From Library Journal
Based on Crossan's acclaimed and controversial The Historical Jesus ( LJ 2/1/92), this elegant new reconstruction popularizes and occasionally elaborates on that earlier work. Gone is the massive documentation. What remains is an engrossing, often startling exploration of key themes, in which Crossan weighs scriptural texts against anthropological, historical, and literary standards, sifting through accrued layers for evidence of earlier (if noncanonical) sources. He acknowledges his naturalistic assumptions ("I presume that Jesus... could not cure... disease"), which, together with his critical method, cause him to dismiss the virgin birth, say, or the passion/resurrection narratives, as historically invalid. Yet he also offers nuanced, powerful readings of Jesus' teachings. Bound to disturb some people and stimulate others, this is recommended for all libraries where lay readers are likely to be interested in the issues raised.- Elise Chase, Forbes Lib., Northampton, Mass.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


New York Times Book Review
"Crossan paints his Jesus with great warmth and power. He achieves a portrait that both takes in the contemporary background yet accounts for Jesus' distinctiveness.... This Jesus is a Jewish peasant, with a direct sense of God's immediacy, who shatters all social restraints."


From Booklist
Based on Crossan's more scholarly text, The Historical Jesus (1992), this biographical study makes the author's view of Jesus as a social revolutionary available to a wider audience. Crossan clearly defines the problem of trying to locate the historical Jesus in the midst of myth, and he tells readers how he intends to find that Jesus: through cross-cultural anthropology, Greco-Roman and Jewish history, and literary and textual evidence. Compared to A. N. Wilson's Jesus: A Life (1992), which brought a real man to life, this account gives little sense of a flesh-and-blood Jesus, though Crossan offers some thought-provoking theories about the man and his mission. What is most interesting about the book, though, is Crossan's portrayal of the times and the milieu that gave birth to a new religion. While, at the end of the book, readers may still not be sure if Jesus was a savior or a sorcerer, they will certainly understand the cultural and historical dynamics that allowed him to step forward in that particular time and that particular place. Ilene Cooper


From Kirkus Reviews
Revisionist ``biography'' of Jesus, by New Testament scholar Crossan (Biblical Studies/DePaul University; Raid on the Articulate, 1976). Crossan's study--a popularization and extension of his The Historical Jesus (1992--not reviewed)--proves again the oft-made observation that biographies of Jesus reveal more about their authors than about the subject. Here, we get a politically correct Christ stripped of all mythology, a revolutionary social leader who taught ``radical egalitarianism'' but performed no miracles, except that of awakening social consciousness (Crossan reads Jesus' casting out of demons as a blow against colonialism). This is, then, the Jesus of liberation theology, not of the Christian scholarly mainstream (up to now, Crossan has been best known for another unconventional and little-accepted theory, positing the existence of a ``cross gospel'' that predates the passion narratives of the canonical texts). As usual, Crossan's scholarship is good, with a command of cultural anthropology, Greco-Roman history, and textual analysis. Eyebrows will rise often, though, as he goes beyond facts into conjecture: Jesus ``did not and could not cure...disease'' despite his laying-on-of-hands; Jesus never met Pilate or Caiaphas; the Barabbas tale is fiction (a dismissal based largely on Crossan's subjective reading of Pilate's personality), as are the Last Supper, the Raising of Lazarus, the Virgin Birth, etc. Moreover, at his most extreme, Crossan suggests that Jesus' body, far from being resurrected, was probably buried in a shallow grave and eaten by dogs. Disappointing. The most reliable--read: cautious--guide to the historical Jesus remains John P. Meier's massive, on-going project, A Marginal Jew (1991- ). -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Burton Mack, author of The Lost Gospel
"The book is marvelous. Crossan's respect for both memory and imagination lets him paint a portrait of Jesus even while dismantling the mythic materials of the gospels. The style is dazzling, the portrait haunting. Everyone will want to read it."


Jack Miles, author of God: A Biography
"In the sometimes plodding company of contemporary New Testament critics, Crossan has always been the literary high stepper. Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography [is] a brief, clear, arresting life story."


