Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography Part III

After just finishing John Dominic Crossan’s book entitled, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, I find myself discovering fewer and fewer things that I both understand and agree with. As I got into his head and began to pick apart what he was saying I realized that he is an extremely opinionated person who believes firmly in his twenty years of experience dealing with historical Jesus and is adamant that what he is saying is true. Though I originally agreed with what he talked about like his view on the Kingdom of God and Jesus’ connection to John the Baptist, he now leaves me wondering what he is trying to convey to his readers and ultimately what he wants his readers to take away from reading his biography.
As I read his biography I do not understand what he was saying when he discusses Paul and how he believed the end of the world was coming and that resurrection was the only way to articulate the presence of Jesus. I believe that Crossan was saying Paul believed that Jesus was resurrected, but if that were true then he also believes there is going to be a general resurrection at the end of the world. Growing up I always knew Jesus had been resurrected but I have never heard anything about the end of the world and a mass general resurrection. The way Crossan is explaining Paul’s belief or prediction makes little sense especially to a person such as my self who has limited knowledge of the bible. It would seem that Crossan could do a better job articulating what he is saying and making it easier for people to understand.
Crossan not only discussed Paul and his beliefs, but he also mentioned the resurrection of Jesus and what exactly happened according to two separate individuals. One of which was a Jewish man who claimed that Jesus’ followers were there beforehand and continued to follow him after his resurrection and have still not disappeared to this day. However, Crossan believes that no Jewish, non-Christian would write this because it asserts Christian beliefs and includes sentences that could only be written by Christian believers. Crossan also writes about a Roman who also writes that there was a Christian movement upon the resurrection of Jesus. Both of these people raise interesting points and a logical conclusion. However, Crossans explanation was poor and left me interested but ill informed about what happened after Jesus’ resurrection. Though some of what Crossan is saying is hard to understand I did find myself agreeing with one major thing he said and that is that “Easter is not about the start of a new faith but about the continuation of an old one” (191).
With my limited knowledge in the Christian doctrine I have found that I care about the major events that shaped Christianity far more then I care about the smaller details. In other words when Crossan discussed Easter and how it is merely a continuation of the Christian faith rather then the beginning or end I was interested because it is such a huge part of Christianity and a big part in the story of Jesus’ life. Crossan also points out that Easter and Christian faith was not over one afternoon or one year but rather before Jesus died and after he was resurrected, “Christian faith itself was there beforehand among Jesus’ followers in Lower Galilee, and it continued, developed, and widened across time and space after his execution. It is precisely the continued experience of the Kingdom of God as strengthened rather then weakened by Jesus’ death that is Christian or Easter faith. And that was not the work of one afternoon. Or one year.” (161) For the first time in the book I actually felt what Crossan was trying to say. I understood him completely and I could not agree more. Christianity has spread the course of time and Easter was yet another significant mark, but definitely not the end of the story.
After finishing Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, I enjoyed parts of it and at other times I found myself sifting through the dense and boring material in hope that I would come across more interesting material that I actually believed. Ultimately, it is my opinion that Crossan removed many of the miracles that I have associated with Christianity and its key players. In doing so he simply made Jesus a peasant, nothing more then a normal human being. By removing those aspects I did not enjoy reading Crossan’s interpretation of Jesus life and the history of Christianity. In Sunday school I remember sitting there in aw of all the miracles associated with the bible and after reading Crossan I feel less like that little kid sitting in Sunday school and more like a college student realizing for the first time that miracles do not exist.