Rating: 
Summary: Why Was Jesus Crucified?
Review: It has been some ten or twelve years since Dr Paula Fredriksen introduced her earlier book, _From Jesus to Christ_. That earlier book was a "discussion of the development of the New Testament's theological images of Jesus." This current book intends to be an attempt to describe the historical Jesus and explain why theological images developed about him.
Fredriksen recognizes that her book is one of many in more than one quest for the historical Jesus. The first quest culminated with Albert Schweitzer's work. The second quest was typified by Rudolf Bultmann. Fredriksen sees herself in the same quest as Crossan, Vermes, Sanders, Wright, etc.
Fredriksen believes that she has found a "polestar" by which we might guide our way through the myriad writers and their discussions. That polestar may be found in the fact that not only was Jesus executed, but he was crucified.
Since this is not a mystery novel, Fredriksen's conclusion may be revealed. On one hand, Pilate could have easily had Jesus executed at the behest of the chief priests. On the other hand, had Jesus posed any political threat, Pilate would have crucified the followers of Jesus as well. Pilate crucified Jesus because Jesus had a message of the imminent coming of the Kingdom of God which excited the crowds at a Passover celebration in Jerusalem. With the death of Jesus, the excitement of the crowds abated.
If a reader prefers s/he may read just the first and last chapters of Fredriksen's book. Fredriksen includes a chapter on what was most distinctive for a Jew during the time of Jesus. A long chapter follows in which Fredriksen traces trajectories of the meaning of messiahship back through the NT writers to Jesus. And yet another chapter describes the contexts of Galilee and Judea in which Jesus lived and operated. The adage that getting there is half the fun applies to this book.
A brief response to Fredriksen's proposal is in order. That Jesus was executed in order to avoid a massive riot is very plausible except for two things. First of all, it denies the testimony of the NT writers. And second of all, it does not explain the anti-Jewish polemic found in early Christian writings.
Rating:
Summary: well researched, but not totally beleivable.
Review: let me say that this book is overall good and well researched, but i have a strong disagreement with it thesis. she does a good representation of jesus putting him in the first century where he belongs.the fact is, that jesus lived in a world were most of the people belived the end was near and she brings it across very well.My probelm with the book is that she says that although the romans saw jesus as harmless they excecuted him as a warning to all present at the passover feast. while i agree that crucfixion was a method of intimidation, i think that jesus death had more behind it than that.jesus death itself is a testimony of how he was regarded as a political threat by pilate. jesus and his diciples were constantly on the run and never stayed in the same place.why is this?because the power (roman and jewish)saw him as political threat.and after his death his diciples were on the run for a little while as the gospels themselves state,and the diciples went sort of underground , but later came out in full view.it would have been hard in my view to think of someone such as jesus having such popularity if he had not been viewed as the jewish hope. politics and religion went hand in hand in jesus day, and any movement that would have spritual, would have been political as well. remember jesus told his diciples to carry swords before they went into jerulsalem, and peter had one at jesus arrest as well. but this being said,it still a good book and i highly recomend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but No new ground
Review: Ms. Fredriksen is a scholar who has concentrated on the Origins of Christianity. She has written several books on this theme, the most recent being the excellent "FROM JESUS TO CHRIST" in which she explored the evolution from a humble Jewish teacher to the always existing creator of the Universe.In this work she attempts to (again) study both the Man and the times in which he lived. In addition to the main question - Why was Jesus killed? - she is interested in what Jesus taught, what his followers believed at the time and how those beliefs became transformed into a theology about Jesus instead of his teachings. Surely his disciples did not think that he was the son of Jehova and now reigns with two other "parts" of a divine Trinity. That theology was not developed until a much later era. Frideriksen is not afraid to make pronouncements and conclusions that are at variance with other scholars. She is always careful to support her thesis with solid sociological, historical and/or archieological evidence. In this case she concludes that Jesus - and no one else - was killed because he was viewed as a threat to Roman rule in that volatile area. This has momentous portent since it effectively eliminates "Jews" as the murderous agent and denies that Jesus was crucified for the sins of the world. The biggest problem is the seeming redundancy of much of the book with earlier works. Perhaps this is a natural result of devoting ones work to a narrow historical scope.
Rating: 
Summary: A fresh vision of Jesus, his life and times.
Review: Paula Fredrcksen's Jesus Of Nazareth (44675-3, $26.00) provides a portrait of Jesus which departs from the usual biographical sketch, drawing on narratives of all four evangelists as well as early rabbinic and other sources to create a fresh vision of Jesus and his life. The questions about his death prove particularly revealing and thought-provoking, here.
