Criteria of authenticity, whose roots go back to before the pioneering work of Albert Schweitzer, have become a unifying feature of the so-called Third Quest for the Historical Jesus, finding a prominent and common place in the research of otherwise differing scholars. More recently, however, scholars from different methodological frameworks have expressed discontent with this approach to the historical Jesus. In the past five years, these expressions of discontent have reached a fever pitch.
The internationally renowned authors of this book examine the nature of this new debate and present the findings in a cohesive way aimed directly at making the coalface of Historical Jesus research accessible to undergraduates and seminary students. The book's larger ramifications as a thorough end to the Third Quest will provide a pressure valve for thousands of scholars who view historical Jesus studies as outmoded and misguided. This book has the potential to guide Jesus studies beyond the Third Quest and demand to be consulted by any scholar who discards, adopts, or adapts historical criteria.
Chris Keith is Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society, Norway. He is the author of
The Pericope Adulterae, the
Gospel of John and the Literacy of Jesus, a winner of the 2010 John Templeton Award for Theological Promise, and
Jesus' Literacy: Scribal Culture and the Teacher from Galilee. He is also the co-editor of
Jesus among Friends and Enemies: A Historical and Literary Introduction to Jesus in the Gospels, and was recently named a 2012 Society of Biblical Literature Regional Scholar.
Anthony Le Donne (PhD, Durham University) is Assistant Professor of New Testament and Second Temple Judaism at Lincoln Christian University, Lincoln, Illinois. He is the author of The Historiographical Jesus: Memory, Typology, and the Son of David (Baylor University Press, 2009) and Historical Jesus: What Can We Know and How Can We Know It? (Eerdmans, 2010). Together with Jacob Neusner and Bruce Chilton he is co-editing Soundings in Jesus and His Religion (Fortress, forthcoming in 2011). His home on the web is anthonyledonne.com.