Synopses & Reviews
Can the stones of ancient Palestine speak to us about the real Jesus and his message? Are there ways to discover the historical Jesus by sifting through the layers of the Gospels and other early texts? In
Excavating Jesus Bible expert John Dominic Crossan and Galilean field archaeologist Jonathan L. Reed take an exhilarating look at Jesus and his world from their two different perspectives.
While the phenomenal advances in our historical and textual understanding of the origins of Christianity are well known, the equally significant archaeological discoveries are much less familiar. Drawing on evidence from the ten most significant textual discoveries of biblical studies and the ten most significant archaeological digs in the cities and villages of ancient Palestine, Crossan and Reed provide a fuller portrait of Jesus, his teachings, and his followers. Together they bring to life the struggle between Roman power and the people's passionate belief in a just God.
Join Crossan and Reed as they explore sites such as the house of the apostle Peter at Capernaum, a first-century fishing boat from the Sea of Galilee, and the skeleton of a crucified man plus textual discoveries such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Gospel of Thomas. The authors reveal a world where life could end instantly and violently on the whim of a king, a governor, or an ordinary Roman soldier. They show us a people willing to fight, and even die, for the right to live according to their beliefs.
Excavating Jesus includes a full-color insert featuring twelve drawings by Balage Balogh, the best archaeological artist in Israel today, and black-and-white illustrations throughout. These historically accurate recreations of first-century sites reflect the most recent archaeological discoveries, telling us more about the world Jesus, his followers, and his enemies inhabited than we have ever known before. This fresh examination of the world of the Gospels offers readers a unique and fascinating opportunity to examine the evidence and decide for themselves what they believe about the nature of Jesus and his message.
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"First-century Palestine comes alive here...another winner for Crossan." Booklist
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"A fascinating, beautifully illustrated and elegantly written account of the life and times of Jesus." Publishers Weekly
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"Lucid arguments, elegant prose, beautiful illustrations and skillful weaving of academic disciplines...will edify everyone who reads it." Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
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"This is a fascinating and exhilarating study, which breathes new life into the quest for the historical Jesus." Karen Armstrong, author of A History of God
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“An original, nuanced synthesis of archaeological finds and textual exegesis, one that is rich in insights and in provocative interpretations.” Michael Coogan, Professor of Religious Studies, Stonehill College, editor, The New Oxford History of the Biblical World
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"Comprehensive, expertly integrated, and powerfully illuminating...in keeping with the best of current archaeological theory and method." William G. Deever, Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Arizona
Synopsis
Historical understanding of the world in which Jesus lived has grown by leaps and bounds in the last few decades. However, lesser known but still spectacular advances in first-century Palestinian archaeology also explain a great deal about Jesus, his followers, and his teachings. Excavating Jesus is the first book to combines these two fields of knowledge, and it does it in a fresh, accessible way that will interest biblical scholars, archeologists, and anyone with an interest in early Christianity.
Written by John Dominic Crossan, the world's premier Jesus scholar, and leading archeologist Jonathan L. Reed, each chapter of Excavating Jesus focuses on a major modern archaeological or textual discovery and shows how that discovery opens a window onto a key feature of Jesus's life and teachings.
John Dominic Crossan is generally regarded as the leading historical Jesus scholar in the world. He is the author of several bestselling books including The Historical Jesus, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, The Birth of Christianity, and Who Killed Jesus? He lives in Clermont, FL.
Jonathan L. Reed teaches New Testament and Christian Origins at La Verne College, La Verne, CA. He is a leading authority on first-century Palestinian archaeology, has been involved in several major digs, and is now the lead archaeologist at Sepphoris. He is the author of Archaeology and the Galilean Jesus. He lives in Upland, CA.
"This is a fascinating and exhilarating study, which breathes new life into the quest for the historical Jesus."
- Karen Armstrong, author of A History of God
--Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Synopsis
The premier historical Jesus scholar joins a brilliant archaeologist to illuminate the life and teaching of Jesus against the background of his world. There have been phenomenal advances in the historical understanding of Jesus and his world and times, but also huge, lesser known advances in first-century Palestine archaeology that explain a great deal about Jesus, his followers, and his teachings. This is the first book that combines the two and it does it in a fresh, accessible way that will interest both biblical scholars and students and also the thousands of lay readers of Biblical Archaeology Review (150,000+ circulation), National Geographic, and other archaeology and ancient history books and magazines. Each chapter of the book focuses on a major modern archaeological or textual discovery and shows how that discovery opens a window onto a major feature of Jesus's life and teachings.
Synopsis
The premier historical Jesus scholar joins a brilliant archaeologist to illuminate the life and teaching of Jesus against the background of his world.There have been phenomenal advances in the historical understanding of Jesus and his world and times, but also huge, lesser known advances in firstcentury Palestine archaeology that explain a great deal about Jesus, his followers, and his teachings. This is the first book that combines the two and it does it in a fresh, accessible way that will interest both biblical scholars and students and also the thousands of lay readers of Biblical Archaeology Review (150,000+ circulation), National Geographic, and other archaeology and ancient history books and magazines. Each chapter of the book focuses on a major modern archaeological or textual discovery and shows how that discovery opens a window onto a major feature of Jesus's life and teachings.
Synopsis
The premier historical Jesus scholar joins a brilliant archaeologist to illuminate the life and teaching of Jesus against the background of his world. There have been phenomenal advances in the historical understanding of Jesus and his world and times, but also huge, lesser known advances in first–century Palestine archaeology that explain a great deal about Jesus, his followers, and his teachings. This is the first book that combines the two and it does it in a fresh, accessible way that will interest both biblical scholars and students and also the thousands of lay readers of Biblical Archaeology Review (150,000+ circulation), National Geographic, and other archaeology and ancient history books and magazines. Each chapter of the book focuses on a major modern archaeological or textual discovery and shows how that discovery opens a window onto a major feature of Jesus's life and teachings.
About the Author
John Dominic Crossan, professor emeritus at DePaul University, is widely regarded as the foremost historical Jesus scholar of our time. He is the author of several bestselling books, including
The Historical Jesus,
God and Empire,
Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography,
The Greatest Prayer, and
The Power of Parable. He lives in Minneola, Florida.
Jonathan L Reed is a leading authority on the archaeology of early Christianity and has excavated in Galilee since 1987. He has conducted research at the Albright Institute for Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, the American Academy in Rome, and the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. He is author of Archaeology and the Galilean Jesus and has co-authored with John Dominic Crossan two bestselling books, Excavating Jesus and In Search of Paul. He is professor of New Testament at the University of La Verne and is on the research council of Claremont Graduate University's world-renowned Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, where he is directing their Galilean Archaeology and the Historical Jesus project.