prog | WRT Jesus, for reals

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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.)

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From:

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.