John Dominic Crossan's collection provides readers with a fresh look at the central lessons of Christianity's great teacher in his depictions of the "historical Jesus ... in both his vision and program." His excellent introduction puts forth the radical thesis that Jesus is best understood as a social reformer, a poor Jew in an occupied country who stressed social equality as much as or more than individual salvation. Attempting to see Christ not through 20th-century eyes but in the social, political, and economic context in which he lived and taught, Crossan points out that for the first 300 years after his crucifixion what was emphasized was not Jesus' divinity but his concern for communal empowerment. The picture that emerges is of a political and social rebel, a fearless champion to the poor and dispossessed.

Crossan's translations of Christ's sayings gathered from the four canonical gospels and the Gospel of Thomas are paradoxically both new and familiar, and their newness helps readers break outside their preconceived ideas of what they may consider to be "essential" about the revolutionary Galilean's message. Renderings such as "the somebodies will be nobodies and the nobodies will be somebodies" give well-known biblical verses renewed impact. Each saying stands alone and is meant to be read like poetry or dialectical argument, to be savored and enjoyed for its simultaneous simplicity and power. Scattered throughout the text are images of Jesus in Pre-Constantinian Christian reliefs and frescoes. Crossan explains that their emphasis on Jesus' concern with open healing and shared eating are further evidence of his radical social commitment. Those who are not afraid to challenge their assumptions about Jesus' teachings will find much of value in this volume. --Uma Kukathas


From Publishers Weekly
With a concise gathering of 88 sayings by Jesus and 25 pre-Constantinian Christian paintings and other works of art of Him, Dom Crossan once again focuses on the Galilean "in his actual life" rather than on the canonical Jesus of the New Testament's four gospels. Jesus, Crossan believes, was a plainspoken sage; and "communal empowerment" together with healing comprised the core of his message about the "program and presence" of the kingdom he pointed to. Appropriately, the 25 early depictions, juxtaposed here with the sayings, emphasize how Jesus was understood before his revolutionary humanity was transfigured by the later creeds and theology of Christian orthodoxy. Crossan's eloquent pairing of the teachings and the imagery amplifies his The Historical Jesus and Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, as well as The Five Gospels from the Jesus Seminar of which Crossan is a prominent member. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Crossan's "essential Jesus" is the first century C.E. Jewish peasant and social rebel defined at length in his Historical Jesus (LJ 2/1/92) and more concisely in Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (LJ 12/93). The "original sayings" are 93 aphorisms and parables-drawn from the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke and the noncanonical Gospel of Thomas-that the author believes go back to the historical Jesus. Each saying is presented in Crossan's own, often quite free translation and in the form he considers most likely original. The "earliest images" are depictions of baptizing, teaching, eating, and healing scenes from third century C.E. sources, representing the major emphases of the sayings. Not all scholars accept the great gulf Crossan has set between the historical Jesus and the Jesus portrayed in the canonical gospels, and neither will all lay readers. However, there is much to be gained by viewing the words of Jesus within their earliest context. For public and academic libraries.Craig W. Beard, Univ. of Alabama, BirminghamCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Crossan concludes the trilogy he began with The Historical Jesus (1991) and continued with Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography by presenting his versions of 93 of Jesus' sayings accompanied by 25 of the earliest images of Christ. This, the heart of the book, he expands on with a chapter of notes on the sayings, with references to their analogues in the New Testament or Meyer's translation of The Gospel of Thomas (1992), and an "Inventory of Images" accounting for all 25 scenes reproduced in the book as well as an additional 40. The attitude that informs the translations and commentaries is Crossan's controversial view that the historical Jesus was a nonviolent, egalitarian peasant revolutionary; and the insights that inspection of the images provides, Crossan argues, are that the most powerful aspects of Jesus' message for its earliest hearers were ideals of classless community and of release from oppression, which are symbolized by representations of feasting and healing, respectively. An engrossing end to a project that, however much it challenges institutional Christians, can only inspire individual believers. Ray Olson

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In this volume of freshly translated original sayings and beautifully reproduced illustrations, preeminent biblical scholar John Dominic Crossan presents a stunning portrait of the Jesus readers might have encountered in early first-century Galilee.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

Crossan's "essential Jesus" is the first century C.E. Jewish peasant and social rebel defined at length in his Historical Jesus (LJ 2/1/92) and more concisely in Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (LJ 12/93). The "original sayings" are 93 aphorisms and parables-drawn from the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke and the noncanonical Gospel of Thomas-that the author believes go back to the historical Jesus. Each saying is presented in Crossan's own, often quite free translation and in the form he considers most likely original. The "earliest images" are depictions of baptizing, teaching, eating, and healing scenes from third century C.E. sources, representing the major emphases of the sayings. Not all scholars accept the great gulf Crossan has set between the historical Jesus and the Jesus portrayed in the canonical gospels, and neither will all lay readers. However, there is much to be gained by viewing the words of Jesus within their earliest context. For public and academic libraries.-Craig W. Beard, Univ. of Alabama, Birmingham

BookList - Ray Olson