Rating:
Summary: an excellent, if slightly flawed, scholarly work
Review: Paula Fredriksen succeeds where so many of her colleagues fail: recapturing the Jewishness of Jesus. She accomplishes this feat simply by placing him within his Jewish context, accompanied of course by very in-depth and rigorous research into the historical settings of Judea and Galilee, collectively known to us as Palestine. She quite correctly criticizes scholars such as Crossan who Hellenize Jesus by making him into some sort of wandering Cynic sage, although at other times she is quite dismissive of arguments contrary to her own. However, given the scope of the subject and the limited time involved, perhaps we may forgive such a tendency as perhaps inevitable. ALthough I agreed with her main thesis, she immerses herself in overly rank speculation towards the end. I personally do not feel it necessary to posit John's itenerary rather than the Synoptics to explain why Jesus' followers were not crucified. Also, although all scholars do this, I seriously question the tendency to speculate far beyond what is necessary to explain the limited facts we have. Of course, some speculation (one might even say "much") is inevitable given the subject matter and the questionable nature of many of the facts involved, but to seek to explain every bit of questionable evidence just to fully flesh out one's theory seems wholly unnecessary to me. Either way, though, if you are interested in the actual Jesus of history, then you would be hard pressed to do better than this book.
Rating:
Summary: an excellent, if slightly flawed, scholarly work
Review: Paula Fredriksen succeeds where so many of her colleagues fail: recapturing the Jewishness of Jesus. She accomplishes this feat simply by placing him within his Jewish context, accompanied of course by very in-depth and rigorous research into the historical settings of Judea and Galilee, collectively known to us as Palestine. She quite correctly criticizes scholars such as Crossan who Hellenize Jesus by making him into some sort of wandering Cynic sage, although at other times she is quite dismissive of arguments contrary to her own. However, given the scope of the subject and the limited time involved, perhaps we may forgive such a tendency as perhaps inevitable. ALthough I agreed with her main thesis, she immerses herself in overly rank speculation towards the end. I personally do not feel it necessary to posit John's itenerary rather than the Synoptics to explain why Jesus' followers were not crucified. Also, although all scholars do this, I seriously question the tendency to speculate far beyond what is necessary to explain the limited facts we have. Of course, some speculation (one might even say "much") is inevitable given the subject matter and the questionable nature of many of the facts involved, but to seek to explain every bit of questionable evidence just to fully flesh out one's theory seems wholly unnecessary to me. Either way, though, if you are interested in the actual Jesus of history, then you would be hard pressed to do better than this book.
Rating:
Summary: Thought Provoking
Review: Paula Fredriksen's "Jesus of Nazareth" makes the reader pause to consider the reasoning behind Jesus' crucifixion. Christians believe Jesus had to die to serve as the "ultimate sacrifice", if you will, for the sins of mankind. However, Ms. Fredriksen causes the reader to ponder why crucifixion had to be the method of death, and more importantly, if Jesus was such a "threat" to Roman rule over Judea why weren't his disciples and follwers also executed. The book also examines when and how He came to be recognized as and called Jesus the Christ. This is not a book to be selected for "leisurely reading". It is definitely for someone who studies Christianity and realizes the importance of examining the history surrounding events when attemting to gain better insight into why certain events occurred in the manner in which they did.
Rating:
Summary: Thought Provoking
Review: Paula Fredriksen's "Jesus of Nazareth" makes the reader pause to consider the reasoning behind Jesus' crucifixion. Christians believe Jesus had to die to serve as the "ultimate sacrifice", if you will, for the sins of mankind. However, Ms. Fredriksen causes the reader to ponder why crucifixion had to be the method of death, and more importantly, if Jesus was such a "threat" to Roman rule over Judea why weren't his disciples and follwers also executed. The book also examines when and how He came to be recognized as and called Jesus the Christ. This is not a book to be selected for "leisurely reading". It is definitely for someone who studies Christianity and realizes the importance of examining the history surrounding events when attemting to gain better insight into why certain events occurred in the manner in which they did.
Rating:
Summary: This is a good book, but isn't anyone else a bit skeptical??
Review: Paula Fredriksen's argument about the reason for Jesus' death by crucifixion are very convincing. She provides good evidence for her arguments based on the Gospel and an understanding of the historical and religious context in which Jesus would have lived. However, even with her basis of Gospel evidence and historical record, Fredriksen must still make certain assumptions and inferences in order to make her arguments.
The first claim Fredriksen makes is that Jesus preached in Jerusalem many times before his crucifixion. This is confirmed by John's gospel, and also just seems likely that Jesus, as a devout Jew, would have made the trip to Jerusalem many times for the various festivals. It is likely that she is correct on this point, but she has little evidence other than John, which she prefers precisely for this reason.
