Is This Not The Carpenter?: The Question of the Historicity of the Figure of Jesus

The majority of biblical scholars who study early Christianity believe that the Gospels - in particular John and Matthew - do contain some reliable information about the historicity of Jesus - essentially that Jesus was a Jew who was regarded as a teacher and healer, that he was baptized by John the Baptist, and was crucified in Jerusalem on the orders of Pontius Pilate, on the charge of sedition against the Roman Empire.These essays in this volume show that this assumption disarms biblical texts of much of their power by privileging an historical interpretation which effectively sweeps aside much theological speculation and allusion. Furthermore, the assumption of historicity gathers further assumptions to it, shaping the interpretation of texts, both denying and adding subtext. Scholars are now faced with an endless array of works on the historical Jesus and few question what has been lost through this wide-spread assumption of historicity. Is This Not the Carpenter? presents a valuable corrective: a literary rereading of the New Testament.