SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY WITH ANNOTATIONS


Evangelical/Conservative

 

NOTE: Such “labels” are variously used, and are presented here only as general guides.

 

Stein, Robert H. Jesus the Messiah; A Survey of the Life of Christ. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1996.

 

Bruce, F. F. Jesus: Lord & Savior. The Jesus Library. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1986.

 

Copan, Paul, ed. Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up? A Debate between William Lane Craig and John Dominic Crossan, Moderated by William F. Buckley Jr. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1998.

 

Anderson, Paul N. The Christology of the Fourth Gospel. Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1997.

 

Guthrie, Donald. A Shorter Life of Christ. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1970.

 

Guthrie, Donald. Jesus the Messiah; an Illustrated Life of Christ. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1972. 232.901 Gut {new ed.? reprinting? 1990}

 

Johnson, Luke Timothy. The Real Jesus: the Misguided Quest for the Historical Jesus and the Truth of the Traditional Gospels. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996. Rice BT 301.9.J64 1966

 

Johnson, Luke Timothy. Religious Experience in Earliest Christianity: a Missing Dimension in New Testament Studies. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998. Rice BS 2370.J64 1998

 

Johnson, Luke Timothy. Living Jesus: Learning the Heart of the Gospel. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999.

 

Pentecost, J. Dwight. The Words and Works of Jesus Christ. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1981. 232.901 Pen

 

Stein, Robert H. The Method and Message of Jesus’ Teachings. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1978. Rice BT 590.T5 S73

 

van Bruggen, Jakob. Christ on Earth; the Gospel Narratives as History. Trans., Nancy Forest-Flier; Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1998 (Dutch ed., 1997).

 

Vollmer, Philip. The Modern Student's Life of Christ. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1912.

 

Wilkins, Michael J., and J. P. Moreland. Jesus Under Fire; Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996.

Moderate (Uses historical criticism judiciously, maintains essential reliability of the tradition)

 

Bornkamm, Gunther. Jesus of Nazareth. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1960. “Influential; still important” (according to Graham Stanton, see below).

 

Brown, Raymond E. The Community of the Beloved Disciple; the Life, Loves, and Hates of an Individual Church in New Testament Times. New York: Paulist Press, 1979.

 

Sanders, E. P. The Historical Figure of Jesus. London: Allen Lane, the Penguin Press, 1993. HGST 232.9 San

 

Stanton, Graham. The Gospels and Jesus. Second ed.; Oxford: University Press, 2002 (cf. the 1st ed., 1989). Rice BS 2555.52.S73 2002. This book might have served as a useful textbook for this course.


Hypercritical (Thorough-going use of historical criticism, sometimes novel and extreme views which “rewrite” the story of Jesus, including the work of the “Jesus Seminar”)

 

Borg, Marcus J. Conflict, Holiness and Politics in the Teachings of Jesus. New York: Edwin Mullen, 1984.

 

Crossan, John Dominic. The Historical Jesus; the Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991 (paperback ed., 1992). This is a comprehensive presentation of Crossan’s position. The cover claims that it is “the first comprehensive determination of who Jesus was, what he did, what he said.” Many would question that evaluation; it certainly is a thorough-going attemp to rewrite the story of Jesus.

 

Crossan, John Dominic. Jesus: a Revolutionary Bibography. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994 (paperback ed., 1995). This is a more succinct presentation of Crossan’s views (ca. 200 pages, as compared to the ca. 500 pages of The Historical Jesus [above])

 

Crossan, John Dominic. Who Killed Jesus: Exposing the Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story of the Death of Jesus. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995. The book is critical of Raymond Brown's The Death of the Messiah. According to Crossan, Brown agrees that the Gospels have been used to support anti-Semitism, but is mistaken in trying to defend their historical reliability. We should, according to Crossan, admit that the Gospels are wrong for blaming the Jews for the death of Jesus, when in fact, it was a Roman execution, pure and simple..

 

Crossan, John Dominic, and Jonathan L. Reed. Excavating Jesus. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001. The analogy of “layering” in archaeological method used and applied to the study of traditions about Jesus. Crossan’s extreme views are presented in this manner.

