Jewish Christian” Gospels 2. The Gospel of Peter 3. God and the Question of Death 4. The Gospel of Thomas 5. Gospel of Mary and Gospel of Judas 6. Protevangelium of James and Infancy Gospel of Thomas 7. Conclusion VII. Visual Representations of Jesus up until ca. 500 CE 1. Pictorial Motifs 2. Typology of Depictions of Jesus 3. Overview 4. Pictorial Cycles/Sequences of Figures 5. Developments 6. Plates with Explanatory Notes VIII. Ethics (Sermon on the Mount) 1. Ancient Ethical Tradition 2. Early Christian Communal Ethics 3. Challenges for Christian Ethics in the Second Century 4. Outlook: The Ethic of the Sermon on the Mount in Alexandrian Theology and Monastic Ethics Bibliography List of Contributors "An authoritative collection of first-rate scholarship on Jesus, his world, the outcomes of his life, and the quest to locate him in history. The Jesus Handbook is an indispensable reference work featuring essays from a team of renowned international scholars on the significance and meaning of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Rooted in historical-critical methodology, it emphasizes a diversity of perspectives and provides a spectrum of possible interpretations rather than a single unified portrait of Jesus. The Handbook's dozens of authors-Jewish, Roman Catholic, and Protestant-each remain committed to the principle of interpreting the life of Jesus in context, while also giving due diligence to the implications of archaeological evidence and recent discourses in the hermeneutics of history. After an introduction that lays out the considerations of the task at hand, the authors survey the history of Jesus research and take a close look at the historical material itself-textual and otherwise. From this foundation, the Handbook then details the life of Jesus before at last exploring the reception and effects of Jesus's life after his death, especially in the first centuries CE. With this wealth of information available in a single volume, scholars and students of the New Testament and early Christianity-and anyone interested in the search for the historical Jesus-will find The Jesus Handbook to be a resource that they return to time and again for both its breadth and depth.Contributors:Sven-Olav Back, Knut Backhaus, Reinhard von Bendemann, Albrecht Beutel, Darrell L. Bock, Martina Böhm, Cilliers Breytenbach, James G. Crossley, Lutz Doering, Martin Ebner, Craig Evans, Jörg Frey, Yair Furstenberg, Christine Gerber, Katharina Heyden, Friedrich Wilhelm Horn, Stephen Hultgren, Christine Jacobi, Jeremiah J. Johnston, Thomas Kazen, Chris Keith, John S. Kloppenborg, Bernd Kollmann, Michael Labahn, Hermut Löhr, Tobias Nicklas, Markus Öhler, Martin Ohst, Karl-Heinrich Ostmeyer, James Carleton Paget, Rachel Schär, Eckart David Schmidt, Daniel R. Schwartz, Markus Tiwald, David du Toit, Joseph Verheyden, Samuel Vollenweider, Ulrich Volp, Annette Weissenrieder, Michael Wolter, Jürgen K. Zangenberg, Christiane Zimmermann, and Ruben Zimmermann"-- Provided by publisher "An international collection of scholarship on Jesus of Nazareth, his world, the outcomes of his life, and the quest to locate him in historical context"-- Provided by publisher