Chilton's "Rabbi Jesus"

[bhikkhu]

I read this last year and have to recommend it, particularly as a background text for any "misquoting jesus" fans.

Having spent 8 years in catholic school (which is my readily accepted excuse for not attending church) I can say that this text was a revelation, chiefly in the central thesis regarding the meaning of the last supper and trans-substantiation. How many thousands or millions have died over misinterpretations of this, for an Aramaic scholar to have finally puzzled out what the destruction of Roman Jewry left insensible so long ago...I won't spoil the author's work by saying more - it must be read.

[Richard Steele]

1. I haven't even gotten around to 'Misquoting Jesus' yet...

Is it just me, or are we in a real 'golden age' of
actual biblical scholarship?

It just seems like there are a lot of new books
casting fresh understanding on old evidence these days.

[regnaD kciN]

2. Chilton certainly provides a provocative hypothesis...

...which would have the potential to transform Christianity, if he was able to provide any evidence to back up his assertions.

Unfortunately, he isn't.

I've read a number of works of "Jesus scholarship" over the past few years, ranging in viewpoint from the traditional (N. T. Wright) to the modern (Marcus Borg) and even the radical (John Shelby Spong). Never have I run across a book in that field whose claims were so thoroughly fabricated out of whole cloth as that of Chilton.

[bhikkhu]

3. so Chilton not without flaws...

particularly in the reconstructed emotional life of the young Jesus. In many things I prefer Eisenman's "James the Brother of Jesus", and tend to have enough familiarity and history with the material that improbable or over-enthusiastic speculations are simply "filed". Where Chilton does sparkle is in his cultural reconstructions - the Temple culture, his explanation of "outbreak" (translated as leprosy, which was undefined at the time) and its roots in the taboos of Genesis, and primarily the meaning of his words during the last supper.

In general, I am inclined to think arguments of fabrication are somewhat misplaced, given the field, as Eisenman convincingly deconstructs the large scale fabrication of our primary reference material. That is, the research is a matter of weighing the variances between lies, reverse-engineering toward what was possible and probable. Chilton does so well, and where he doesn't it is fairly transparent.