Early Christianity and Its Literature: Jesus the Central Jew : His Times and His People (Series #15) (Paperback)

In this book, LaCocque presents the case that Jesus was totally and unquestionably a Jew. He lived as a Jew, thought as a Jew, debated as a Jew, acted as a Jew and died as a Jew. He was not a Jew marginally, but centrally. He had no intention of creating a new religion; rather, he was a reformer of the Judaism of his day. True, his critique went far beyond an intellectual subversion. In fact, Jesus progressively thought of himself as the Son of Man inaugurating the advent of the Kingdom of God on earth. LaCocque writes not about Christianity or Christology. Instead the book purposely addresses restricted sources, namely, the Synoptic Gospels to contribute to the modern understanding of the historicalas opposed to the mythical or the realJesus. In this book, LaCocque presents the case that Jesus was totally and unquestionably a Jew. He lived as a Jew, thought as a Jew, debated as a Jew, acted as a Jew and died as a Jew. He was not a Jew marginally, but centrally. He had no intention of creating a new religion; rather, he was a reformer of the Judaism of his day. True, his critique went far beyond an intellectual subversion. In fact, Jesus progressively thought of himself as the "Son of Man" inaugurating the advent of the Kingdom of God on earth. LaCocque writes not about Christianity or Christology. Instead the book purposely addresses restricted sources, namely, the Synoptic Gospels to contribute to the modern understanding of the historical-as opposed to the mythical or the "real"-Jesus.