Reviewed Book: Crossan, John Dominic. Jesus: a revolutionary biography. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994

Kloppenborg, John S.

English

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 21Issue 1 Women and Men in Theological Education:Exploring the Present, Creating the FutureArticle 165-1-1995Jesus: a revolutionary biographyJohn S. KloppenborgFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationKloppenborg, John S. (1995) "Jesus: a revolutionary biography," Consensus: Vol. 21 : Iss. 1 , Article 16.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol21/iss1/16Book Reviews 139(probably only) journey to Jerusalem: confronted with the temple’s riches,Jesus “symbolically destroyed its brokerage function in the name of the un-brokered kingdom of God” . Happening during the volatile Passover festival,the crucifixion probably came quickly and brutally.But the ‘end’ was not the end. Crossan detects signs that at leasttwo identifiable groups among Jesus’ followers found his ministry still hadpower in their lives. One group was peasant ‘healed healers’ who foundJesus’ program still having profound results. The other group was literatescribes who found themselves searching the Jewish scriptures for explana-tions of Jesus’ death. Crossan believes they found these explanations in;spades and eventually the “historical passion” (what actually happened)gave way to the “prophetic passion”—scriptural prophecies of the meaningof it all; finally, simpler “narrative passions”—what we have in the canoni-cal Gospels—retold the prophecy as though it were “history” . Luke’s storyIof the Emmaus disciples hints at this process, Crossan believes. “How manyyears was Easter Sunday?” is one of his telling chapter titles. Crossan un-derstands resurrection theology to be St. Paul’s contribution, by the way.Crossan’s books are full of surprises which stop just short of beingfaith-testing, partly because of Crossan’s gentle literary style. His Jesuswas illiterate. The Last Supper was a creation of the early church, anamazingly powerful yet simple way to recall forever the open sharing atJesus’ memorable meals. The post-resurrection appearances of Jesus andthe nature miracles are principally about authority-struggles in the earlychurch. And many more!This reader has not been as challenged by anything else he has readin many years. We preachers, poor proclaimers of Jesus’ Kingdom of GodIthat we are, owe it to ourselves and our congregations to give John DominicICrossan a fair hearing.ii Ted HeinzeIZion Lutheran ChurchljStratford, Ontario' Jesus: A Revolutionary BiographyJohn Dominic Crossan,San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994ljxiv + 209 pp. $16.00 paper!When asked at a public lecture whether there was a role for the scholartij simply popularizing the more technical works of others, James M. Robin-son observed that the Jesus-books from the last two generations that have! lasted have been those of Dibelius, Bultmann, Bornkamm, Conzelmann—1scholars who were also expert in technical disciplines. No generalizationi140 Consensuscould apply better to John Dominic Crossan, who has spent a career ontechnical studies on the parables, aphorisms, miracle stories, the editing ofMark, hermeneutics and poetics. Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography andits longer sister The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean JewishPeasant (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991) are the products ofcareful, disciplined and mature scholarship, breathtaking in its erudition.Crossan disciplines himself with three constraints: Mediterranean an-thropology, the history of the early first century, and literary criticism. Tobe conscious of the dynamics typical of agrarian societies is to acknowledgethe unrepentantly stratified, agonistic, honour-oriented, non-individualisticcharacter of Jesus’ society and to guard against unconsciously creating apost-industrial revolution, middle class Jesus. Attention to Graeco-Roman“ history allows Crossan to situate Jesus within the richly layered realities ofImperial propaganda, local military occupation, Herodian client kingship,scribal and sacerdotal retainers, overtaxed peasants, apocalyptic prophets,messianic pretenders and much more. Finally, Crossan disciplines himselfwith literary criticism—the existence of layers of literary evidence fromQ (and within Q) and Mark, to the redaction of Matthew and Luke—ina way that most other Jesus books have simply ignored, casually pickingwhichever pericopae