WRT Jesus, for reals

[prog]

I am under the impression that several of this blog's readers have nonzero knowledge or interest in the topic of the Historical Jesus: the ancient Jewish prophet and rabble-rouser. No more divine than you or I, perhaps, but apparently possessing of a remarkable presence, and maybe a shocking orator for his time, so outrageous that the authorities saw it necessary to silence him.

To you I ask: if I wanted to read a really solid, secular account of the life of this man, where would I turn?

I suppose I would prefer non-fiction, but fiction is OK, so long as it's appropriately informed. Specific books and chapters of the New Testament are also OK to recommend. Assume I know nothing. I am coming at this not so much raw as tinted. I carry nearly 20 years of actively Christian education and upbringing and all its attendant assumptions in my personal baggage, and I have never really properly unpacked it.

(Is this for a project? Yes, it is for a project.)

Comments

[xach.livejournal.com]

My understanding is that there are no contemporary sources of information about the life of Jesus, other than the Bible. The Wikipedia article has useful info.

[prog.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I grok that there are slim pickings to be had. I guess I'm hoping to be pointed at works that at least cogently contextualize what's in the Bible with the better chronicled facts about the culture and politics in Jesus' time and place.

[flourish.livejournal.com]

There aren't, but there are historical sources that can shed light on the society in which he would have lived, which can get you a long way in critical analysis of the Gospels. For example, understanding the Judean economy can explain a lot more about the relative social standing of all the various characters in the Bible, which is nowhere near what our modern assumptions would have them be.

That said, you're right in that I think 99% of the books about the historical Jesus are primarily colored by what the author would like to be true about Jesus, because it's almost all interpretation... so I hesitate to recommend anything in particular.

Michael Grant, Hyam Macabee

[radtea.livejournal.com]

Michael Grant's "Jesus" is a good place to start. It's a fair-minded covering of the ground from a secular-Christian perspective. Grant writes accessibly and well: he is my favourite serious historian who writes popular works. I gave this book to my very conservative, very Christian mother a few years back for Christmas as a way of introducing her to some of the historical/secular context of her beliefs, and it didn't offend her, so it manages to be acceptable to a rabid anti-religious nut (me) as well as a conservative Anglican.

Reading Macabee's "Saul" gave me a perspective on Jesus and Paul that was incredibly valuable, and I believe he has a book on Jesus as well (note to self: buy it!). The critical thing is that Macabee is a Jew, and a talmudic scholar. As such he brings a completely different set of biases to the table, which as someone who was raised a Christian I found extremely enlightening. I've read a lot of stuff about early Christianity, and never appreciated how subtly biased I was until I read Macabee. Highly recommended.

Re: Michael Grant, Hyam Macabee

[radtea.livejournal.com]

This is the Maccoby I was thinking of:

http://www.amazon.ca/Jesus-Pharisee-Hyam-Maccoby/dp/0334029147/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1291235216&sr=1-10

And this looks interesting as well:

http://www.amazon.ca/Revolution-Judaea-Jesus-Jewish-Resistance/dp/0800867831/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1291235216&sr=1-2

[dougo.livejournal.com]

Anne Rice recently wrote a couple novels depicting Jesus's life. Apparently the first one was based on "meticulous research" but the second was more speculative. (I haven't read them, or any of her books since the mid-90s, but I still kind of consider myself a fan.)

[taskboy3000.livejournal.com]

I suggest "Misquoting Jesus," which is illuminating in the problem of knowing Jesus at all.

I might go further and suggest that the physical evidence for a real Jesus human is problematic. There are those who believe he was always meant to be a myth.