Rating: 
Summary: Truely revealing about the historical basis of Christ's life
Review: Although at times this book appears to be targeted towards the seminary student, I found this book both intriguing and highly introspective for the common layman by providing a historical basis for the events and the works that occured in the life of Jesus. For those events and works in the life of Jesus that I once took for granted and assumed as fact, Meier has given me a historical basis for either supporting that belief or given me a basis to understand where there is a reasonable doubt and the reasoning for such. Meier has taken simple miracles and events and given me a much expanded conceptual outlook on each and how they related to Jesus ministry. I found my faith strengthened and not weakened by this book. Overall I rate this book a B+ for those hoping to obtain an expanded look into the life of Christ with the only reservation being the tendency at times to write on a "seminary student" level
Rating:
Summary: Three Books In One
Review: Every once in a while, public attention turns to the person of Jesus of Nazareth. A few years ago, it was the "Jesus Seminar." Lately, Dan Brown's book THE DA VINCI CODE sparked some interest, particularly among the conspiracy minded. The impression that many people have is that the conventional story about Jesus is wrong, and the more established churches don't want you to know it.
What many people haven't been told is that there is a large body of work in recent years which is supportive of the historical accuracy of the Gospels. One such work is John Meier's series A MARGINAL JEW. Meier is a Catholic priest who teaches at Notre Dame. In 1991 he came out with the first volume. It might not be the first book you want to read on the subject, but it's a work that anyone interested in the historical Jesus should tackle. Volume two and three are out, and a fourth and final volume is promised.
There are a few things to keep in mind when reading this series. First, Meier is writing a book on the historical Jesus. There is minimal theological reflection. Second, it is not an old-fashioned "life of Jesus" which presents a chronological discussion of Jesus' life (Meier probably doesn't have enough confidence in the historicity of the Gospels to write such a work). He arranges his material topically.
Volume 2 is a 1118 page monster which discusses three subjects: (1) John the Baptist; (2) Jesus' teaching on the Kingdom of God; and (3) Jesus' miracles. This book is well organized and Meier has an introduction which tells you where he is going. For example, he tells you flat out that he disagrees with Crossan and Smith's claim that Jesus was a magician. There are tons of footnotes, which are unfortunately placed at the end of each chapter. The footnotes/endnotes are informative and contain lots of interesting barbs directed at other scholars.
Meier's discussion of miracles is illustrative of his approach. Meier concludes that there is no reason to doubt that Jesus was perceived to be a miracle worker. In addition, through an exhaustive look at other miracle workers and magicians in antiquity, he shows that Jesus was not a magician in any traditional sense. At the same time, when and if any particular miracle occurred as written is an open question. Thus, he thinks it unlikely that the miracle in Mk. 3:1-6 (the man with the withered hand) occurred at all. Yet the curing of Bartimeaus (Mk. 10:46-52) is probably historical at its "core." Even here, he thinks Mark "worked up" the oral tradition. If your view of biblical inspiration swings toward the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, you might be disappointed.
Ben Witherington provides a review of Meier's project up to the second volume in THE JESUS QUEST. Witherington reaches more conservative conclusions while using a similar methodology.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Continuation
Review: Excellent continuation - my sole criticism is he seems intent on bringing in EVERY bit of scholarship (rather like German theology professors) that has ever been written, which can sometimes cause him to loose the flow of his argument, and diminish the force of his explication.
Rating:
Summary: Criticism about J. Meier's second Volume
Review: I Find it very interesting for people who is starting to learn about Scriptures and the historical basis of the bible. However, I am looking for criticism on the second volume of J. Meier's book: "A marginal Jew, rethinking the historical Jesus, mentor, message, and miracles." If somebody has something, please write me back.
