Jesus: A Very Short Introduction

Bauckham is amazing and this book is a gem! I've read some of his more complicated (and longer) work. I hoped this might distill some of his views into something more concise. I was not disappointed.Bauckham treats the four Gospels as reliable historical accounts. With that in mind, he provides an excellent and accessible overview of Jesus and his 1st century world. I've read massive books on Jesus but this stands with them. Highly recommended!

This book is a great summary of the basics of Christianity. The aim of the book is to compel us to investigate and also invest time in the person of Jesus and the movement that was started with Him and has not been turned down.Thank you very much for the time you took to write this book and for the opportunity you will give people to get involved in the Story of the Bible, The redemption of Humanity through the sacrifice of God.

This book has two major drawbacks compared to the New Testament Very Short introduction. First, it doesn't provide citations very often, so you have to take the author's word for a lot of what he says. The New Testament VSI provided citations for every paragraph, and at times, every sentence.Secondly, the book's thesis seems a little iffy - it assumes that the gospels provide a factual eyewitness account of the events that all happened. This is obviously a nonissue if you're approaching this book as a Christian to learn more about your faith, but to someone looking for a more secular introduction to the historical Jesus, it's a lacking approach. I read the VSIs for the Old and New testament before this, and both took a more historical approach to the material than this book (-1 star).My two complaints aside, this is a very well written book. The author moves quickly, explains his points well, and provides a ton of historical background for everything described. If you're looking for everything right with this book, the 4 and 5 star reviews should sum it up nicely. I was tempted to give this book 3 stars, but couldn't do so, considering how well put together it is overall.

Smaller than I imagined.

Bauckham's book on the historical Jesus does not make many assertions which would be considered controversial which means it is actually a breath of fresh air in Jesus scholarship. What he does do is start with a very different assumption than much of the historical Jesus scholarship of the past century: the Gospels can be considered reliable eyewitness testimony into the life of the historical Jesus. The phrasing of that last statement is very important as Bauckham does not view the Gospels as history but as ancient biography (please read his "Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony" for further development of his argument for this method of reading.)What I very much appreciated was Bauckham's ability to trust the biblical witness and show how the teachings of that witness would have been received in the context in which spoken. This is a bit different from other scholars like Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan who relish the historical situation but have a massive distrust of the Gospel accounts. My theological training was in the latter, and it always rubbed me the wrong way since one could subject the Gospels to a subjective criteria to formulate one's own picture of Jesus--a picture that was not necessarily in accord with the ancient texts.Bauckham methodology allows the reader to understand the cultural dynamics AND be true to the witness of the Gospels. His short exegesis of the Parable of the Good Samaritan was particularly good. Further, Bauckham does a nice job of showing how Jesus embodied both God's radical love accompanied with judgement for those who rejected that love--a nice antidote to the "God is love and there should be no judgement" strain of Christianity pervading some Christian circles.

This book is written by one of the world's great New Testament scholars. The book is an attempt to give a "Reader's Digest" version of his book, "Jesus and the Eyewitnesses." a 700+ page book that turned the world of New Testament scholars to new research. While this book helped to give some additional insight into the more complicated book, unless you has a background in the area, one might find it a challenge.

For a Christian searching for a feeling you know Christ better than you did before reading this book, you may have found just the right vehicle. My Lutheran congregation selected it to be read and discussed in small groups during Lent. Overall, it was very well received and generated an abundance of spirited conversation. Physically, it is a little hard to read by aging eyes because of the small font selected and the fact the book itself is small enough to fit into one's coat pocket.I highly recommend it, especially given its historically factual presentation style and the author's surprisingly helpful editorial comments. A friendly caveat - you may want to keep a dictionary handy for the author is a Brit emeritus having taught at Cambridge whose extensive vocabulary is likely to challenge casual readers.

I have several books in this "Very Short Introduction" series, and this book is one of the best. Bauckham is nearly unparalleled as a scholar, and his treatment of Jesus is exceptional. He deals with the identity, purpose, and ministry of Jesus in an understandable way, and yet deals with the key topics of critics. His purpose is to "introduce" Jesus, and undoubtedly would have dug with a front-end-loader spiritually if he had the time or space. In this small book, he did a superb job. Highly recommended.

For anyone who wants to understand Jesus with as much weight and as little baggage as possible. A great first look at how the historical Jesus and the theological Jesus is understood. Comes across key Christian understandings honestly and openly.

The Oxford Very Short Introduction series really hits it out of the park with Richard Bauckham's slim book on Jesus. Whatever your religious affiliation, an obscure carpenter from Nazareth has, against all the norms of history, gone on to become the most influential person to have ever lived. Richard Bauckham is probably the most important scholar working today on the historical life of Jesus (his Jesus and the Eyewitnesses was a truly paradigm shifting book on the whole quest for the historical Jesus) and in this short book Bauckham synthesises all that down to a hundred pages. If you're interested in the question of who Jesus was, did he really exist and did he do what people said he did, this is an excellent introduction: rigorous, scholarly and beautifully written. A book almost worthy of its subject.

Nada que vem de Richard Bauckham é banal! Este pequeno livro traz uma rigorosa análise histórica. Estou aprendendo muito!

Showing Christ in His life time with in the original cultural setting is very well done. Thank you very much for making this book available for the world to see Christ as a person lived in ancient world, as part of real history.

Great book! Bauckham draws from his research and summarizes his approach to the gospels. It is well argued and worth reading for everyone interested in good information about Christianity.