The Social World of Jesus and the Gospels

by Bruce J. Malina

Book Overview

In order to interpret historical writings, the reader must not employ their modern understanding of the world, but must strive to grasp the mindset of the original audience. To assist the twentieth-century New Testament reader in understanding the literal meaning of the New Testament is the goal of this collection of essays. The Social World of Jesus and the Gospels provides the reader with a set of possible scenarios for reading the New Testament:...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0415146283
• ISBN13: 9780415146289
• Release Date: November 1996
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.09 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A Great, if Slightly Uneven Collection of Essays

This collection of Professor Malina's various essays on the social world in which Christianity came into being is superb. The other reviewer's comment the collection seemed uneven is warranted, but it should not bring the rating down to only three stars. I believe this is easily five-star book, but a few weaker essays bring it down to four. Malina's meticulous work on investigating the social world of first century is highly illuminating. N.T. Wright and John P. Meier both rightly criticize excessive use of sociological models, but as can be seen in this collection of essays, they have in an important value in scholarly study of the New Testament and related literature. It is also important to know, especially for those reading the various presentations of the Historical Jesus, Crossan, Meier, and Wright all use Malina's essays in their works. Here are the various essays , in order, and my capsule review of them: Part I: The Question of Reading 1 Reading Theory Perspectives: A great introduction to this collection. It starts out with a little analogy of two American's in Israel coming to a sign in Hebrew. And then another block quote in Greek. To the average person, these letters have no value, they are just squiggles on paper. But to the ancient person who knew Greek and/or Hebrew they had immense value, just as the words in English I am typing right now. Malina goes on to show (much like Crossan in Part I of the "The Historical Jesus") is that the world of the Gospels (and Epistles) is vastly different than our own. Not only were they written in an ancient language, the various authors and redactors lived in a totally different social context. Part II: The Question of First-Century Mediterranean Persons 2 First-Century Mediterranean Persons: A Preliminary View This essay tries to reconstruct how the average Mediterranean person viewed the world. It also attempts to show how families were viewed, economics, etc. This strikes me as similar to what Crossan does in "The Historical Jesus". Rather than reconstruct the First-Century world solely from contemporary Jewish writings (for the study of the NT) it is more focused on the general Mediterranean world. While I find this important, the portrait presented is too broad. I think John Meier makes this case forcefully in Volume III of the "A Marginal Jew" series. Nevertheless, I think this essay, read in concert with other studies (such as Wright, Borg, Crossan, Meier, Vermes, etc) is important. 3 The Mediterranean Self: A Social-Psychological Model This is probably the most speculative of the essays. Meier in Volume II of his work, cautions against excessive use of modern sociological and psychological models on reconstructing the world of Jesus and the Gospels, and I think Malina places a little too much trust in them this time around. I still found it fascinating and when I approach the text of the New Testament I will never read it the same. 4 Mary and Jesus: Mediterranean Mother and