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

[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.