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 WHERE CAN I READ ABOUT THE LIFE OF JESUS? Your first stop has got to be one of the Gospels. Mark is probably the earliest, and certainly the shortest. We suggest the Good News version – a good and readable translation – or the Contemporary English Version, which is available on this site – click here. And even if you're a seasoned Bible reader, it's good just to read through a whole Gospel as a story. As for books about Jesus, an Amazon search for "Jesus" currently comes up with 3,975 titles. More than enough, probably, but where do you start? Here are some suggestions: Jesus and the Victory of God by N.T. Wright – Tom Wright writes books as quickly as most of us read them and is incapable of being dull (a rare quality among theologians and Christian writers). He has a broadly traditional Christian view of Jesus, but his expertise on Jesus' world often makes him interpret his message in surprising new ways. "Jesus and the Victory of God" is his magnum opus, and not for the faint-hearted. You may find it better to start with one of the following two books by him... The Meaning of Jesus by N.T. Wright and Marcus Borg – A debate between Tom Wright (see above) and the liberal Jesus scholar, Marcus Borg. Click the link to order. Mark for Everyone by N.T. Wright – Tom Wight's own translation, with passage-by-passage commentary. Guaranteed to make long-term Bible readers see Mark in a fresh new light, as well as help new readers make sense of the story. Click the link to order. The Shadow of the Galilean by Gerd Theissen – An excellent novel. It tells the story of Jesus through the eyes of a spy employed by Pilate to report on him, but keeps turning up just after Jesus has moved on. Click the link to order. Son of God by Angela Tilby – A tie-in with the 2001 BBC TV series, and a good book in its own right. It reconstructs the life of Jesus expertly in popular style, with a balanced weighing of the evidence. Click the link to order. The Cambridge Companion to Jesus, edited by Markus Bockmuehl – An academic tome, in two halves, one digging up the historical Jesus, the other looking at him as a central figure in 2,000 years of religion, art and culture. Click the link to order. Excavating Jesus by John Dominic Crossan and Jonathan Reed – A liberal Bible scholar and an archaeologist dig for "the real Jesus" behind the Gospel stories. Interesting idea, so-so book. Click the link to order. The Muslim Jesus by Tarif Khalidi – A scholarly Islamic look at Jesus and his role in Islam. Not a lightweight read. Click the link to order. More questions about evidence |
Picture: the chi-rho symbol, one of the early Christian symbols for Jesus Christ, marked with other graffiti on a Roman brick. |
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