The Message And The Kingdom: How Jesus & Paul Ignited A Revolution & Transformed The [Paperback]

In a time of social upheaval resulting from rapacious Roman taxation, Jesus's message to resist through communal cooperation was welcome to rural Galilean Jews who were expecting a return to their covenant with God. When Paul extended this message to similarly dispossessed urban Gentiles, the stage was set for a Jesus movement that would take hold in the empire and transform the world. Richard A. Horsley and Neil Asher Silberman put recent archaeological and textual research to good use in an original but reasonable interpretation of Jesus and Paul as religious and social reformers. The result is a picture of Christianity that makes sense Biblically as well as historically. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Horsley (religion, Univ. of Massachusetts) and Silberman (The Hidden Scrolls, LJ 10/1/94) provide a thorough discussion of the movements of Jesus and the apostles, especially Paul, within the social, political, and cultural milieu of Palestine and the Mediterranean during the first centuries of this era. While acknowledging that the "quest for the Kingdom of God...should be evaluated as both a spiritual journey and an evolving political response," they feel that the divinity of Jesus and similar doctrine are the invention of the earliest church. In this scholarly, well-written book, the authors view everything through a political filter, even religious motivation. However, their focus on political and social problems of the population living under ruthless exploitation by Rome is a valid corrective. Indeed, we "can't understand the historic development of the early Christian movement without understanding the contemporary economic and political situation of the Jews." A very stimulating book; recommended for lay readers and scholars alike.?Eugene O. Bowser, Univ. of Northern Colorado, Greeley
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

An eloquent social history of first-century Palestine by Horsley (Religion/Univ. of Massachusetts) and Silberman (The Hidden Scrolls, 1994). As the authors often reiterate, they are historians, not theologians; their goal is not to bolster or debunk the claims of the New Testament, but to contextualize them. They accomplish this by setting the stage of Christian beginnings in the first century, an era of profound social changes, such as escalating tenancy, spiraling indebtedness, and overtaxation by the burgeoning Roman bureaucracy. In Galilee, an obscure outpost of the empire, it became increasingly difficult for Jews to make a decent living (even fishing was transformed in this period from a seasonal, family occupation to a year-round export business, as enthusiasts in Rome developed a taste for the piquant). The region was ripe for social protest, and the authors claim this is how Christianity, ``a movement that boldly challenged the heartlessness and arrogance of a vast governmental bureaucracy,'' began. Jesus, the heart of this movement, constantly challenged Roman rule as illegitimate; the authors persuasively argue that even the ``render unto Caesar'' remark was Jesus' cryptic way of saying that everything belonged to God. The tenor of the movement changed markedly after Jesus' death, becoming more an urban than a rural phenomenon, but even under Paul it remained a social protest. Paul's remarkable missionary success was expedited by audiences' continued discontent with the Roman government, which made the promised immediate demise of all worldly principalities an attractive option. Paul displayed his protest by insisting on equality among persons; he took collections for the poor and even advocated the immediate abolition of the Roman institution of slavery. Paul's ideology was wildly popular, but not with the Roman authorities, who imprisoned him several times and eventually beheaded him for sedition. Stylishly written and rich in memorable detail, this is a rare find that actually offers fresh insight into the overstudied New Testament. (2 maps) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Set against the backdrop of Roman imperial history, The Message and the Kingdom demonstrates how the quest for the kingdom of God by Jesus, Paul, and the earliest churches should be understood as both a spiritual journey and a political response to the "mindless acts of violence, inequality, and injustice that characterized the kings of men." Horsley and Silberman reveal how the message of Jesus and Paul was profoundly shaped by the history of their time as well as the social conditions of the congregations to whom they preached.

Horsley is Professor of Classics and Religion at teh University of Massachusetss, Boston. He is the author of numberous books, including the Fortress Press title, Jesus and the Spiral of Violence (1992).

Silberman is the author or editor of numerous popular books on archaeology and the Bible, including The Bible Unearthed (2001) and the Archaeology of Israel (1997).