25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The New Testament as an historical document, February 24, 1997
By A Customer
Grant has managed to treat the life of Jesus as one would treat any historical figure. He has sidestepped centuries of interpretation and misinterpretation, and presents a portrait of Jesus based on the actual historical evidence. It is not the Jesus we are used to, and Grant's own interpretations challenge many common assumptions
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Grant's Time Travel, December 15, 2004
This review is from: Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels (Paperback)
Michael Grant's book is so vivid, provides so many cultural details, and engages so much practical data, that it was like boarding a time machine to actually travel back to first-century Galilee to follow Jesus around and observe the life around him.
Grant analyzes aspects of contemporary Galilean, Judean, Aramean and Roman culture in the gospels and other literature, to draw a powerful detailed -- yet easly readable -- character profile of Jesus and his teachings. He probes the gospels, supplemented by contemporarty sources, to draw out a detailed view of the psychology and self-concept of Jesus.
This skilled critical writer establishes strongly the authenticity of some events and teachings commonly dismissed in some circles of thought. Highlighting some ignored aspects of the gospels, Grant's comparative approach to the 4 gospels easily portrays the overarching goal and purpopse of all Jesus' actions and teachings -- the urgency of ushering in the Kingdom of God. This guiding focus explains many aspects otherwise considered anomalies in the gospel accounts.
Grant compares Jesus to the themes, goals and character of the Qumran teachers, Galilean sages and Old Testament prophets. He provides an extensive analysis of Jesus' relationship to John the Baptist. He establishes the unique aspects of Jesus' teachings, as well as the similarities with the developing rabbinic forms of the time. Notable differences are Jesus' unique self-confidence, assurance of his unique relationship to God and his novel personal authority.
Grant pointed out aspects of the political and geographical setting, as well as cultural dynamics I have never seen dealt with in other texts. These bring out a total presence and vibrance in the gospel texts rarely achieved by a New Testament scholar.
In spite of my extensive studies and avid interests in these topics, having read dozens of relevant books, I felt projected in a new way into the physical presence of Jesus in a vivid local Galilean setting, as though it was a movie set painstakingly created for authenticity.
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Apocalypse Now, April 7, 2005
The great mystery of history is how the life and teachings of an obscure Jewish Rabbi inspired a world religion. Speaking as an historian, Michael Grant examines the life of Jesus, eschewing the spiritual, and puts forth the plausible opinion that Jesus's Ministry was based on the belief that the Kingdom of God --the end of the world as we know it -- was at hand. The Jews, or at least the elect of the Jews, would be liberated from oppression, the oppressive Gentiles would be punished, and God would rule. Jesus, he speculates, went knowingly to his death to further the imminent apocalypse.
Grant's views help explain Jesus's indifference toward worldly things. Why worry about possessions, religious laws, and rendering taxes unto Caesar when the end is near? This leads the author also to maintain that Jesus's Ministry was based on a mistake -- the end didn't come, and hasn't yet come -- and that he was "a total failure turned into enormous triumph" after his death. As a person, Jesus comes across as somewhat abrupt and intolerant, especially with his intellectually-challenged disciples.
These are pretty strong and controversial views but Grant maintains his historical detachment throughout. One can never be sure whether he is a believer or not. I thought the book would have been better had it included more background on the four gospels -- Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John -- which are almost the only sources Grant used to interpret the life of Jesus (he finally gets around to doing so briefly near the end of the book.) He perhaps presumes more familiarity with the Bible than some of us, including this reader, may have. But all in all this is a most interesting book and the interpretation of Jesus is very convincing.
Smallchief
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