John P. Meier

In this definitive book on the real, historical Jesus, one of our foremost biblical scholars meticulously sifts the evidence of 2,000 years to portray neither a rural magician nor a figure of obvious power, but a marginal Jew. A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Volume I by John P. Meier challenges readers to reconceptualise traditional narratives by presenting Jesus...

This book is the second volume in John Meier's masterful trilogy on the life of Jesus. In it, he continues his quest for the answer to the greatest puzzle of modern religious scholarship: Who was Jesus? To answer this, Meier imagines the following scenario: "Suppose that a Catholic, a Protestant, a Jew, and an agnostic were locked up in the...

Since the late nineteenth century, New Testament scholars have operated on the belief that most, if not all, of the narrative parables in the Synoptic Gospels can be attributed to the historical Jesus. This book challenges that consensus and argues instead that only four parables—those of the Mustard Seed, the Evil Tenants, the Talents, and the Great Supper—can be attributed...