Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict

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Both books start with a review of the classic three quests for the historical Jesus, the first emerging from the European Enlightenment and culminating in Albert Schweitzer (1906); the second (between the two World Wars) pioneered by the studies of Bultmann and Dibelius and characterised by the attempt to establish criteria for the historical Jesus; the third led by Géza Vermes’s insistence on the Jewishness of Jesus and bolstered by new archaeological discoveries, such as that of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947. By situating the life of Jesus of Nazareth in the turbulent troubles of first-century Palestine, Crossley and Myles give a thrilling historical-materialist take on the historical Jesus. The book conveys a sharp sense of the times and places, the issues and discussions, the difficulties and possibilities.

Despite being written from a perspective that questions many of the traditions of the Christian faith, it is respectful in its approach, reasonable in most of its assessments, and simply enjoyable to read.

Without such testing, it remains unclear that the Jesus movement was a product of class-conflict and agrarian unrest.

The latter is written from a Marxist viewpoint, presenting Jesus not as “a Great Man of history”, but as a religious organiser, formed by and emerging from the peasantry of Galilee and Judaea, the vanguard of a new political party with its own politburo, a dictatorship to serve the interests of the non-elite peasantry, but also with a mission to the rich.Crossley and Myles offer a vivid portrait of the man and his movement and uncover the material conditions that converged to make it happen.

The popular appeal of the movement was due in part to a desire to represent the values of ordinary rural workers. If you enjoy reading People’s World and the stories we bring you, support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today. There needs to be more study, not of history as a science, but of the genres of historical writing and their way of asserting the truth, or, rather what truth they mean to assert.Of the three last words of Jesus on the cross offered by Mark/Matthew, Luke and John which is historical or does that not matter? Before you go, please support great working-class and pro-people journalism by donating to People’s World. To my knowledge, this book will be the first major contemporary biography on Jesus from a historical materialist perspective and written by respected experts in the field.

Fr Henry Wansbrough OSB is a monk of Ampleforth, emeritus Master of St Benet’s Hall, Oxford, and a former member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission.

This thrilling historical materialist take on the historical Jesus situates the life of Jesus of Nazareth in the turbulent troubles of first-century Palestine. We are trusting God’s plans for St John’s and excited to discover how he might be looking to use us for His Kingdom in our community. In so doing, the authors speedily debunk the “Great Man” myth and demonstrate the large number of similar grouplets in a Palestine that was being convulsed by serious dislocations. Nor does the “preferential option for death” accord well with the persistent and emphasised failure of the disciples to accept the message of suffering. Seeing such portraits as romanticized and overly idealized, the interest here is on the social and economic forces that produced the Jesus movement.