Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: A Jewish Life and the Emergence of Christianity

Abstract

As a Jesus of History "Scholar wannabe" 1 looked forward to reading and reviewing Paula Fredriksen's recent work on the historical Jesus.It came to me with some strong recommendations.Unfortunately my overwhelming reaction to the book remains a profound disappointment.Not surprisingly, in the welter of widely divergent reconstructions of the historical Jesus, 1 find myself drawn powerfully to some, such as John Dominic Crossan and William R. Herzog ll's, and passionately at variance with others, including Marcus Borg and to a lesser extent, N. T. Wright's.Yet in all these, 1 found myself comfortable with the researchers' careful scholarship.Even though 1 disagree, as well, with Dr.Fredriksen's portrayal, it is not her reconstruction as such which troubles me.After all, scholarly debate stands as the lifeblood of academic work.Rather, what disturbs me in Dr. Fredriksen's Jesus of Nazareth is the data she uses, the data she doesn't use and the ways she brings together her material.Sadly 1 find her reconstruction quite thin.Initially 1 was intrigued by her thesis that there are two indisputable facts - Jesus' execution by Pilate and the non-execution of Jesus' followers.She puts it this way: "This is a crucial anomaly.Because it is established by two absolutely secure historical facts, it will serve as the driving wheel for my effort here to reconstruct the Jesus of history" (9).With this introduction, 1 was eager to see her argument unfolding from these premises. 1continued to be with her on the danger of inserting anachronisms into our interpretationsall history of Jesus scholars strive mightily not to fall into this trap, at least without a clear recognition that this is happening or is, to some extent, inevitable.However, at this point in her discussion of sources, my alarms began to buzz.She spoke of our canonical texts, Philo, Josephus, as well she should.At the same time, she overwhelmingly

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