A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Volume III: Companions and Competitors

by John P. Meier

Overview

No man is an island, not even Jesus, as John Meier writes in Companions and Competitors, the third installment of his four-part series, A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus. The first volume, an overview of Jesus' background, chronology, and early years, was followed by a second that analyzed Jesus' most important messages and deeds. Here, Meier explains his conviction that "No human being is adequately understood if he or she is considered in isolation from other human beings." He leads readers through the concentric circles of companions (including the followers who became his disciples and apostles) and competitors (such as Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Samaritans) that shaped Jesus' life in first-century Palestine. Meier, a priest and New Testament scholar at Notre Dame, writes in the engaging, methodical style of an astringently avuncular professor: chapters are carefully outlined, with straightforward headings such as "Points of Comparison and Contrast," "Caveats on Comparisons," and "The Sheer Oddness of Jesus"). His findings, particularly his explanation of "the essentially Jewish nature" of Jesus' relationships, are a valuable addition to the field of Historical Jesus scholarship.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300140323
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	09/18/2001
Series:	The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library , #3
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	720
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.00(d)

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	xiii
	Introduction to Volume Three: Jesus the Jew in His Relations to Other Jews	1
I.	The Focus of Volume Three: Jesus the Jew in His Relationships to Other Jewish Individuals and Groups	1
II.	A Road Map for the Journey through Volume Three	4
III.	A Reminder about the Rules of the Road	9
	Notes to the Introduction	13
Part 1	Jesus the Jew and His Jewish Followers
Chapter 24	Jesus in Relation to His Followers: The Crowds	19
I.	Introduction: Finding the Proper Label	19
II.	The Outer Circle: The Crowds	21
	Notes to Chapter 24	30
Chapter 25	Jesus in Relation to His Followers: The Disciples	40
I.	Did the Historical Jesus Have Disciples?	41
II.	Who Qualified as a Disciple of Jesus?	47
A.	The Initiative of Jesus in Calling	50
B.	Following Jesus Physically and Therefore Leaving One's Home	54
C.	Risking Danger and Hostility	55
III.	The Unclear Boundaries of Discipleship: Were the Women Followers of Jesus Disciples?	73
IV.	The Unclear Boundaries of Discipleship: Supporters of Jesus Who Did Not Leave Their Homes	80
	Notes to Chapter 25	82
Chapter 26	Jesus in Relation to His Followers: The Existence and Nature of the Twelve	125
I.	Disciples, Apostles, and the Twelve: The Problem of Terminology	125
II.	The Existence of the Twelve during Jesus' Ministry	128
A.	First Criterion: Multiple Attestation	128
B.	Second Criterion: Embarrassment	141
C.	General Flow of the Tradition	146
III.	The Nature and Function of the Twelve	148
A.	The Twelve as Exemplars of Discipleship	148
B.	The Twelve as Prophetic Symbols of the Regathering of the Twelve Tribes of Israel	148
C.	The Twelve as Prophetic Missionaries to Israel	154
	Notes to Chapter 26	163
Chapter 27	Jesus in Relation to His Followers: The Individual Members of the Twelve	198
I.	The Severe Limits of This Quest	198
II.	Surveying the Individual Members of the Twelve	199
III.	Conclusion: Jesus in Relation to His Followers	245
	Notes to Chapter 27	252
Part 2	Jesus the Jew and His Jewish Competitors
Chapter 28	Jesus in Relation to Competing Jewish Groups: The Pharisees	289
I.	Introduction	289
II.	By Way of Background: A Brief History of Origins	291
A.	Tensions within Israel from the Beginning	291
B.	The Hasmoneans as a Source of Tension	291
C.	The Essenes and the Qumranites	292
D.	The Pharisees and the Sadducees under the Hasmoneans	293
E.	Herod the Great	294
F.	The Roman Prefects and Procurators	295
G.	The New Situation after A.D. 70	298
III.	The Problem of Sources and Method	299
A.	The New Testament as a Source	300
B.	Josephus as a Source	301
C.	The Rabbinic Literature as a Source	305
D.	The Method to Be Adopted	310
IV.	The Pharisees	311
A.	A Few 20th-Century Portraits of the Pharisees	311
B.	A Minimalist Sketch by Way of Six Points	313
C.	Summary: A Minimalist Sketch of the Pharisees	330
D.	Jesus' Relation to the Pharisees	332
	Notes to Chapter 28	341
Chapter 29	Jesus in Relation to Competing Jewish Groups: The Sadducees	389
I.	The Problem of Identifying the Sadducees	389
A.	Introduction to the Problem	389
B.	A Few Clear Lines in a Fuzzy Portrait	391
II.	Jesus' Dispute with the Sadducees over the Resurrection of the Dead (Mark 12:18-27 Parr.)	411
A.	Introduction to the Sadducees in the Gospels	411
B.	The Form-Critical Category of the Pericope	412
C.	The Placement of the Dispute within Mark's Gospel	413
D.	The Structure of Mark 12:18-27	416
E.	Exegesis of Mark 12:18-27	419
F.	The Debate on the Resurrection of the Dead: An Incident from the Ministry of the Historical Jesus?	431
	Notes to Chapter 29	444
Chapter 30	Jesus in Relation to Competing Jewish Groups: The Essenes and Other Groups	488
I.	The Essenes and Qumran	488
A.	Introduction: The Narrow Focus of This Section	488
B.	Jesus and Qumran/the Essenes: Caveats on Comparisons	491
C.	Jesus and Qumran/the Essenes: Points of Comparison and Contrast	493
D.	Jesus and Qumran/the Essenes: Notable Points of Contrast	522
II.	The Samaritans	532
A.	Introduction: Why Here?	532
B.	Problems of Terminology and Definition	533
C.	The Problem of the Historical Origins of the Samaritans	535
D.	The Problems of the Gospel Texts	542
III.	The Scribes	549
IV.	The Herodians	560
V.	The Zealots	565
	Notes to Chapter 30	569
	Conclusion to Volume Three: Integrating Jesus' Jewish Relationships into the Wider Picture	615
I.	The Roots of Jesus the Jew in the Judaism and the Galilee of the First Century	615
II.	The Ministry of Jesus the Elijah-Like Prophet	622
III.	Embryonic Structures among the Jewish Followers of Jesus	626
IV.	Jewish Competitors in the Religious and Political Marketplace of Palestine	632
V.	Looking Ahead to the Final Enigmas	645
	Notes to Conclusion	646
	Map of Palestine in the Time of Jesus	648
	Map of the Galilee of Jesus' Ministry	649
	Chart of the Family of Herod the Great	650
	Chart of the Regnal Years of the Roman Principes (Emperors)	651
	List of Abbreviations	652
	Scripture Index	671
	Author Index	684
	Subject Index	694

