.
Dear BAS Library Member,
 Scholars and laypeople alike have long been fascinated by the search for the "historical Jesus," the actual Jesus of first-century Galilee and Judah whose life and teachings, later recorded in the Gospels of the New Testament, spawned a world religion that is now followed by billions. As archaeologists and historians have searched for the Jesus of history, however, their revelations have often come into conflict with traditional notions of who Jesus was and what he thought.
In the May 2011 issue of The BAS Library Explorer, we look at articles from the pages of BAR and Bible Review that have grappled with critical issues surrounding the historical Jesus, from the historical and archaeological evidence for Jesus outside the Bible to scholarly attempts to dissect the Bible for evidence of what Jesus may have actually said and done. As a BAS Library Member, you will receive The BAS Library Explorer covering a new topic each month. We hope you enjoy this monthly guide to the vast array of material available in the BAS Library.
But before introducing the featured articles on the historcal Jesus, we at BAS are very proud to announce that your BAS Library membership now offers more value than ever before with the new features and benefits that we've just added. The BAS Library now contains interactive digital editions of BAR from 2011 onward. Plus, new monthly streaming video lectures by master Bible and archaeology teachers will be there for you to enjoy, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Additionally, monthly members-only merchandise specials will bring you the newest and best merchandise from the BAS store at a significant savings. And BAS Library members can now take 10% off any regularly priced items in the BAS Store, any time. Read below for more details on May's video lecture and merchandise special, and remember to log in to the BAS Library any time to take advantage of these exciting new features and benefits.
As John P. Meier argues in The Testimonium, the clearest and most direct historical evidence for Jesus outside the Bible comes from the first-century Jewish historian Josephus. In the full-length history of his people, Jewish Antiquities, Josephus twice refers to Jesus, once in passing and a second time in a much-disputed passage known to scholars as the Testimonium Flavianum (that is, the supposed Testimony of Flavius to Jesus), or Testimonium for short. As Meier shows, the Testimonium of Josephus includes a number of salient facts about Jesus' life that confirm the basic historical outlines given by the four canonical Gospels.
 Similarly, in The Short List: The New Testament Figures Known to History, Steven Feldman and Nancy E. Roth discuss the various first-century C.E. inscriptions that provide clear references to figures associated with Jesus in the Gospels, including the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, the Jewish high priest Caiaphas, King Herod of Judea and his descendants and, more recently, James, the brother of Jesus.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Where Jesus Walked
In this documentary film, BAR editor Hershel Shanks is your personal guide in Nazareth, Galilee, Capernaum, Bethsaida, Qumran, Sepphoris and Jerusalem to view sites where Jesus walked. Along the way, Shanks meets with the world's most prominent archaeologists and Biblical scholars to discuss the archaeological discoveries that link these sites to Jesus. Their lively, in-depth conversations offer a clear picture of how current archaeology is illuminating the New Testament. For anyone interested in learning how archaeology has enhanced the study of the life and times of Jesus, this DVD is a must-have.
Where Jesus Walked DVD, 90 minutes, $24.95
_______________________________________________________________________________________
 How does one decide what elements of the Gospel tradition accurately reflect what Jesus was like? When is the tradition quite close to reflecting his words and deeds, and when has the Church's later development of the tradition gone considerably beyond what Jesus himself was like? These are just some of the thought-provoking questions addressed by Marcus J. Borg in What Did Jesus Really Say? In the article, Borg discusses the various criteria used by critical Biblical scholars to determine what parts of the Gospels reflect genuine historical memories of Jesus' sayings versus the sayings and stories that may have been added later.
 Finally, in How Jesus Saw Himself, author N.T. Wright discusses how the most historically reliable sayings of Jesus preserved in the Gospels provide evidence of how Jesus may have understood both himself and his message. According to Wright, Jesus believed he was Israel's Messiah, through whom Yahweh would restore the fortunes of his people: Not only did he behave like an eschatological prophet, announcing that Israel's long history was reaching its consummation, but he also told stories that hinted at the coming of a new kingdom and the return of Yahweh.
But don't stop reading after these articles! There are countless other articles in the BAS Library ready to engage and fascinate you. The powerful and easy-to-use search features can guide you even further through every article we have published in the past 35 years (6,600 and counting). Every photograph, more than 18,500 of them, is also fully viewable—along with the captions, of course. Plus, we've made it simple to delve deeper into this month's rich topic in the Historical Jesus Special Collection, one of the many special collections offered in the BAS Library.
 To enhance this month's focus on the historical Jesus, the monthly video lecture for May is The Temple, Aramaic Epigraphy and the Historical Jesus by Bruce Chilton of Bard College. In this hour-long lecture, Chilton explains how these three separate fields of study can be combined to understand better the Jewish context of Jesus' life and teaching. Chilton dismisses the notion that Jesus was simply pro-prophecy and anti-ritual, examining numerous analogies in Christian and Rabbinic literature. Using Aramaic inscriptional evidence, especially from first-century Judea and Galilee, Chilton sheds light on the language Jesus spoke and how it relates to the cleansing of the Temple described in the Gospels.
 And last but certainly not least, this month's members-only merchandise special is a substantial discount on the popular DVD lecture set: Jesus and the Second Temple | Biblical Sites Unearthed | Beyond the Bible. This 15-lecture collection is available to BAS Library Members only for $49.95 during May 2011 (original price: $359.85). Members, log in and click on Member Offers in the tan menu bar to order this engaging lecture set at this incredibly low price. And remember, BAS Library members can also take 10% off any regularly priced merchandise at the BAS Store, any time. Just log in to the BAS Library to see the monthly members discount code.
Whether it's to research a paper, to prepare a sermon, to deepen your understanding of scripture or history, or simply to marvel at the complexity of the Bible--the most important book in history--the BAS Library is an invaluable tool that cannot be matched anywhere else. I promise, you won't be disappointed by the wealth of material you'll find there.
Sincerely,
Sara Murphy, Web Editor
Biblical Archaeology Society
|
|
|