appeal, regardless of their stratum. Crossan’s analysis,by contrast, is constructed with materials that are independently attestedat the earliest stages of the tradition at least twice in Q and Mark, or Markand the Gospel of Thomas, and so forth.Crossan tries to locate eschatological expectations in four quadrants, de-fined by social level and future/present orientation: some retainers (scribes,priests, bureaucrats) hoped for the imminent return of the splendours ofthe Davidic monarchy; peasant apocalypticism chose instead the victoriesof David and Joshua and the winning of a land; other retainers (Philo; Wis-dom of Solomon) thought of an ethical kingdom attainable in the presentthrough education and ethical exertion, while peasants might look for a re-distribution of wealth, power and resources—open commensality and radi-cal egalitarianism.It is in the latter quadrant that Crossan locates Jesus. From the per-spective of medical anthropology, Jesus’ healing miracles are not so muchbiological as social events, signalling his refusal to accept the ritual unclean-ness and social ostracism that attended disease. Analogously, exorcisms arenot private events but concern, as the story of Mark 5 suggests, colonialoccupation. At the same time, Crossan insists that Jesus refused himselfto become a patron or broker, or to let his host village become one; hencehis departure from Capharnaum (Mark 1:35-38). Both Jesus’ parables andthe “mission” he encouraged (with male-female pairs) evidence a vision oflocal renewal based on free healing and open commensality rather than onhonour and shame, patronage and clientism. In this sense, Jesus was aJewish Cynic, the adjective being as important as the noun.Crossan’s analysis of the passion-resurrection traditions are perhapsmore problematic. He interprets all of the nature miracles (where the dis-ciples are present) and all of the appearance stories as essentially legitima-tions of post-easter leadership and regards most of the passion account asBook Reviews 141later construction. The nature miracles, especially the sea miracles, cannot,I think, bear this interpretation, but given the importance of conquest ofthe sea, both figuratively and actually, in Imperial propaganda, fit betterinto Crossan’s anti-colonial reading of the exorcisms. And, while grantingthat much of the passion narratives is scripture-generated rather than his-torical recollection, many critics would argue for somewhat more historicalrecollection than Crossan allows.The great virtues of Crossan’s volume are its clarity and coherence ofargument. His conclusions are bound to be troubling, but throughout, it isclear that they derive from a carefully articulated method that strenuouslyresists producing a Jesus congenial with the writer. If Crossan’s Jesus is atroubling figure, perhaps it was that Jesus was a troubling figure.John S. KloppenborgUniversity of St. Michael’s College,Toronto School of TheologyThe Five Gospels, The Search for the Authentic Wordsof JesusTranslation and Commentary by Robert W. Funk and Roy W.HooverNew York: MacMillan Publishing Co., 1993Every critical edition of the Greek New Testament involves hundredsof thousands of individual judgments. The Fellows of the Jesus Seminarhave developed their own critical edition of the gospels called the ScholarsVersion. Now we can read the results from The Jesus Seminar publishedin The Five Gospels, The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus, anewtranslation and commentary by Robert W. Funk and Roy W. Hoover, andthe Jesus Seminar, (New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., 1993). In addi-tion to a fresh translation of the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John,it also includes the Gospel of Thomas, a translation from the Coptic Gospelof Thomas found in 1945 in Nag Hammadi and earlier Greek fragments.This addition helps to round out the historical picture of gospel writings.Called the Scholars Version, the book is organized with Mark leadingthe others since scholars believe that Mark is the earliest gospel. The workwas begun in 1985 with thirty scholars taking up the challenge. Eventuallymore than two hundred joined the Fellows of the Seminar. They met twicea year to discuss papers and to vote with coloured beads (from red as anunequivocal indicator through pink, gray, and finally black as not probable)to indicate the degree of alleged authenticity of Jesus’ words. The fact thatsome words attributed to Jesus were not likely spoken by him does notdiminish their importance.

