Who was Jesus? This has been the perennial question of Christians and non-Christians alike for two thousand years. In this massive 5-volume exposition of the historical Jesus, noted scholar John P. Meier pursues the historical Jesus and his impact for today’s world. His well-reasoned account of the life of Jesus is nothing less than startling, as though almost 2,000 years later we were seeing Jesus for the first time as his contemporaries would have seen him—“a marginal Jew”—with all the implications and questions raised by this deliberately provocative title. Indeed, the author has here sketched out for us the portrait of Jesus for our times.
Volume 1 lays out the method to be used in pursuing a critical quest for the historical Jesus and sketches Jesus’ cultural, political, and familial background. Volume 2 focuses on John the Baptist; Jesus’ message of the kingdom of God, and his startling works and teaching. Volume 3 widens the spotlight from Jesus himself to various groups around him, including his followers—the crowds, disciples, and circle of the Twelve—and his competitors—Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Qumranites, Samaritans, the scribes, Herodians, and Zealots. Volume 4 addresses the teachings of Jesus on major legal topics like divorce, oaths, the Sabbath, purity rules, and the various love commandments in the Gospels. What emerges from Meier’s research is a profile of a complicated first-century Palestinian Jew who, far from seeking to abolish the Law, was deeply engaged in debates about its observance.