Dimensions
153 x 230 x 20mm
Scripture provides at least two traditions for the essential meaning of who Jesus was. The traditional church has emphasized the Pauline view that shows Jesus as martyr, emphasizing his death and resurrection with Jesus as a deity to worship. However, another tradition also thrived right from the beginning of Christianity that portrayed Jesus as a teacher of wisdom with the emphasis on the new way of life he taught his disciples to follow. Stephen Patterson, a leading New Testament scholar and former head of the Jesus Seminar, takes out his magnifying glass to uncover the clues revealing this lost ancient option for being a follower of Jesus. First, he explains how scholars have uncovered an earlier Gospel that preceded at least three of the ones in the Bible. Step by step he shows why there must have been a common source besides Mark (recognized as the earliest Gospel) that both Matthew and Luke used to write their accounts. Scholars have even deduced the contents of this lost gospel, which has come to be known as Q, a collection of Jesus's teachings without any narrative content. This is likely the earliest collection shared among Jesus's first followers, one that embodies a very different orientation to the Christian faith.
Patterson also explores other example of this wisdom tradition, revealing the fascinating details behind the discovery of the Gospel of Thomas; the context of the Egyptian Christian community from which Apollos, a likely teacher of Christian wisdom, emerged; and even the wisdom leanings of the main authority of the church in Jerusalem: James, the brother of Jesus. After this lively historical survey, readers will discover new options for what it might mean to honor and remember Jesus today, not as a personality cult of a martyr Jesus but as a teacher of wisdom to show us a new way to live.