Rating:
Summary: Accessible only to non-scholars who are serious readers
Review: If you're willing to concentrate, this book, like the preceding volume, is highly worthwhile even for non-Christian readers who want to be maximally informed on an important world figure. It can be tough going because Meier is not writing primarily for lay readers, but anyone with a healthy interest in logic, history and the critical tools of historians can enjoy it. On the other hand, Meier's erudition and dry humor augment and humanize his exhaustive scholarship. I've found Meier's criteria for historicity to be useful in gaining a deeper understanding and appreciation of scriptural material in general. I, too, and eagerly awaiting Volume 3.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Book in The Marginal Jew Series So Far
Review: In this second volume of John Meier's "A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus" series Meier gets down to the meat of his subject. Here Meier tells us about Jesus relationship to John the Baptist (Mentor), his enunciation of the "kingdom of God" (Message) and his great deeds (Miracles).The first two parts here I regard as solid stuff, building a picture of Jesus as an eschatologically minded individual following after John the Baptist who talks about God's domain on earth. This is a very (exclusively) Jewish Jesus. But then with the miracles Meier gets a bit silly. Apparently "what happened" with the miracles is, for Meier, an "unhistorical" question to ask; it is beyond history's bounds to investigate. Faith, of course, may have its opinions but that is not history and history is what Meier repeats that his study is about. I think Meier cops out here. Its precisely the historian's business to say what they think happened and why. Meier, in effect, has his faith considerations which he intends to keep but not talk about. Maybe he finds caution a virtue. Funny, though, that Meier can write several hundred pages about things he claims not to be able to expedite! This is one place in this book where I sense that Meier is being too uptight about what "history" is. Meier seems to me to be at his best when he's doing history rather than talking about it. However, that is but a little fault in a largely professional and standard volume on the historical Jesus.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Book in The Marginal Jew Series So Far
Review: In this second volume of John Meier's "A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus" series Meier gets down to the meat of his subject. Here Meier tells us about Jesus relationship to John the Baptist (Mentor), his enunciation of the "kingdom of God" (Message) and his great deeds (Miracles). The first two parts here I regard as solid stuff, building a picture of Jesus as an eschatologically minded individual following after John the Baptist who talks about God's domain on earth. This is a very (exclusively) Jewish Jesus. But then with the miracles Meier gets a bit silly. Apparently "what happened" with the miracles is, for Meier, an "unhistorical" question to ask; it is beyond history's bounds to investigate. Faith, of course, may have its opinions but that is not history and history is what Meier repeats that his study is about. I think Meier cops out here. Its precisely the historian's business to say what they think happened and why. Meier, in effect, has his faith considerations which he intends to keep but not talk about. Maybe he finds caution a virtue. Funny, though, that Meier can write several hundred pages about things he claims not to be able to expedite! This is one place in this book where I sense that Meier is being too uptight about what "history" is. Meier seems to me to be at his best when he's doing history rather than talking about it. However, that is but a little fault in a largely professional and standard volume on the historical Jesus.
Rating:
Summary: Profound scholarship made accessible
Review: Meier takes you as far as you can go into historical Jesus research without knowing Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic. The book summarizes and evaluates the current state of research using a well-defined methodology and comes to its own conclusions. It's not easy to read: footnotes are about equal to text, and the print is uncomfortably small, but if you really want to know as much as you can about Jesus, you need this book.
Rating:
Summary: Profound scholarship made accessible
Review: Meier takes you as far as you can go into historical Jesus research without knowing Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic. The book summarizes and evaluates the current state of research using a well-defined methodology and comes to its own conclusions. It's not easy to read: footnotes are about equal to text, and the print is uncomfortably small, but if you really want to know as much as you can about Jesus, you need this book.