Editorial Reviews

The latest installment (the third of a promised four) of priest-professor Meier's monumental inquiry into the historical Jesus of Nazareth (Volume II: Mentor, Message, and Miracles, 1994, etc.). Meier (New Testament/Notre Dame) steps back a bit to look at Jesus' ministry in the context of his relationship with his followers and with the groups that competed with him. As before, Meier seeks a historical reconstruction that excludes faith commitments. (He recalls here his fantasy of four historians, a Catholic, a Protestant, a Jew, and an agnostic, "locked up in the bowels of the Harvard Divinity School library . . . until they have hammered out a consensus document on Jesus of Nazareth.") And as before, he examines the historical core of the traditions about Jesus and his milieu with objectivity, precision, sound judgment, and massive learning. Here, Meier portrays a Jesus movement with an incipient, concentric structure, from the crowds around him to the disciples called and instructed by him to the Twelve whom he sent on a symbolic mission to all Israel, and a set of distinctive practices: baptism, the Lord's Prayer, open-table fellowship with "toll collectors and sinners." Meier's painstaking analysis of the extant traditions about the other religious groups in first-century Palestine-Pharisees and Sadducees, Essenes and Samaritans-illuminates Jesus' teachings on matters like the resurrection of the dead and the inclusiveness of his movement, as well as his sense of his own remarkable charismatic authority. The result is a very Jewish Jesus, a figure quite different from the Hellenized Cynic or wisdom teacher of much recent historical-Jesus speculation. Although it won't maketabloid headlines the way more fanciful books in its field sometimes do, and it may prove frustrating for those looking for theological meat among the historical bones, Meier's massive enterprise is one of the most ambitious and exciting in modern Biblical scholarship. Like its predecessors, this volume is demanding but essential reading for anyone interested in the ever-fascinating, never-ending quest for the historical Jesus.

Kirkus Reviews