Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Volume II

This book is the second volume in John Meier'smasterful trilogy on the life of Jesus. In it hecontinues his quest for the answer to the greatestpuzzle of modern religious scholarship: Who wasJesus? To answer this Meier imagines the followingscenario: "Suppose that a Catholic, aProtestant, a Jew, and an agnostic were locked up in thebowels of the Harvard Divinity School library... andnot allowed to emerge until they had hammered outa consensus document on who Jesus of Nazareth wasand what he intended...". A MarginalJew is what Meier thinks that documentwould reveal. Volume one concluded with Jesusapproaching adulthood. Now, in this volume, Meierfocuses on the Jesus of our memory and the developmentof his ministry. To begin, Meier identifiesJesus's mentor, the one person who had the greatestsingle influence on him, John the Baptist. All of theBaptist's fiery talk about the end of time had apowerful effect on the young Jesus and theformulation of his key symbol of the coming of the"kingdom of God." And, finally, we are given afull investigation of one of the most strikingmanifestations of Jesus's message: Jesus's practiceof exorcisms, hearings, and other miracles. In all,Meier brings to life the story of a man, Jesus,who by his life and teaching gradually made himselfmarginal even to the marginal society that wasfirst century Palestine.