Rating:
Summary: A New Elijah for the End of the World
Review: Of the three volumes of John Meier's study of the historical Jesus, this is probably the most difficult for the average reader. Much of it consists of complex discussions of the historicity of various bible passages, considered in extensive and exhaustive detail. It is not an easy read, but Meier's research is vital to understanding the real Jesus. As the subtitle indicates, Meier discusses John the Baptist, the basically eschatological message of the Kingdom of God, and the question of Miracles. On John the Baptist we read of how the embarassment of Jesus' baptism is effaced by the Gospel writers. We learn how Jesus accepted a baptism for the forgiveness of sins, which does not necessarily mean that he personally thought he was a sinner (many such confessions are of a communal nature). We learn about John's fundamental belief in the approaching end of the world. We learn how Mark muddled certain details of John the Baptist's execution, such as the identity of Herodias' first husband, and we find that many of the passages dealing with the Baptist likely go back to the historical Jesus. As for Jesus' message, Meier argues that Jesus did believe in a quickly approaching future kingdom. We can see this from his study of the Lord's Prayer, the Beatitudes, and such passages as Mark 6:10 and Matt 8:11-12. Meier also agrees that in some way Jesus viewed the Kingdom as already present, the first century Galilean mind not sharing the same interest in clarity and non-contradiction. Meier makes two vital points. First off, if John the Baptist believed in the near end of the world, and the early church believed in the near end, then it is likely that Jesus shared this incorrect belief. Second, if Jesus was an experienced teacher and if he "used the symbol of the Kingdom of God in a sense directly counter to the eschatological connotations with which it was often connected, he would have made his own usage clear--all the more so if he wanted to negate any or all eschatological expectations."
Meier then spends the second half of the book discussing Jesus' miracles. As a historian he claims that he cannot judge whether Jesus actually carried them out or not. This may seem like a cop-out, but it is not. Many past biographers of Jesus have wanted to split him from the miracles, but this assumes that Jesus was fundamentally rational and modern. Clearly this is not the case, and it also led to peculiar explanations of how people incorrectly thought a miracle took place. Instead, Meier notes we can examine which miracles go back to the historical Jesus and which do not. Certain kinds of miracles take place more than others, others show the redactional tendencies of the particular Evangelist. As such Meier concludes that Jesus was an exorcist, and was believed to carry out some remarkable healings. There are three accounts in the bible of Jesus raising someone from the dead. Here Meier believes there is a historical core to the events, though he is unsure whether they originally involved an actual resurrection. By contrast, nearly all of the nature miracles are creations of the Early Church. After one strips the allusions to the Eucharist and to Elijah in the Feeding of the 5,000 there may have been a remarkable, if not miraculous, meal in Jesus's life. But once one strips all the allusions and Johannine redaction in the turning of wine into water there is, as Meier clearly shows, nothing left. The walking on water, the stilling of the storm and the miraculous catch of fish are all reshifted resurrection appearances, while the cursing of the fig tree is clearly an exercise in Matthean theology.
What can we say about all this? First, this is a remarkably researched book. There are at least 380 pages of notes in this 1,049 page book. There are exhaustive discussions of linguistic questions, stylistic questions, and redactional ones. Meier is excellent on providing the wider historical context, such as the origins of the Kingdom of God, the Old Testament backgrounds to the walking on the water, and the Hebrew practice of exorcism. Meier is also acute on distinguishing between Jesus' miracles, (which emphasizes Jesus and God's free gift, are symbols of the coming end time, and [with one exception] do not hurt anyone) with contemporary magicians (who coerced deities for often petty purposes, provides no church and engaged in esoteric secrets and mysterious, often nonsensical spells). Many of his discussions, such as the raising of Lazarus, or the Miracle of Cana, are tour de forces. Naturally they are caveats with this book, as there must be in one so learned and complex. It may be true that the miracles of the Greek Apollonious and the Jewish Honi the Circle Drawer are not really contemporary with Jesus. But it is reasonable to assume that there were Greek and Jewish miraculous contemporaries, and had not Christians destroyed exactly this sort of literature once mastering the empire we would find more of them. Meier tends to concentrate on differences of technique in Jesus' healing and exorcisms, while forgetting that while we can trace the fact of exorcism and healing back to Jesus, we are less certain about his techniques. Nevertheless this is an important major work, especially so since it remembers that Jesus was a very different person from the man 21st century Christians of all denominations would like him to be.
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