Review by Choice Review
In this volume, the author of Paul and Palestinian Judaism (CH, Feb '78) and Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People (CH, Dec '83) addresses himself to a set of questions that have been more or less slighted in much recent New Testament scholarship; these concern the connections between the life-work of Jesus and the manner of his death and those between his death and the movement that subsequently arose in his name. Sanders surveys all available evidence and provides a remarkably thorough review of other scholars' views on these matters, and then defends his own conclusions that Jesus was a prophet of ``Jewish restoration eschatology,'' that he was killed because his actions (particularly against the Temple) raised the threat of widespread disorder, and that his followers formed a movement after his death that was in substantial continuity with his own teachings and behavior even if it branched out in new directions as well. The book is extremely thorough and its argumentation impressively rich; it is well equipped with bibliography, indexes, and notes. Appropriate for graduate students, upper-division undergraduates, and general readers, it belongs in all libraries with collections in Bible or religious studies.-R. Goldenberg, SUNY at Stony Brook
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
