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Title: Rabbi Jesus : An Intimate Biography by Bruce Chilton ISBN: 0-385-49793-8 Publisher: Image Books Pub. Date: 26 February, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.07 (44 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Minus the Miracles...A Very Plausible Jesus
Comment: Bruce Chilton's work, "Rabbi Jesus" reads like a novel as it takes Jesus from his childhood as a "mamzer" of questioned legitimacy to his death on the cross. In the process Chilton develops a very human Jesus who was deeply a part of his Jewish and Galilean environment. Using translations of Aramaic and Syriac texts, Chilton often puts a different twist on exactly what Jesus tried to accomplish and who he believed he was. He shows that Jesus went through a steady development as to his purpose and goals.
Chilton takes Jesus' very Jewish vision and relates it to the sacrifices at the Temple in Jerusalem. It then becomes clear as to why Jesus raided the Temple and went to Jerusalem in the first place; his attempt to purify the Temple and impose a more Galilean form of sacrifice.
The most fascinating parts of the book are the development and changes in Jesus' religious thinking, the relationship of this thought to his Jewish environment, the political interaction between Pontius Pilate, Caiaphas, and Herod Antipas that results in Jesus' capture and death, and Chilton's insightful interpretation into Jesus' meaning of his "blood and flesh" that became the basis of the Christian Eucharist.
Like any Biblical scholar, Chilton picks and chooses which sources to believe are genuine and which are to be rejected. It would seem at times he is too willing to accept the miracles of Jesus and his followers at face value. Often this does not seem consistent with the more human picture he has drawn of Jesus. However, this is a fascinating portrait of Jesus and one that seems very plausible (for the most part). It gives us much to consider regarding this Galilean and what he tried to accomplish. By placing Jesus within the context of his Galilean and Jewish heritage it seems far more real than most others.
Rating: 4
Summary: A near-perfect biographical portrait of the historical Jesus
Comment: RABBI JESUS is an "intimate biography" of the Jesus Christianity hardly knows: a Jewish holy man of the First Century, steeped in the religious traditions of Israel and preoccupied with his people's adherence to the commandments of Torah. As written by theologian and scholar Bruce Chilton, RABBI JESUS attempts to bridge the gap between the Christian teachings that followed Jesus's life and the reality that was the man himself. It's to Chilton's credit that he largely succeeds.
Author Chilton rejects what he sees to be secular revision of the Jesus story by such groups as the Jesus Seminar, and instead tries to place the historical Jesus within the framework of the Gospel narratives found in the Christian Bible. RABBI JESUS is a strong work, but this conceit gives rise to some of the book's problems, Christian readers coming away from Chilton's Jesus biography will have a greater understanding the central figure of their holiest text, but are shortchanged when Chilton's scholastic rigor occasionally gives way to the believer in him.
RABBI JESUS begins with Jesus's birth. Going back to the earliest texts in their original writings - Chilton is fluent in Aramaic, Greek, Coptic, Latin and several other ancient languages - readers are granted spectacular insight into the childhood and youth of the most famous martyr of all time. Chilton's Jesus is an outcast in his community thanks to his questionable parentage, the only one of five sons in the family of Joseph and Mary to view his religious birthright from the outside looking in. This unusual background lays the groundwork for Jesus's teachings, a body of thought that both embraces the core tenets of Judaism while expanding their meaning in order to broaden their inclusiveness.
It's a fascinating portrait, extensively documented, that Chilton paints. Those used to the sanctified, sterilized Jesus of modern faith will be surprised to discover the genuine article. Jesus could be obstinate, shocking, and even earthy depending upon the situation. He was, in short, a real man with a real message to deliver in a real time and place. Chilton seeks not to invalidate the text of the Christian Bible, but to illuminate it with a level of scholarship rarely found in religious examinations of Jesus and his life.
Unfortunately, Chilton's hesitance to discard those elements of the Christian Bible which are clearly outside the bounds of reality - walking on water, creating food out of thin air, healing the permanently disabled, exorcising demons, etc. - means that he must engage in some logical acrobatics in order to justify the text. The scholar exchanges places with the theologian, and Chilton displays an unusual credulity when accepting the more implausible feats attributed to Jesus. Chilton frequently leans on the crutch of "mass hysteria" or "religious fervor" to explain away miracles, since he doesn't seem to have the heart to acknowledge that they likely never happened at all.
Thankfully these incidents are relatively few. For the bulk of RABBI JESUS, Chilton's analyses of the Christian Bible and the life of the historical Jesus are insightful, and at times even cutting. Jesus was not a perfect man by any means, and Chilton makes no excuses for Jesus's missteps along the way. Even stripped of his exclusive divinity, a construct of later Christian teaching, Jesus was a remarkable man with an important message for his fellow Jews. And, as Chilton says, we can all continue to learn from Jesus today.
Rating: 5
Summary: Scholarship and love of Jesus in storytelling format
Comment: I suggest the reader begin at the end of this book, the very end: in the Notes, Bibliography, etc. You will discover the lifetime study of archaeology, historical writings and Scripture with which Reverend Chilton informs himself.
Next, flip through the book and realize that Chilton speaks simply and plainly. He tells a story rather than lecturing. This is an excellent literary device in this case. A pleasure to read!
As to the book itself, Chilton loves Jesus and wants to understand his life. I am reminded of the way each of us tries to share the ups and downs, hopes and fears and so forth of those whom we love in our lives here and now. Chilton wants to share in the life of Jesus.
My own reading in Judaism of the period suggests Chilton well understands Jesus' in his ancient Jewish context. A well respected Jewish scholar, Jacob Neusner, is quoted on the front of the book offering high praise.
You will know Jesus more intimately than you have before if you read this book.
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Title: Comparing Spiritualities: Formative Christianity and Judaism on Finding Life and Meeting Death by Bruce Chilton, Jacob Neusner ISBN: 1563383098 Publisher: Morehouse Publishing Pub. Date: May, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time : The Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith by Marcus J. Borg ISBN: 0060609176 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 03 March, 1995 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Jesus' Prayer and Jesus' Eucharist: His Personal Practice of Spirituality by Bruce Chilton ISBN: 1563382040 Publisher: Trinity Pr Intl Pub. Date: May, 1997 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: The Historical Jesus : The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant by John Dominic Crossan ISBN: 0060616296 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 26 February, 1993 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Pure Kingdom: Jesus' Vision of God (Studying the Historical Jesus) by Bruce Chilton ISBN: 0802841872 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Pub. Date: August, 1996 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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