Crossing Galilee: Architectures of Contact in the Occupied Land of Jesus

(Paperback)

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Recent books about Jesus and early Christianity can be divided into two kinds: those that examine the life and work of the historical Jesus prior to his death and those that reconstruct events between JesusGCO death and the writings of the first Gospels. SawickiGCOs provocative book challenges the results of both kinds of research by using both archaeology and anthropology to situate Jesus clearly in his Galilean cultural context. Sawicki contests recent portraits of Jesus as a Mediterranean peasant, a Cynic sage, or the convener of a fellowship of equals. In addition, she calls into question readings of ancient Galilee that emphasize it as a society marked simply by economic stratification or by an GCGBPhonor-shameGC[yen] sociology. Rather, she discovers the Galilean JesusGCO indigenous cultural idiom in its material structures for the negotiation of kinship, the management of labor, the distribution of commodities, and the construction of gender. SawickiGCOs book is the first to balance classical urban archaeology against the more recent archaeology of villages and of local and regional commerce. It frames current issues in Jesus research in terms that can guide both ongoing village excavations in Israel and responsible exegesis of the Gospels in church and academy. Marianne Sawicki is the author of Seeing the Lord: Resurrection and Early Christian Practices. For: Seminarians; graduate students; biblical archaeologists

Reviews

"With her disciplined imagination and lucid prose, Marianne Sawicki invites us into the alternative culture of first-century Galilee. Archaeology, anthropology, and exegesis are here coordinated to construct fascinating options in the historical understanding of Jesus and Christian origins." -- Bruce Chilton -- Bruce Chilton * Blurb from reviewer *
"This is a provocative work that leads both the scholar and the believer to reexamine the current consensus...Sawicki forces her readers to take another look at issues that are the most fundamental to both the academy and the church. She does so in an engaging rather than a contentious way. Those interested in the archaeology of first-century Galilee, in the Jesus question, and in the first Christian community will enjoy this book."--Leslie J. Hope, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 63, 2001 -- Leslie J. Hope * Catholic Biblical Quarterly *
"One must appreciate Sawicki's attempt to breathe interpretive life into ancient materials that might be rendered sterile in the hands of a less imaginative researcher."--Donald D. Binder, Southern Methodist University, Interpretation, January 2002 -- Donald D. Binder, Southern Methodist University * Interpretation *
"...a useful, provocative book..." --Casimir Bernas, Holy Trinity Abbey, reviewing for Religious Studies Review, January 2001 -- Casimir Bernas * Religious Studies Review *
"This study points a compelling way forward into the material and social places and matrices that Jesus and his first followers inhabited." --Matthew L. Skinner, Princeton Theological Seminary Theology Today January 2002 -- Matthew L. Skinner * Theology Today *

Author Bio

Marianne Sawicki is the author of Seeing the Lord: Resurrection and Early Christian Practices and Crossing Galilee.