Another point Fredriksen makes is that Jesus was probably proclaimed as the Messiah by the crowds gathered in Jerusalem for Passover, and not his close followers who had been with him for a few years. It is more difficult to argue against this claim, because it seems that Jesus would have been killed at the very beginning of his ministry if his followers had immediately proclaimed him to be the Messiah.
That Jesus was arrested by the priests also seems very likely. They would be the ones to lose power if there was a riot or insurrection surrounding Jesus. However, Fredriksen argues that Jesus was probably not interrogated by the chief priests or Pilate. She believes that it would have been unnecessary for them to do so, and unlikely because they would not have wanted to do so at night on a festival (or the day before it), as they would already have been very busy and tired. This seems to be a weak argument. Perhaps Jesus would not have been interrogated by these high authorities, but it seems that the priests and Pilate may wanted to have maintained some semblance of lawfulness before killing Jesus. If he was simply killed without a mock trial or interrogation of some kind, people may have been stirred to insurrection based solely on the injustice of Jesus' death.
Fredriksen attributes the rise of Christianity after Jesus' death to the idea that the disciples were still working within an apocalyptic paradigm. They believed that Jesus had promised to come again, and that it would be at that time that End of Days would come. As well as a continued belief in Jesus by his disciples, the movement grew to include many Gentiles, who were excused from following most of the laws of Judaism in order to become Christians.
At the end of the book, Fredriksen claims that the pictures of Jesus presented in the Gospels and Paul's writings do not so much describe Jesus as the effect he had on the people to whom he preached. She believes that there is little of historical representation other than a few facts about Jesus' death. Fredriksen therefore attempts to recreate the life of Jesus based on political and religious history of the time, but she must always make assumptions. Her arguments are ineffective if Jesus had not indeed preached in Jerusalem many times; if the crowds did not first proclaim Jesus to be the Messiah and then clamor for his death. Her argument it logical, but it remains a theory.
Rating:
Summary: This is a good book, but isn't anyone else a bit skeptical??
Review: Paula Fredriksen's argument about the reason for Jesus' death by crucifixion are very convincing. She provides good evidence for her arguments based on the Gospel and an understanding of the historical and religious context in which Jesus would have lived. However, even with her basis of Gospel evidence and historical record, Fredriksen must still make certain assumptions and inferences in order to make her arguments.
The first claim Fredriksen makes is that Jesus preached in Jerusalem many times before his crucifixion. This is confirmed by John's gospel, and also just seems likely that Jesus, as a devout Jew, would have made the trip to Jerusalem many times for the various festivals. It is likely that she is correct on this point, but she has little evidence other than John, which she prefers precisely for this reason.
Another point Fredriksen makes is that Jesus was probably proclaimed as the Messiah by the crowds gathered in Jerusalem for Passover, and not his close followers who had been with him for a few years. It is more difficult to argue against this claim, because it seems that Jesus would have been killed at the very beginning of his ministry if his followers had immediately proclaimed him to be the Messiah.
That Jesus was arrested by the priests also seems very likely. They would be the ones to lose power if there was a riot or insurrection surrounding Jesus. However, Fredriksen argues that Jesus was probably not interrogated by the chief priests or Pilate. She believes that it would have been unnecessary for them to do so, and unlikely because they would not have wanted to do so at night on a festival (or the day before it), as they would already have been very busy and tired. This seems to be a weak argument. Perhaps Jesus would not have been interrogated by these high authorities, but it seems that the priests and Pilate may wanted to have maintained some semblance of lawfulness before killing Jesus. If he was simply killed without a mock trial or interrogation of some kind, people may have been stirred to insurrection based solely on the injustice of Jesus' death.
Fredriksen attributes the rise of Christianity after Jesus' death to the idea that the disciples were still working within an apocalyptic paradigm. They believed that Jesus had promised to come again, and that it would be at that time that End of Days would come. As well as a continued belief in Jesus by his disciples, the movement grew to include many Gentiles, who were excused from following most of the laws of Judaism in order to become Christians.
At the end of the book, Fredriksen claims that the pictures of Jesus presented in the Gospels and Paul's writings do not so much describe Jesus as the effect he had on the people to whom he preached. She believes that there is little of historical representation other than a few facts about Jesus' death. Fredriksen therefore attempts to recreate the life of Jesus based on political and religious history of the time, but she must always make assumptions. Her arguments are ineffective if Jesus had not indeed preached in Jerusalem many times; if the crowds did not first proclaim Jesus to be the Messiah and then clamor for his death. Her argument it logical, but it remains a theory.
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