Jesus, the Gospels, and the Galilean Crisis

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Tucker S. Ferda examines the theory of the Galilean crisis: the notion that the historical Jesus himself had grappled with the failure of his mission to Israel. While this theory has been neglected since the 19th century, due to research moving to consider the response of the early church to the rejection of the gospel, Ferda now provides fresh insight on Jesus own potential crisis of faith. Ferda begins by reconstructing the origin of the crisis theory, expanding upon histories of New Testament research and considering the contributions made before Hermann Samuel Reimarus. He shows how the crisis theory was shaped by earlier and so-called pre-critical gospel interpretation and examines how, despite the claims of modern scholarship, the logic of the crisis theory is still a part of current debate. Finally, Ferda argues that while the crisis theory is a failed hypothesis, its suggestions on early success and growing opposition in the ministry, as well as its claim that Jesus met and responded to disappointing cases of rejection, should be revisited. This book resurrects key historical aspects of the crisis theory for contemporary scholarship.

Reviews

It is clearly written, thoroughly researched, and makes important contributions to both the history of scholarship and the study of the historical Jesus. * Catholic Biblical Quarterly *
The work reflects an unusually high level of scholarly maturity [... ] Throughout the book the author constructs generally plausible arguments for the positions that he takes and is very much aware of the limitations imposed on the historical method by the very nature of the Gospels. He is very much aware of what the limits are to what can be known about the order of events in the life of Jesus [...] In my view it will encourage scholars to look again at works on Jesus and the Gospels between the Reformation and the 19th century. Further, the authors reconstruction of what can be said of the proclamation of the kingdom of God by Jesus will encourage scholars to frame their approaches to the life of Jesus more circumspectly. * David Aune, University of Notre Dame, USA *

Author Bio

Tucker S. Ferda is Visiting Assistant Professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, USA. He was named a Regional Scholar of the SBL in 2015.