Jesus, A Revolutionary Biography (1994)

Reading Crossan is both enlightening and depressing. He’s well-known in the historical Jesus school and has written numerous books for both the professional and layperson on what we can really know about the life and sayings of Jesus. For those who take the Bible literally, whatever version you’ve chosen to take literally, I’d say read this only if you’re willing to be challenged. For the rest, Crossan offers a detailed exegesis that will make your hair stand on end. In short, he sees the historical person as (1) an illiterate peasant teaching a type of radical social change at a time when the entrenched political and religious elites were stamping out such troublemakers brutally and without thought, sympathy, or delay; (2) likely killed for causing a scene in the crowded temple at Passover, when Jerusalem was at its busiest and Roman authorities were primed to put down any sign of disturbance; (3) left on the cross or the ground as carrion with no chance of burial, for which a special request would have had to be made and, as he points out, no one with the chops to make such a request would have cared and anyone who cared wouldn’t have had the contacts to make the request. Non-burial was considered the ultimate insult to the deceased and a deterrent to crime.

The teachings themselves are distilled down to just a few, which are so far from the hierarchical church structure which developed that organized Christianity ends up in the same position to Jesus as all the other institutions he was trying to bring down. Crossan concludes that Jesus practiced, and taught, that the Kingdom of God can be here now only if people will 1) practice complete, open table-sharing and spiritual healing, without any care for status, class, wealth, physical condition, race, freedom, or any other division humans have invented over time; and 2) set down no roots where a hierarchy or center of power can be identified (and the reason he instructed his followers to leave anywhere after a day or two) so that the typical 1st century system of patronage (elites), brokerage (middlemen) and clients (everyone else) could not be set up. He didn’t want anyone to be the head of an organization. He wanted complete equality and sharing, which no institution can pull off by definition, let alone given human predilection for power, status and hoarding of wealth.

One of the most fascinating points Crossan makes is about the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet. In her, Jesus found the only person, male or female, who actually listened when he talked about the death he expected and who recognized his need for burial preparation, knowing he’d never get it later. In an age when a couple of the major Christian organizations still won’t recognize women as equals in the church, isn’t it interesting to speculate on why that might be?

This book is the layperson version of Crossan’s arguments. The more scholarly version is "The Historical Jesus". ( )

Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography by John Dominic Crossan. Epiphany library section 3 A: Christianity: Jesus. Copy signed by the author. Crossan is a leading scholar in the historical Jesus movement which tries to determine what we know with certainty about the life and work of Jesus by comparing and contrasting New Testament writings with other early writings by Romans, Dead Sea scroll fragments, the Gospel of Thomas, and others.
Crossan says that dining tables in the Bible symbolize society, a concept called commensality. Closed commensality would be a banquet where rulers recline on cushions, surrounded by warriors and statesmen, with women serving, and the lowly not included. But Jesus stressed open commensality, his directive alive in our communion liturgy when Pastor says, “all are welcome to the table.” Christ was executed, Crossan says, because he radically spoke and acted out against closed commensality not just in eating but in the whole Roman social structure.
The last two chapters discuss Christ’s crucifixion, what actually happened to the bodies of the thousands who were crucified, and what most probably happened to Christ’s crucified body. Crossan’s claims are not what Christians normally hear about crucifixion and resurrection, but his claims are intriguing and still allow us to believe in a living Jesus and a living faith.
He intrigues us with additional questions: Who was the woman who washed and anointed Jesus’ feet before his crucifixion, and why does she receive a stunning accolade from Jesus? What do the nature miracles mean – Jesus walking on water or stilling a storm? Are they meant to be read literally or do they symbolize something else? Did early gospel readers read them literally? Why were the gospels written as they were?
He ends the book with Emperor Constantine who wanted to unify Christian belief, and in 312 CE ordered Christian bishops to meet in Nicea for the purpose. Constantine held an imperial banquet, with detachments of guards surrounding the banquet hall to keep out the riffraff. Suddenly Christian meal and emperor were linked! How, Crossan asks, did the open commensality of Jesus morph into an imperial banquet with king and toadies? Crossan sounds like he’d like to have it out with Constantine. It would be interesting to be a fly on the wall of a meeting between Crossan and the pope! YIKES! ( )

Crossan is one of the premier Jesus scholars of today, and this book is quintessential Crossan. It’s a condensed, recently reprinted, more readable version of his 1994 masterpiece, The Historical Jesus.

Crossan’s research is controversial, more focused on the real life of a first-century sage (Jesus) than in the messianic God-man Christianity turned him into. I believe Crossan’s most irritating position (to conservative Christians) is his insistence that Jesus never rose from the tomb … because he was never entombed in the first place. Jesus’ body was probably pulled from the cross and eaten by dogs, with his remains dumped in a shallow grave, like the majority of other Roman crucifixion victims. Nevertheless, Crossan’s portrayal of Jesus is warm and powerful.

This little 200-page book is for people who want a quick introduction to Crossan’s research without tomes or tangents. ( )

From Library Journal:

Based on Crossan's acclaimed and controversial The Historical Jesus, this elegant new reconstruction popularizes and occasionally elaborates on that earlier work. Gone is the massive documentation. What remains is an engrossing, often startling exploration of key themes, in which Crossan weighs scriptural texts against anthropological, historical, and literary standards, sifting through accrued layers for evidence of earlier (if noncanonical) sources. He acknowledges his naturalistic assumptions ("I presume that Jesus... could not cure... disease"), which, together with his critical method, cause him to dismiss the virgin birth, say, or the passion/resurrection narratives, as historically invalid. Yet he also offers nuanced, powerful readings of Jesus' teachings. Bound to disturb some people and stimulate others.

- Elise Chase, Forbes Lib., Northampton, Mass. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.