Jesus: a revolutionary biography

Scholars Commons

Consensus
Volume 21
Issue 1 Women and Men in Theological Education:
Exploring the Present, Creating the Future
Article 16
5-1-1995
Jesus: a revolutionary biography
John S. Kloppenborg
Follow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus
This Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by an
authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.
Recommended Citation
Kloppenborg, John S. (1995) "Jesus: a revolutionary biography," Consensus: Vol. 21 : Iss. 1 , Article 16.
Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol21/iss1/16
Book Reviews 139
(probably only) journey to Jerusalem: confronted with the temple’s riches,
Jesus “symbolically destroyed its brokerage function in the name of the un-
brokered kingdom of God” . Happening during the volatile Passover festival,
the crucifixion probably came quickly and brutally.
But the ‘end’ was not the end. Crossan detects signs that at least
two identifiable groups among Jesus’ followers found his ministry still had
power in their lives. One group was peasant ‘healed healers’ who found
Jesus’ program still having profound results. The other group was literate
scribes who found themselves searching the Jewish scriptures for explana-
tions of Jesus’ death. Crossan believes they found these explanations in
;
spades and eventually the “historical passion” (what actually happened)
gave way to the “prophetic passion”—scriptural prophecies of the meaning
of it all; finally, simpler “narrative passions”—what we have in the canoni-
cal Gospels—retold the prophecy as though it were “history” . Luke’s story
I
of the Emmaus disciples hints at this process, Crossan believes. “How many
years was Easter Sunday?” is one of his telling chapter titles. Crossan un-
derstands resurrection theology to be St. Paul’s contribution, by the way.
Crossan’s books are full of surprises which stop just short of being
faith-testing, partly because of Crossan’s gentle literary style. His Jesus
was illiterate. The Last Supper was a creation of the early church, an
amazingly powerful yet simple way to recall forever the open sharing at
Jesus’ memorable meals. The post-resurrection appearances of Jesus and
the nature miracles are principally about authority-struggles in the early
church. And many more!
This reader has not been as challenged by anything else he has read
in many years. We preachers, poor proclaimers of Jesus’ Kingdom of God
I
that we are, owe it to ourselves and our congregations to give John Dominic
I
Crossan a fair hearing.
i
i Ted Heinze
I
Zion Lutheran Church
lj
Stratford, Ontario
' Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography
John Dominic Crossan
,
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994
lj
xiv + 209 pp. $16.00 paper
!
When asked at a public lecture whether there was a role for the scholar
tij simply popularizing the more technical works of others, James M. Robin-
son observed that the Jesus-books from the last two generations that have
! lasted have been those of Dibelius, Bultmann, Bornkamm, Conzelmann
—
1
scholars who were also expert in technical disciplines. No generalization
i
140 Consensus
could apply better to John Dominic Crossan, who has spent a career on
technical studies on the parables, aphorisms, miracle stories, the editing of
Mark, hermeneutics and poetics. Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography and
its longer sister The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish
Peasant (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991) are the products of
careful, disciplined and mature scholarship, breathtaking in its erudition.
Crossan disciplines himself with three constraints: Mediterranean an-
thropology, the history of the early first century, and literary criticism. To
be conscious of the dynamics typical of agrarian societies is to acknowledge
the unrepentantly stratified, agonistic, honour-oriented, non-individualistic
character of Jesus’ society and to guard against unconsciously creating a
post-industrial revolution, middle class Jesus. Attention to Graeco-Roman
“ history allows Crossan to situate Jesus within the richly layered realities of
Imperial propaganda, local military occupation, Herodian client kingship,
scribal and sacerdotal retainers, overtaxed peasants, apocalyptic prophets,
messianic pretenders and much more. Finally, Crossan disciplines himself
with literary criticism—the existence of layers of literary evidence from
Q (and within Q) and Mark, to the redaction of Matthew and Luke—in
a way that most other Jesus books have simply ignored, casually picking
whichever pericopae appeal, regardless of their stratum. Crossan’s analysis,
by contrast, is constructed with materials that are independently attested
