Overview

Volume 2, Jesus and the Pharisees in the Politics of Roman Palestine, continues to avoid the synthetic constructs in the fields of biblical studies and ancient Jewish history that obscure the increasingly complex historical context. Mostly overlooked or ignored was the dominant political-economic-religious conflict between the multiple layers of Roman, Herodian, and high priestly rulers and the vast majority of Judean and other Israelite people. The dominant conflict was further complicated by particular popular and dissident scribal movements and widespread popular revolts--in 40-37 BCE, 4 BCE, and again in 66-70 CE--in reaction to the rulers' repeated conquests and exploitation. Through a broader, more historical approach it can be discerned that the Gospel stories are rooted in Israelite popular tradition, and that the conflict with the Pharisees reflects the differences between the Judean scribal tradition that had been cultivated by the Pharisees and others and the Israelite popular tradition cultivated in village communities, which were the sites of Jesus' teaching, focused on renewal of the Mosaic covenant that had guided Israelite village life for generations.

Full Product Details

9798385221721

Table of Contents

Reviews

""Horsley brings his usual scholarly acumen to this second volume of essays on the Pharisees and the Jesus movement. Here he summarizes his findings on Pharisees and scribes and turns now to investigate the New Testament response. The Jesus movement in Judea, Galilee, and in the cities of the Mediterranean was engaged in a social and political struggle, and Horsley successfully traces the conflicts as evidenced in the texts of first-century Christianity."" --Lawrence M. Wills, Instructor of Religious Studies and Theology, Stonehill College ""Richard Horsley's decades-long assault on the exhausted theological/biblical studies approaches that still dominate gospel scholarship comes to its full force in this volume, which shows that the gospel materials as they stand exist with minimal 'Christian' theological overlay in the political, economic, media, and narrative memory world of Palestinian Judaism. Horsley's case for the Gospels' clear memory representation of Jesus as a prophet mobilizing a movement for covenant justice, a struggle culminating in his martyrdom, receives here its most thorough grounding ever, and it will be impossible to dismiss."" --Alan Kirk, Professor of Religion, James Madison University

Author Information

Richard A. Horsley is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Liberal Arts and the Study of Religion at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. His numerous publications include these recent works from Cascade Books: Galileans Under Jerusalem and Roman Rule (2024), Empowering the People: Jesus, Healing, and Exorcism (2022), You Shall Not Bow Down and Serve Them: The Political Economic Projects of Jesus and Paul (2021).

Tab Content 6

Countries Available