 

Fredriksen, Paula. From Jesus to Christ; the Origins of the New Testament Images of Jesus. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1988. NOTE: Since E. P. Sanders, whose book The Historical Figure of Jesus is included above under “Moderate,” offers praise for Fredriksen’s work quoted on the back cover, the lines between these two groups are perhaps somewhat blurred.

 

Fredriksen, Paula. Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews; a Jewish Life and the Emergence of Christianity. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999. The author acknowledges some significant change in her views since she wrote From Jesus to Christ: “In the eleven years between that publication and this one, my contemplation of this anomaly [Why was Jesus executed as a political insurrectionist, but his followers were not?] has steadily eroded my conviction in my previous conclusions” (Jesus of Nazareth, 10-11)..


Various Related Bibliography

 

[Aland, K., ed.] Synopsis of the Four Gospels. English edition; New York: United Bible Societies, revised printing, 1985. (The English text is the 2nd edition of the Revised Standard Version.) – Listed as “recommended” under textbooks, above.


            Compare:

Benoit, P., M.-E. Boismard, and J. L. Malillos. Sinopsis de los Cuatro Evangelicos de la Biblia de Jerusalém con Paralelos de los Apocrifos y de los Padres, tomo I Textos, 6th ed. Desclée de Brouwer, 1987.

 

Anderson, Paul, “On Jesus: Quests for Historicity, and the History of Recent Quests,” Quaker Religious Thought, vol. 30, no. 4 (February 2000), 5-39. Pages 34-39 are a “Bibliography–The Historical Jesus.” Paul Anderson is a professor at George Fox University, Newberg, Oregon, and editor of Quaker Religious Thought. He has been a visiting professor at Yale University Divinity Footnote

 

Bammel, Ernst, ed. The Trial of Jesus: Cambridge Studies in Honour of C. F. D. Moule. London: Students Christian Movement Press, 1970. Rice BT 440.T75 1970

 

Barclay, William. Jesus of Nazareth, based on the film directed by Franco Zeffirelli from the script by Anthony Burgess, Suso Cecchi d’Amico and Franco Zeffirelli; photographs by Paul Ronald. London: Collins + World, 1977. HGST 232.901 This is mostly pictures from the film, but the pictures are interspersed with pages of text from narrative and dialogue.

 

Blosser, Don, et al., ed. Jesus; His Life and Times. Lincolnwood, Ill.: Publications International, Ltd., 1999. HGST 232.901 Jes This book contains numerous pictures of museum art and related art based on the Gospels, with explanations of the pictures and related scriptural themes and details.


Brown, Raymond E. The Death of the Messiah. Two vols.; New York: Doubleday, 1994.


Charlesworth, James H., ed. Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

 

Charlesworth, James H., ed. Jesus’ Jewishness; Exploring the Place of Jesus in Early Judaism. New York: Crossroad (The American Interfaith Institute), 1991.

 

Charlesworth, James H. Jesus Within Judaism; New Light from Exciting Archaeological Discoveries. New York: Doubleday, 1988.


Elliott, Keith, ed. The Apocryphal New Testament. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.

 

Gerhardsson, B. Memory and Manuscript: Oral Tradition and Written Transmission in Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1961; rev. ed., 1998.

 

Green, Joel. The Death of Jesus: Tradition and Interpretation in the Passion Narratives in the Four Gospels. Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1988. Joel Green is Dean of Academic Affairs for the School of Theology at Asbury Theological Seminary and a Professor of New Testament.


Jeremias, Joachim, ed. Unknown Sayings of Jesus. London: SPKC, 1964.

 

Layton, B., ed. The Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation with Annotations and Introductions. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1987.

 

Manson, T. W. The Teaching of Jesus; Studies in its Form and Content. Second ed.; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1935; reprinted, 1967. 232.954 Man


Metzger, B.M. The Canon of the New Testament. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987.

 

Montefiore, C. G. The Synoptic Gospels, edited with an Introduction and Commentary. 2 vols.; KTAV, 1968. Rice, BS 2555.M63 1968. R 226.07 Mon. This is by a Jewish author.

 

Roberts, Arthur O., “A Quaker Understanding of Jesus Christ,” Quaker Religious Thought, vol. 29, no. 3 (July 1999), 9-23.

