John Dominic Crossan's Jesus

This is not to say that the work has no value for the average Christian, because, indeed, it has much. It has, perhaps, a greater deal of value for the students and scholars of religion precisely because of the scholarship which is the foundation of the book itself. Crossan's academic credentials are impressive, and the materials which he uses to advance his thesis are exceedingly well documented.

Far from presenting a "revolutionary" biography, Crossan merely creates anew one of any number of Gnostic heresies which confronted the fledgling Christian church in the first two or three centuries of its existence. It most closely resembles that practiced by the Ebionites of the mid first and early second centuries C.E. (Strong, 669-670). Heresies such as this have surfaced again and again over time, only to meet the same ultimate fate which must Crossan's.

Crossan's basic premise, that Jesus of Nazareth was merely a Mediterranean Jewish peasant who preached a "radical egalitarianism"--an equality of all classes, races, and sexes--and that He was not, in addition, the begotten Son of God, does not rest well with the faith and practice of the Christian church. While attesting to the historical humanity of J

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Some common words found in the essay are:
Christian Jew, Undoubtedly Jesus, Jesus Testament, Christians--Catholic Protestant, Son God, Matthew Luke, John Baptist, CE Palestine, Nag Hammadi, Mediterranean Jewish, century ce, revolutionary biography, author succeeded, christian church, jewish peasant, john dominic,
Approximate Word count = 1012
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page)

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