The Real Jesus - For Further Reading

Jerusalem street

One of my doctoral qualifying exams (1980) was on ancient Christology (the Christological controversies). My Jesus-studies are ongoing.

Here are  some books and websites I recommend for more reading on Jesus, 

with a few annotations.

It's good for Jesus-followers to engage in Jesus-studies.

Note: The vast majority of people who critique Jesus haven't even begun to seriously study him.

BOOKS ON JESUS

Kenneth Bailey

• Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospel.

Richard Bauckham

• Jesus: A Very Short Introduction - a beautiful introduction to the Real Jesus by a great scholar.
• Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony - Bauckham delivers a strong case that the four Gospels are closely based on eyewitness testimony of those who knew Jesus. Note: all four Gospels.

Greg Boyd

• Cynic Sage or Son of God?: Recovering the Real Jesus in an Age of Revisionist Replies - I was talking with Craig Keener in his office and asked, "What books do you recommend on Jesus studies?" Craig pulled Greg's book off the shelf and said, "This is very good."
• The Crucifixion of the Warrior God: Volumes 1 & 2
• Cross Vision: How the Crucifixion of Jesus Makes Sense of Old Testament Violence

Greg Boyd & Paul Eddy

• The Jesus Legend: A Case for the Historical Reliability of the Synoptic Jesus Tradition - Among other things Boyd and Eddy debunk the idea that the Jesus story emerged from surrounding pagan myths.
• Lord or Legend?: Wrestling with the Jesus Dilemma - A more accessible version of their book The Jesus Legend.

Michael Brown

• The Real Kosher Jesus: Revealing the Mysteries of the Hidden Messiah. Brown is arguably our greatest Messianic Jewish scholar.

James Charlesworth

• The Historical Jesus: An Essential Guide - By Princeton New Testament scholar Charlesworth.

Craig Evans

• Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels - The great New Testament scholar debunks, among others, Bart Ehrman.
• Jesus and His World: The Archaeological Evidence  

Craig Evans and N.T. Wright 

• Jesus, the Final Days: What Really Happened. This would be an excellent little book to read leading up to Easter 2018. 

Gordon Fee

• Pauline Christology

Larry Hurtado and Chris Keith

•  Jesus among Friends and Enemies: A Historical and Literary Introduction to Jesus in the Gospels.  

Marcus Peter Johnson

• One with Christ: An Evangelical Theology of Salvation

Craig Keener

• The Historical Jesus of the Gospels
• Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts 

J.N.D. Kelly

• Early Christian Doctrines.  One of my doctoral qualifying exams was on ancient Christology. Kelly's book was the main text I used in preparation. 

George Ladd

• Gospel of the Kingdom: Scriptural Studies in the Kingdom of God. This is one of the books to be read on the nature of "the kingdom of God." 

Michael McClymond 

• Familiar Stranger: An Introduction to Jesus of Nazereth. This is another book Craig Keener strongly recommended to me. 

Scot McKnight

• The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited. Why read this book? Because it has two Forewards, by N.T. Wright and Dallas Willard. This book is about the Real Jesus and the actual Gospel.  

Eugene Peterson

• Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A Conversation in Spiritual Theology
• The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways that Jesus Is the Way
• Living the Resurrection: The Living Christ in Everyday Life.

Stephen Prothero 

• American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon - A good read on who the Real Jesus is not.  

Lee Strobel

• The Case for Christ
• The Case for the Real Jesus

Rankin Wilbourne

• Union with Christ: The Way to Know and Enjoy God

Dallas Willard

• The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus's Essential Teachings on Discipleship

Ben Witherington

• The Christology of Jesus
• The Jesus Quest: The Third Search for the Jew of Nazareth
• What Have They Done with Jesus?: Beyond Strange Theories and Bad History--Why We Can Trust the Bible

N.T. Wright (No one today is writing more about Jesus than Wright is.)

• How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels . Remember that understanding the "kingdom of God" is the hermeneutical key to understanding the Real Jesus.
• Jesus and the Victory of God
• The Lord and His Prayer
• The Resurrection of the Son of God
• Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters
• The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus's Crucifixion

Philip Yancey

• The Jesus I Never Knew

NEW TESTAMENT COMMENTARIES

When the following New Testament scholars write a commentary, it's going to be worth reading.

• Richard Bauckham
• D.A. Carson
• Craig Evans
• Gordon Fee
• R.T. France
• David Garland
• Joel Green
• Richard Hays
• Craig Keener
• Andreas Kostenberger
• Scot McKnight
• Douglas Moo
• Ben Witherington
• N.T. Wright - especially see Wright's "For Everyone" series.

WEBSITES ON JESUS AND THE NEW TESTAMENT

• Richard Bauckham
• Greg Boyd
• Gordon Fee
• Mark Goodacre (New Testament Gateway)
• Larry Hurtado
• The Jesus Blog
• Craig Keener
• Andreas Kostenberger
• Scot McKnight
• Ben Witherington
• N.T. Wright

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My two books are - Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God. 

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