Historical Jesus Scholarship

“It is impossible to over-estimate the value of what German research upon the Life of Jesus has accomplished. It is a uniquely great expression of sincerity, one of the most significant events in the whole mental and spiritual life of humanity.”

— Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus

The study of the historical Jesus has been one of the most fascinating research endeavors I have undertaken. Although it might seem, at first glance, that the subject is riddled with confusion, most scholars agree on quite a few statements regarding the life of Jesus. Because the primary sources for this field are essentially the same as of the Hebrew, Jewish, and Christian categories, everything for this category is secondary. Nonetheless, those works written after World War II appear to have started something new, even though their questions are similar to those of scholars of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; in some ways, they comment on the issues broached before 1950. Thus, I have separated them accordingly.

If you want to read just one author to get the bottom-line information and conclusions, I recommend Dale C. Allison.

BEFORE 1950

  • Cadoux, Cecil John. The Historic Mission of Jesus: A Constructive Re-examination of the Eschatological Teaching in the Synoptic Gospels. London and Redhill: Lutterworth Press, 1941.

  • Fosdick, Harry Emerson. The Man from Nazareth: As His Contemporaries Saw Him. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1949.

  • Kahler, Martin. The So-called Historical Jesus and the Historic Biblical Christ. 1896. Translated and edited by Carl E. Braaten. Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1964.

  • Reimarus, Hermann Samuel. Fragments from Reimarus: Brief Critical Remarks on the Object of Jesus and His Disciples as Seen in the New Testament. Translated from the German of G. E. Lessing. London and Edinburgh: Williams and Norgate, 1879.

  • Schweitzer, Albert. Paul and His Interpreters: A Critical History. 1911. Translated by W. Montgomery. London: Adam and Charles Black, 1912.

  • —-. The Mystery of the Kingdom of God: The Secret of Jesus’ Messiahship and Passion. 1901. Translated by Walter Lowrie. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1950.

  • —-. The Quest of the Historical Jesus: A Critical Study of Its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede. 1906. Translated by W. Montgomery. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1968.

  • Weiss, Johannes. Jesus’ Proclamation of the Kingdom of God. 1892. Translated and edited by Richard Hyde Hiers and David Larrimore Holland. Fortress Press, 1971. Sigler Press, 1999.

  • Wrede, William. The Messianic Secret. 1901. Translated by J. C. G. Greig. Cambridge and London: James Clarke & Co., 1971.

AFTER 1950

  • Allison, Dale C. Jesus of Nazareth: Millenarian Prophet. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1998.

  • —-, Jr. The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2009.

  • Aslan, Reza. Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. New York: Random House, 2013.

  • Beasley-Murray, G. R. Jesus and the Future: An Examination of the Criticism of The Eschatological Discourse, Mark 13 with Special Reference to the Little Apocalypse Theory. London: Macmillan & Company, 1954.

  • Borg, Marcus J. Jesus in Contemporary Scholarship. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1994.

  • Brandon, S. G. F. Jesus and the Zealots: A Study of the Political Factor in Primitive Christianity. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1967.

  • —-. The Fall of Jerusalem and the Christian Church: A Study of the Effects of the Jewish Overthrow of A.D. 70 on Christianity. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 1951.

  • Bultmann, Rudolf. Primitive Christianity in its Contemporary Setting. 1956. Translated by Reginald H. Fuller. Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1980.

  • Collins, John J. The Scepter and the Star: Messianism in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010.

  • Crossan, John Dominic. The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1991.

  • Ehrman, Bart D. Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

  • Eisenman, Robert. James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls. New York: Penguin Books, 1997.

  • Hengel, Martin. Victory Over Violence & Was Jesus a Revolutionist? 1973 and 1971, respectively. Translated by David E. Green. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2003.

  • Horsley, Richard A. with John S. Hanson. Bandits, Prophets, and Messiahs: Popular Movements at the Time of Jesus. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1985.

  • —-. Jesus and the Spiral of Violence: Popular Jewish Resistance in Roman Palestine. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1993.

  • Jeremias, Joachim. Jesus and the Message of the New Testament. 1963-65. Edited by K. C. Hanson. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2002.

  • —-. The Eucharistic Words of Jesus. 1966. Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1981.

  • Johnson, Luke Timothy. The Real Jesus: The Misguided Quest for the Historical Jesus and The Truth of the Traditional Gospels. New York: Harper One, 1996.

  • Robinson, James M. A New Quest of the Historical Jesus. Studies in Biblical Theology No. 25. Naperville, IL: Alec R. Allenson, 1959.

  • Sanders, E. P. Jesus and Judaism. Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1985.

  • —-. The Historical Figure of Jesus. London: Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 1993.

  • Smith, Morton. Jesus the Magician. 1987. San Francisco, CA: Hampton Roads Press, 2014.

AUDIO/VISUAL RECORDINGS

  • How Jesus Became God, DVD. Taught by Bart D. Ehrman. The Great Courses, 2014.

  • Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World, DVD, 4 Parts. Taught by Glenn S. Holland. The Great Courses, 2005.

  • The Historical Jesus, DVD. Taught by Bart D. Ehrman. The Great Courses, 2000.