-one which sets him firmly in Jewish history, which explains his execution, and which explains why his followers formed a persecuted messianic sect (5).
As Crossan notes in his "Prologue," Sanders' pursues the eschatological Jesus--that which emphasizes the death, resurrection, and immortality--in comparison with those who portray Jesus as "political revolutionary," "magician," "Galilean charismatic," or as one of a variety of rabbis or teachers of Jewish practice such as Hillel or the Essenes (xxvii-xxviii). In order to achieve his eschatological hypothesis, Sanders relies significantly upon the "sayings" and "facts" of and about Jesus. As he writes: "we shall attempt to draw special attention to the significance of Jesus' deeds and words in first-century Palestine" (17).
Because he believes that those who have gone before him in the quest for the definitive Jesu
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