at the earliest stages of the tradition at least twice in Q and Mark, or Mark
and the Gospel of Thomas, and so forth.
Crossan tries to locate eschatological expectations in four quadrants, de-
fined by social level and future/present orientation: some retainers (scribes,
priests, bureaucrats) hoped for the imminent return of the splendours of
the Davidic monarchy; peasant apocalypticism chose instead the victories
of David and Joshua and the winning of a land; other retainers (Philo; Wis-
dom of Solomon) thought of an ethical kingdom attainable in the present
through education and ethical exertion, while peasants might look for a re-
distribution of wealth, power and resources—open commensality and radi-
cal egalitarianism.
It is in the latter quadrant that Crossan locates Jesus. From the per-
spective of medical anthropology, Jesus’ healing miracles are not so much
biological as social events, signalling his refusal to accept the ritual unclean-
ness and social ostracism that attended disease. Analogously, exorcisms are
not private events but concern, as the story of Mark 5 suggests, colonial
occupation. At the same time, Crossan insists that Jesus refused himself
to become a patron or broker, or to let his host village become one; hence
his departure from Capharnaum (Mark 1:35-38). Both Jesus’ parables and
the “mission” he encouraged (with male-female pairs) evidence a vision of
local renewal based on free healing and open commensality rather than on
honour and shame, patronage and clientism. In this sense, Jesus was a
Jewish Cynic, the adjective being as important as the noun.
Crossan’s analysis of the passion-resurrection traditions are perhaps
more problematic. He interprets all of the nature miracles (where the dis-
ciples are present) and all of the appearance stories as essentially legitima-
tions of post-easter leadership and regards most of the passion account as
Book Reviews 141
later construction. The nature miracles, especially the sea miracles, cannot,
I think, bear this interpretation, but given the importance of conquest of
the sea, both figuratively and actually, in Imperial propaganda, fit better
into Crossan’s anti-colonial reading of the exorcisms. And, while granting
that much of the passion narratives is scripture-generated rather than his-
torical recollection, many critics would argue for somewhat more historical
recollection than Crossan allows.
The great virtues of Crossan’s volume are its clarity and coherence of
argument. His conclusions are bound to be troubling, but throughout, it is
clear that they derive from a carefully articulated method that strenuously
resists producing a Jesus congenial with the writer. If Crossan’s Jesus is a
troubling figure, perhaps it was that Jesus was a troubling figure.
John S. Kloppenborg
University of St. Michael’s College,
Toronto School of Theology
The Five Gospels, The Search for the Authentic Words
of Jesus
Translation and Commentary by Robert W. Funk and Roy W.
Hoover
New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., 1993
Every critical edition of the Greek New Testament involves hundreds
of thousands of individual judgments. The Fellows of the Jesus Seminar
have developed their own critical edition of the gospels called the Scholars
Version. Now we can read the results from The Jesus Seminar published
in The Five Gospels, The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus, anew
translation and commentary by Robert W. Funk and Roy W. Hoover, and
the Jesus Seminar, (New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., 1993). In addi-
tion to a fresh translation of the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John,
it also includes the Gospel of Thomas, a translation from the Coptic Gospel
of Thomas found in 1945 in Nag Hammadi and earlier Greek fragments.
This addition helps to round out the historical picture of gospel writings.
Called the Scholars Version, the book is organized with Mark leading
the others since scholars believe that Mark is the earliest gospel. The work
was begun in 1985 with thirty scholars taking up the challenge. Eventually
more than two hundred joined the Fellows of the Seminar. They met twice
a year to discuss papers and to vote with coloured beads (from red as an
unequivocal indicator through pink, gray, and finally black as not probable)
to indicate the degree of alleged authenticity of Jesus’ words. The fact that
some words attributed to Jesus were not likely spoken by him does not
diminish their importance.


https://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1706&amp;context=consensus

Jesus: a revolutionary biography

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Wilfrid Laurier University

Scholars Commons