Robert W. Funk, editor of The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus.
"Jesus is a magisterial distillation of Crossan's lifelong work on the gospels and Jesus. It deserves careful and extended consideration by everyone seriously interested in the enigmatic sage from Galilee. With his work on Jesus, Crossan joins the ranks of the truly great biblical scholars of the twentieth century. His 'revolutionary biography' is the biography of a revolutionary: the book and its subject are rebels in the cause of truth."


National Catholic Reporter
"This is an extremely interesting, erudite, informative, must-read for anyone interested in the New Testament.... Read it."


Robert W. Funk, editor of The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus and cofounder of the Jesus Seminar
"Jesus is a magisterial distillation of Crossan's lifelong work on the gospels and Jesus. It deserves careful and extended consideration by everyone seriously interested in the enigmatic sage from Galilee. With his work on Jesus, Crossan joins the ranks of the truly great biblical scholars of the twentieth century. His 'revolutionary biography' is the biography of a revolutionary: the book and its subject are rebels in the cause of truth."


Book Description
John Dominic Crossan's bestselling and critically acclaimed biography of the historical Jesus. "This is an outstanding book--both popular and intelligent. Accessible language and direct, dramatic narration . . . a compelling portrait of Jesus."


From the Inside Flap
John Dominic Crossan, widely regarded as the leading authority on the words and life of Jesus, cuts through the minutiae and arcane research of much biblical scholarship to present the best possible historical depiction of Jesus--the man and his message. In elegant prose marked by startling revelations, Crossan presents Jesus as a social revolutionary who preached and practiced a message of radical egalitarianism. The Jesus portrayed by Crossan is a savvy and courageous Jewish Mediterranean peasant who challenged the sacrosanct social rules regarding class, gender, and status. What emerges from this stunning biography is a vision of Jesus as a Jewish Socratic philosopher and political agitator who gave voice to those who had never been heard and love to the most cast-out members of society. He proclaimed--in thought and action--that all may participate in the rule of God.


From the Back Cover
"Crossan untangles the elaborate fabric of fact and fiction, of history and mythology, in the four gospels in order to detect the historical Jesus and the earliest Christian communities...an essential contribution to the discovery of genuine Christian life."--Uta Ranke-Heinemann, author of Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven From the world's leading expert on the life of Jesus. Social revolutionary, Jewish Socrates, political troublemaker--this shocking, insightful portrait presents Jesus as a societal rebel who preached and practiced a message of radical egalitarianism. Crossan's revolutionary discoveries about the life of Jesus: The infancy narratives were fable-like in their depictions and are easily clarified by historical fact. They were created to signal Jesus' importance and continuity with and fulfillment of the Torah. The resurrection is a myth signifying that Jesus' spirit, inspiration, teaching, and example lived on powerfully in his surviving followers. Jesus was more radical and threatening than any political revolutionary leader of his time or since, because he espoused absolute equality in a society that was completely segregated along class and gender lines. Jesus' healing activities were not so much miracles of physical transformation but rather liberating declarations that sick people were fully acceptable members of society rather than untouchables afflicted by God for some sin.


About the Author
John D. Crossan is generally acknowledged to be the premier historical Jesus scholar in the world. His books include The Historical Jesus, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, and Who Killed Jesus? He recently appeared in the PBS special "From Jesus to Christ."

FROM THE PUBLISHER

John Dominic Crossan, widely regarded as the leading authority on the words and life of Jesus, cuts through the minutiae and arcane research of much biblical scholarship to present the best possible historical depiction of Jesus - the man and his message. In elegant prose marked by startling revelations, Crossan presents Jesus as a social revolutionary who preached and practiced a message of radical egalitarianism. The Jesus portrayed by Crossan is a savvy and courageous Jewish Mediterranean peasant who challenged the sacrosanct social rules regarding class, gender, and status. What emerges from this stunning biography is a vision of Jesus as a Jewish Socratic philosopher and political agitator who gave voice to those who had never been heard and love to the most cast-out members of society. He proclaimed - in thought and action - that all may participate in the rule of God.

FROM THE CRITICS

New York Times Book Review

Crossan paints his Jesus with great warmth and power. He achieves a portrait that both takes in the contemporary background yet accounts for Jesus' distinctiveness...This Jesus is a Jewish peasant, with a direct sense of God's immediacy, who shatters all social restraints.

National Catholic Reporter

This is an extremely interesting, erudite, informative, must-read for anyone interested in the New Testament...Read it.

Robert W. Funk