Historical Jesus: What Can We Know and How Can We Know It?

"Anthony Le Donne's Historical Jesus is among the most remark­ able of recent efforts to comprehend Jesus historically. Engaging, informative, and provocative, the book is at once a brilliant portrait of the historical Jesus and a valuable contribution to social memory scholarship. Le Donne's 'postmodern paradigm; which includes an astute analysis of perception and memory, transcends post­ modernism itself. . . . No one can read Le Donne's book and fail to think in new ways about the historical Jesus." - BA R RY ScHWA RTZ

University of Georgia "Some philosophers of history have underscored how closely inter­ woven are history as a narrative and the meaning attached to that history by those who tell it. History is not just the record of events but is inherently a matter of perspective. Anthony Le Donne here sets out in clear and accessible terms how this critical view of his­ tory has begun to exert a dramatic impact on our assessments of Jesus." - BRUCE CH ILTON

Bard College "As a rule postmodernism means historical skepticism. . . . Le Donne opens the door to the past again, not by refusing post­ modern historiography but by applying i ts insights. If all reality is interpretive reality - perception, memory, and history- it is pos­ sible to make responsible statements on the past and on the histori ­ cal Jesus. His book is a convincing plea a gainst historical resigna­ tion - written with lucidity, esprit, and common sense." - G E RD TH E I S S E N

University of Heidelberg

HISTORICAL JESUS What Can We Know and How Can We Know It?

Anthony Le Donne

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Grand Rapids, Michigan I Cambridge, U.K.

© 2011 Anthony Le Donne All rights reserved

Published 2011 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 2140 Oak Industrial Drive N.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505 I P. O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K.

Printed in the United States of America

16 15 14 13 12 11

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Le Donne, Anthony, 1975Historical Jesus: what can we know and how can we know it? I Anthony Le Donne. p.

em.

Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-o-8028-6526-7 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Jesus Christ - Historicity.

BT3oJ.2.L38

I. Title.

2011

2010049780

www.eerdmans.com

to the Habibis, for ten years of decadence

Contents

Foreword, by Dale C. Allison Jr.

IX XIV

In Gratitude Beginnings

3

PART ONE

Totally Mental?

13

Thinking from the Outside In

15

M E M O RY I

Family Matters

24

HISTORY I

A Type of Now

33

Dysfunctional Family

42

QUE S T I O N S I PERCEPTION I

JESUS I

PART TWO QUESTION S II

Could It Be

.

.

.

Satan?

55

Understanding Is Construing

56

M E M ORY II

Variation and Stability

65

H I STORY I I

Between Certainty and History

72

Talking Politics

8I

PERCEPTION II

JESUS II

Vll

C O NT E NT S

PART THREE Q U E STI O N S III

P ERC EPTI ON Ill

Do You Think You're What They Say You Are?

95

Believing Is Seeing

96

M E M ORY III

Through a Glass Darkly

HI STORY III

If

J E SUS Ill

Memory Serves

106 111

The Big Stage

120

New Beginnings

133

Notes

136

Vlll

Foreword

I am happy to commend this volume, whose significance is greater than its slim size might intimate. Le Donne has much to teach us. Perhaps the chief virtue of Historical Jesus is that its author fully recognizes the complexity of historical reconstruction. For far t�o l�!lg2_�ew_T.esta�e!l���?l����ave ?P_���ed with s��l?.���� an­ �i��-�-��s,!uch as event �-s�_il1t�IJ>!�tation,_ me__!l__l?�Y�s.:Je��!l_?.?_��