Book Review: The Jesus
Quest: The Third Search for the Jew of
Nazareth
Review By: Henry E.
Neufeld
Author: Ben
Witherington III
Publisher:
InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL
ISBN: 0-8308-1861-8
I have long searched for a book that I could recommend to
those who want to read a serious conservative review of the search for the
historical Jesus. While there are a
number of scholars writing their own views on this topic, careful review of
other views is not all that common on any side, though there are more general
histories than there are specifically conservative—not fundamentalist!—review.
Witherington has presented us with such a book. He reviews a number of different approaches,
starting out with some history (the preface titled The First Two Quests) and following up with background—Chapter
1 Galilee and the Galilean.
Chapter 2, Jesus the Talking Head is perhaps his most
strident chapter as he criticizes the Jesus Seminar and his approach. While I agree with the bulk of his
criticisms, I think the tone is a bit overdone. Why should the rest of us complain that the Jesus Seminar had
better publicity and has often been taken for the search rather than a
part of the search? Witherington
discusses both method and representation, and much of his criticism is
cogent. We would do well to remember,
however, that while not the whole, the Jesus Seminar is nonetheless a serious
part of the third quest.
Chapter 3, Jesus the Itinerant Cynic Philospher
discusses the works of John Dominic Crossan, Burton Mack and F. Gerald
Downing. Many of the criticisms applied
to the Jesus Seminar still apply, but Witherington digs into the details of
each portrait of Jesus. I have always
felt that the most convincing part of any work on the historical Jesus was the
section in which the author critiques other views, and I must say that this
chapter only added to that impression of the works of Crossan and Mack.
Chapter 4, Jesus, Man of the Spirit examines the
works of Marcus Borg, Geza Vermes and Graham H. Twelftree. Of these I was totally unacquainted with the
third, but Witherington is more gentle with Borg than many reviewers. To those who might believe the criticism is
too intense in chapters two or three I recommend this one to show that Witherington
is listening carefully to the positions he critiques.
Chapter 5, Jesus the Eschatological Prophet examines
the works of E. P. Sanders and Maurice Casey. I detect a little more friendliness to the methodology, but the
results are still found wanting.
Chapter 6, Jesus the Prophet of Social Change
examines the work of Gerd Theissen, Richard A. Horsley and R. David
Kaylor. I admit that I was only
distantly acquainted with all of these works.
The review appears very thorough, but I had little basis on which to critique
the critique!
Chapter 7, Jesus the Sage: The Wisdom of God examines the works of Elisabeth Schussler
and Ben Witherington himself. It seems
to me that this sections again demonstrates that it is easier to critique someone
else’s picture than to paint your own.
To his great credit, Witherington admits the limitations of the portion
of a portrait he is painting of Jesus as the wisdom of God.
Chapter 8, Jesus: Marginal Jew or Jewish Messiah? reviews the works of John P. Meier, Peter
Stuhlmacher, James D. G. Dunn, Marinus de Jonge, Markus Brockmuehl and N. T.
Wright. All of these authors fair
better than those discussed in the first few chapters. I think here that Witherington makes a very
telling point in that all of these pictures of Jesus are too limited to explain
the early Christian church, its growth and its faith. He continues this theme in chapter 9, The Journey’s End,
and somewhat in the Epilogue, The Death of the Messiah which examines
the works of Raymond E. Brown.
I recommend this book either for those who want a
conservative review as their own starting point into the Jesus quest, or for
those who want to take conservative and evangelical scholarship seriously as
they study this field.
Historical Jesus Bibliography
Energion – Religion,
Philosophy and Politics
