Whose Historical Jesus?

Richard C. Smith is a professor in the Department of Classics,
University of Alberta.

This well-edited volume of 24 scholarly papers reflects recent work in
the field of historical-Jesus studies presented at the annual meetings
of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies in 1993 and 1994.

The papers fall into two major categories: those dealing with recent
theological presentations of Jesus and his sayings, and those addressing
more familiar topics (such as Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the
Christ of Faith). The recent topics include discussions of Jesus as a
Galilean peasant and of his relationship with Cynic philosophers and
Hellenistic rhetoric, the presentation of miracle stories, and feminist
and African views of historical-Jesus scholarship.

The book concludes with a thoughtful essay by W.E. Arnal, who discusses
three recurring issues in the preceding papers: the evaluation of Jesus
as a Jew, the apocalyptic content of Jesus’ message, and how to deal
with bias in evaluating current scholarship. Subjects, modern authors,
and ancient sources are indexed separately.

Overall, this is a readable and clearly organized treatment of
contemporary theological research on, and evaluation of, the Jesus of
history and his message.