 

Robertson, A. T. A Harmony of the Gospels for Students of the Life of Christ based on the Broadus Harmony in the Revised Version. Nashville: Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1922. HGST 226.1 ROB.


Robinson, James M., ed. The Nag Hammadi Library in English. Leiden: Brill, 1977

 

Stroker, William D. Extracanonical Sayings of Jesus. Society of Biblical Literature Resources for Biblical Study. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987. HGST 232.9 Str

 

Throckmorton, Burton H., Jr., ed. Gospel Parallels; A Synopsis of the First Three Gospels; with Alternative Readings from the Manuscripts and Non-canonical Parallels. Fourth ed.; Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1979.

 

Ward, Kaari, ed. Jesus and His Times. Pleasantville, N.Y.: The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc., 1987. HGST 232.9 Rea

 

The International Review of Biblical Studies (Internationale Zeitschriftenschau für Bibelwissenschaft und Grenzgebiete), a review periodical, complete at the Fondren Library of Rice University (several volumes also in the HGST Library), [compare New Testament Abstracts]. See the section on “Jesus.”







 

Stein, Robert H. Jesus the Messiah; a Survey of the Life of Christ. Downers Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity Press, 1996. HGST 232.9 Ste.

 

Sanders, E. P. The Historical Figure of Jesus. London: The Penguin Press, 1993. HGST 232.9 San.

 

Fredriksen, Paula. Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews; a Jewish Life and the Emergence of Christianity. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999. Personal Copy

 

Wilkins, Michael J., and J. P. Moreland, edd. Jesus Under Fire; Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994. Personal copy. A collection of articles, apparently all against the Jesus Seminar.

 

Miller, Robert J. The Jesus Seminar and its Critics. Santa Rosa, Calif.: Polebridge Press, 1999. Borrowed Copy.

 

Manson, T. W. The Sayings of Jesus. London: SCM Press Ltd., 1949. First issued as Part II of The Mission and Message of Jesus, 1937. HGST 226.077 Man.

 

Charlesworth, James H. Jesus within Judaism; New Light from Exciting Archaeological Discoveries. New York: Doubleday, 1988.

 

Crossan, John Dominic. The Birth of Christianity; Discovering what Happened in the Years immediately after the Execution of Jesus. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1998.

 

Crossan, John Dominic. Who Killed Jesus? Exposing the Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story of the Death of Jesus. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995.

 

Crossan, John Dominic. The Cross that Spoke: the Origins of the Passion Narrative. San Francisco: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1988.

 

Burridge, Richard A., and Graham Gould. Jesus Now and Then. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004.

 

Smith, Paul. Jesus: Meet Him Again for the First Time. Gresham, OR: Vision House Publishing, Inc., 1994.

 

Schlatter, Adolf. The Church in the New Testament Period. Trans., Paul P. Levertoff; London: SPCK, 1961 (first published 1955); from Die Geschichte der ersten Christenheit, Gütersloh, 1926. HGST 270.1 Sch

 

Borg, Marcus J., and N. T. Wright: The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1998. HGST 232 Bor

 

Käsemann, Ernst, “The Problem of the Historical Jesus,” Essays on New Testament Themes, (trans., W. J. Montague, London: SCM Press Ltd, 1964), 15-47. HGST 225.06 Kas

 

Crossan, John Dominic. In Parables: the Challenge of the Historical Jesus. San Francisco: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1985 (paperback reprint from 1973 ed.).


Kelber, Werner H. Mark’s Story of Jesus. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1979, 1985.

 

Ellegård, Alvar. Jesus–One Hundred Years before Christ; a Study in Creative Mythology. Woodstock, NY: The Overlook Press, 1999. [Wild & Strange, in class with the Da Vinci Code]

 

Reimarus: Fragments. Ed., Charles H. Talbert; transl. Ralph S. Fraser. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1970. HGST 232 Tal


Charlesworth, James H., ed. Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

 

Strauss, David Friedrich. The Life of Jesus Critically Examined. Ed., Peter C. Hodgson; trans., George Eliot; Lives of Jesus Series; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1972.

 

Käsemann, Ernst, “Blind Alleys in the ‘Jesus of History’ Controversy,” New Testament Questions of Today (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969 [German ed., 1965]), trans. W. J. Montague, 23-65.