Product Description

A respected theologian responds to questions about the historical Christ Jesus Christ is one of the most revered, and at the same time, maligned figures in human history. We know for certain that after his death, Jesus of Nazareth did not simply disappear into the history books. Rather, his followers assert that he is still alive today and very much present in their lives, and there is still much interest - from both critics and followers of Christianity alike - in studying claims about the historical Jesus. In the introduction to "Jesus, Man or Myth?", Carsten Peter Thiede asserts that questions about the historical Jesus are essential to coming to understand the Christ of faith. The message of Christ is both one of history and one of faith; the two aspects are two sides of the same coin. Thiede believes that to answer questions such as 'Did Jesus exist?', 'Did he perform miracles?', 'Did he die on the cross?', we need to go back to the original historical accounts published by the first followers of Christ - the Gospels, Acts and the New Testament letters. What follows is a clear, scholarly discourse in which Thiede proposes and answers questions about what we can know today about Jesus. He examines in nine chapters the evidence for Jesus' existence, his place in Jewish tradition, his birth, teachings, miracles, death and resurrection. By finding out more about the Jesus of history, we can make an enlightened choice about the Christ of today, and discover him not as myth, but as a true historical figure about whom faith claims can justifiably be made.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #408254 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Review
"'The mosaic of Jesus, fully man and fully God, not myth but truth personified, has been preserved in the writings of the New Testament. Trusting the image that this unique collection of sources gives us is the safest way towards an unhindered encounter with Jesus Christ today.' - Carsten Peter Thiede"

About the Author
CARSTEN PETER THIEDE sadly died during the production of this book. Although he had completed the text, he was unable to finish checking the final proofs. Lion have endeavoured to complete the book as accurately as he would have wished. During his life, Carsten Peter Thiede held a number of academic posts at institutes including STH in Basel, Switzerland, and the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. His books include The Jesus Papyrus and The Dead Sea Scrolls.

Customer Reviews

Comments by Michael Calum Jacques author of '1st Century Radical'.
Any serious work which genuinely seeks to rectify many of the myriad of misnomers and misconceptions which beset the current profile(s) of the 'historical Jesus' is to be welcomed. Essentially whilst 'Jesus, Man or Myth' would appear to many to be written from a broadly Christian standpoint, is unquestionably well worth a good, thorough peruse from those of us with other - either more conservative or more liberal - views. Any work about the Galilean Jesus, who later became perhaps the most influential person ever to have lived (as well as the Son of God!) will never please or even satisfy everyone!

Prof Carsten Peter Thiede has good credentials for undertaking such a task and has succeeded in presenting a book which couples deft scholarship with that all too elusive 'readability' factor. Whilst encountering a number of the textual and archaeological problems(which plague the modern New Testament historian) head one, the reader is not overburdened by inconveniently placed footnotes or the like. The current reviewer is well aware that this is by no means an easy task to accomplish as an academic writer.

As in some of his other works, Thiede is perhaps at his best when he is slotting the historical Jesus into a First Century, Jewish Palestinian context; here, the author is both competent and convincing and is prudent as to precisely how much historical and socio-cultural information the average reader is likely to be able to usefully digest. On that point, many readers will welcome the relative brevity (about 160 pages all told) of this work and find that the information it presents, along with the cases it makes, to be well ordered and logically sequenced.

We will never find complete harmony in our various 'Quests' for the real Jesus (in this work, Thiede rounds on the historical methodology of the 'Jesus Seminar' scholars, for example) but the arguments presented herein have the virtue of being well grounded in sound scholarship and are the result of a mind thoroughly familiar with the most ancient and well-attested sources. The remainder, the final verdict upon the Palestinian who walked the shores of Galilee 2000 odd years ago, rests in and depends upon our own minds, hands and prejudices.

Michael Calum Jacques