As I note in my essay A Critique of the Penal Substitution Interpretation of the Cross of Christ , an extremely important aspect of the resurrection is that Christ as a spirit, Christ in you, could now possess the believer in a positive way as booster, the resister of Satan par excellence and greatly aid … (22) The Next Quest For The Historical Jesus: Spirit World by Giovanni B. Bazzana

In previous posts I noted how in Mark we have the satire of how the crafty Jewish leaders were manipulating scripture and tradition to invent a case against Jesus. Matthew shows something similar in one of Satan’s temptations of Jesus misusing scripture. In a later addition to the gospel of John, we see this same … (21) The Next Quest For The Historical Jesus: Sexuality by Amy-Jill Levine

I’m a little out of order today, Barber’s essay being near the end of the book, but there were some things that are worth addressing now so here we go! Jesus predicting his passion and resurrection is multiply attested to throughout scripture.  However, as Ehrman points out these run contrary to the fact that Mark, … (20) The Next Quest For The Historical Jesus: Death and Martyrdom by Michael Barber

Did Jerusalem reflect the final destination for Jesus’ ministry.  Ferda marshals a number of points in the affirmative: And why did Jesus go up to Jerusalem? Ferda offers some possibilities: Responding to Ferda, I would say the popular interpretation of Jesus’ death which assumes a pagan understanding of a payment to assuage the wrath of … (19) The Next Quest For The Historical Jesus: Galilee and Jerusalem by Tucker Ferda

One of the key points in Walsh’s chapter is the presence of wonder (thaumazein) and how that connects Mark’s book to earlier literary models.  For example, she writes: Thus, in the Gospel of Mark we see an even more pronounced engagement with thauma-writing as Jesus elicits the same reactions from eyewitnesses in the text as … (18) The Next Quest For The Historical Jesus: City and Country by Robyn Faith Walsh

In Matthew we read: 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow … (17) The Next Quest For The Historical Jesus: Textiles, Sustenance, and Economy by Janelle Peters

Jesus lived in a time and place where a few central urban centers were beginning to incorporate the surrounding rural centers, and Myles begins to ask the Marxist question of how such conditions and dynamics were ripe circumstances to birth the Jesus movement.  In regard to such class conflict, Myles points to: The basic outline … (16) The Next Quest For The Historical Jesus: Class Conflict by Robert Myles

Zeichmann makes the point in Jesus’ time soldiers were not functioning as what we would understand as occupying forces: First is the counterintuitive insight that there was no monolithic “Roman army.” Rather, there were a variety of military forces in early Roman Palestine—forces that had little in common by way of purpose and demographics… There … (15) The Next Quest For The Historical Jesus: Armies and Soldiers by Christopher Zeichmann

This essay is a general overview of synagogue life shaping the Jesus story. Runesson writes: These Jewish institutions, which were ubiquitous in the ancient Mediterranean world and, importantly, can be reconstructed based on sources both beyond and within the New Testament texts, thus provide us with a critical entry point into the world of Jesus, … (14) The Next Quest For The Historical Jesus: Synagogues by Anders Runesson

Rollens’ essay builds on the last one I talked about from Kloppenborg that examines the notion of the scribe in constructing the Jesus tradition.  She notes this argument only really pertains to the Q document, as the Gospels and Acts reflect a more sophisticated production. She writes: Regardless of where one falls on the question … (13) The Next Quest For The Historical Jesus: Scribal Galilee by Sarah Rollens