Who Is Jesus?: History in Perfect Tense

Leander Keck begins this book (written in 2000) by stating in his Preface, "While I have eschewed providing even a sketch of Jesus' life and times, answering the question Who Is Jesus? requires attending, at least briefly, to what can and cannot be known historically about Jesus of Nazareth. The result is something of a hybrid, neither history nor Christology proper but rather theological reflection on history--on those aspects of the Jesus of history that are central to his continuing significance." He observes that "The canons of critical historiography require Jesus to be studied as one would study any other historical figure. Accordingly, historians bracket out of consideration any reference to divine actions or the miraculous associated with them. These canons do, of course, permit one to acknowledge that BELIEVING that divine action occured was an event in history and that this belief was a factor, even a decisive one, in subsequent history." He makes pertinent observations such as: "Although Jesus did not form a movement during his lifetime, he evidently did invite some people to 'follow' him; in addition, there are good reasons for thinking that he also had a circle of special persons who came to be known simply as 'the Twelve.'" "In the Jesus tradition, this confidence is expressed explicitly in those sayings that begin with the word that customarily ended prayer: Amen, commonly translated 'truly.' ... No one else in the New Testament, or in early Jewish literature known to us, speaks this way." "Whether Jesus regarded himself as messiah remains unclear because the evidence is ambiguous." He concludes on the note, "those who respond positively to Jesus voluntarily suffer for the sake of the kingdom, whether 'on account of it,' in order to grasp it and be changed by it, or to advance it. Somehow they have been persuaded that the kingdom is worth the pain, and so they endure hardships, hostilities from siblings and peers, persecution by police and executioners--in this century no less than in those that preceded it." This book will be of interest to anyone interested in the historical Jesus, or early Christianity.

Leander Keck's new book,"Who is Jesus?", is a very good study of the Theological and Historical meaning of Jesus Christ. The chapter called The "Fractured Prism", is one of the best combinations of Historical study and Theological reflection, on Jesus that I have ever read, and I have read a lot of these kinds of books. Keck shows how unique the Christian view of God as seen through Jesus of Nazareth actually is. The Christian God is not one that the natural proclivities of the Human imagination is likely to conjure up. He's/she's much too demanding and Holy to be a Human construct. Another interesting point Keck makes is how Jesus probably felt towards the Gentiles(which is everyone who was/is not Jewish) Jesus had a sort of indifference to Gentiles. His mission was to the lost sheep of Isreal, and thus to the gentile via the Jew. In Christian belief it was the Resurrection of Jesus by the Jewish God, that changed things as far as the Gentiles were/are concerned. The great commission and the missionary work of the early christians, especially Paul, are post Resurrection directives of Christian Faith. Christians must not forget that their faith is a Very Jewish one. The scandal of particularity,started with the Jewish claim of being the chosen people of God, to live out before the World, how the worlds Creator wants the world to live. Keck has caused me to do a lot of thinking, which is good. He would no doubt disagree with most of my thinking, but then again maybe not. Buy this book and study it, you will be doing yourself a favor.