Professor David Flusser’s biography of the life of Jesus is the fruit of almost fifty years of personal research concerning what may be considered the most well-known figure of the Second Temple Period. His philological-historical approach calls for a reconsideration of how we read the literary sources. He brings to bear the wealth of new information regarding the first-century setting in light of the Dead Sea Scrolls, historical inquiry, and recent archaeological discoveries. What results is a compelling portrait of Jesus which gains additional depth because it is viewed within the context of Jewish thought and life in the first century. Both Jewish and Christian readers will be challenged by the results of Flusser’s study.
The present work is based upon Flusser’s 1968 edition of Jesus. Yet, with the passage of forty years, the new volume has been essentially rewritten to incorporate the wealth of new data. Whereas the previous book, now out of print, represented the beginnings of Flusser’s investigation into the historical Jesus, the present volume is its culmination.
