A comprehensive determination of who Jesus was, what he did, and what he said.

An excellent and thorough examination of the Historical Jesus, in the line of the "Jesus Seminar". Beware ! This book is in some places very scholar, with lots of references, so it is not an easy reading. It is more a workbook than an introductory book on the subject. ( )

Crossan's full academic study of the historical Jesus. ( )

The two biggest things I took away from Crossan's book were his impressive scholarship and a strengthened conviction that people are faith are called to community with everyone. Everyone, especially "the nobodies" as Crossan calls them, sharing the same food and the same life. ( )

Crossan is one of the most interesting and influential scholars that historical Jesus scholarship has right now. His fundamental view of Jesus is a Jewish peasant Cynic, a social reformer who found God by promoting justice and refusing to play the system of Roman oppression. His understanding of God's Kingdom was acted out in "magic and meals" - eating with sinners and healing the afflicted to make a point about the inversion of class in the Kingdom.

But The Historical Jesus is much more than just those ideas. Crossan examines the Palestinian climate, tossing in influences of Jewish culture and Greco-Roman culture, a hundred years on either side of Jesus. This is a vast and detailed scope of history, but it kind of overwhelms the first half of the book. Crossan spends a lot of time with Josephus, for example - good for examining the Jewish-Roman War, but only tangential to the historical Jesus. Once Crossan hits his stride with the Gospels, however, it's a great and thorough examination of how Jesus related to his culture and religion.

For a briefer, more concentrated work by Crossan about Jesus, people unfamiliar with his work/historical Jesus studies might be better off with Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography. The Historical Jesus almost functions best as a reference book; there's a lot going on here, and I know that I'm going to come back to it often because it has a lot to offer, but it's not the most approachable book on the subject. ( )