The Blackwell Companion to Jesus E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: Blackwell Companions to Religion
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 1292

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

The Blackwell Companion to Jesus features a comprehensive collection of essays that explore the diverse ways in which Jesus has been imagined or portrayed from the beginnings of Christianity to the present day.

• Considers portrayals of Jesus in the New Testament and beyond, Jesus in non-Christian religions, philosophical and historic perspectives, modern manifestations, and representations in Christian art, novels, and film
• Comprehensive scope of coverage distinguishes this work from similar offerings
• Examines both Christian and non-Christian perspectives on Jesus, including those from ethnic and sexual groups, as well as from other faiths
• Offers rich and rewarding insights which will shape our understanding of this influential figure and his enduring legacy

Leseprobe

Contents

List of Figures

Notes on Contributors

Acknowledgments

Images of Jesus: An Overview

Delbert Burkett

Jesus in the New Testament

Jesus Beyond the New Testament

Jesus in World Religions

Philosophical and Historical Perspectives on Jesus

Modern Manifestations of Jesus

Jesus in Art, Fiction, and Film

Reflections on Jesus

PART I Jesus in the New Testament

CHAPTER 1 Mark’s Portrait of Jesus

William R. Telford

Some Preliminary Questions and Answers

Historical Perspective: Forms, Sources, and Redaction

Literary Perspective: Plot, Settings, and Characterization

Theological Perspective: Christology and Soteriology

Conclusion

Notes

References

CHAPTER 2 Who Do You Say That I Am? A Matthean Response

Elaine M. Wainwright

Titles Given to Jesus

Narrative Portrayals of Jesus

Expanding the Portrait

Conclusion

Notes

References

CHAPTER 3 Jesus in Luke-Acts

Delbert Burkett

Jesus’ Birth and Childhood

Jesus’ Public Ministry

Jesus’ Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension

Jesus’ Reign in Heaven

Jesus’ Reign on Earth

Notes

References

CHAPTER 4 John’s Portrait of Jesus

Mary L. Coloe

Jesus the Word/Wisdom of God

Jesus the Tabernacle/Temple

Jesus the Son

Conclusion

Notes

References

CHAPTER 5 Jesus in Q

Christopher Tuckett

Implicit Christology in Q

Christological Categories in Q

References

Further Reading

CHAPTER 6 Paul, Jesus, and Christ

Edward Adams

Paul and the Earthly Jesus

Paul’s Main Christological Titles

Paul’s Adam Christology

Pre-existence and Divinity

The Christological Teaching of the Disputed Letters

Conclusion

Notes

References

CHAPTER 7 Jesus in the General Epistles

Harold W. Attridge

The Epistle of James

The Johannine Epistles

1 Peter

2 Peter and Jude

The Epistle to the Hebrews

References

CHAPTER 8 Jesus in the Apocalypse

Ian Boxall

The Son of Man

The Lamb

The Woman’s Male Child

The Divine Warrior

Jesus and God

References

Further Reading

CHAPTER 9 Constructing Images of Jesus from the Hebrew Bible

Warren Carter

Introduction

Reading the Hebrew Bible through Jesus Glasses

Conclusion

References

PART II Jesus Beyond the New Testament

CHAPTER 10 Ancient Apocryphal Portraits of Jesus

J. K. Elliott

Birth and Infancy Narratives

Jesus’ Public Ministry

Jesus’ Descent into Hades

The Apocryphal Acts

Dialogues with the Risen Christ

Appendix

Notes

References

CHAPTER 11 Gnostic Portraits of Jesus

Majella Franzmann

Gnostic Portraits of Jesus

The Use of Portraits

Conclusion

References

Further Reading

CHAPTER 12 The Christ of the Creeds

Khaled Anatolios

The Council of Nicea (325)

The Council of Constantinople (381)

The Council of Ephesus (431)

The Council of Chalcedon (451)

The Second Council of Constantinople (553)

The Third Council of Constantinople (680)

The Second Council of Nicea (787)

Conclusion

References

Further Reading

CHAPTER 13 Jesus in Atonement Theories

Stephen Finlan

Atonement in the Old Testament

Atonement in the New Testament

Atonement Theories in Christian History

Critics of Penal Substitution

Conclusion

Note

References

PART III Jesus in World Religions

CHAPTER 14 Jewish Perspectives on Jesus

Michael J. Cook

Jesus’ Ministry

From Jesus’ Death through 200 CE

Early Rabbinic Literature (Third through Sixth Centuries CE)

The Middle Ages

The Modern Era – Jewish Scholars

The Modern Era – The Jewish Populace at Large

Resulting Perspectives – Current and Future?

Notes

References

CHAPTER 15 Islamic Perspectives on Jesus

Reem A. Meshal and M. Reza Pirbhai

Historical Contexts

Sources

Jesus in Islamic Theology (Kalam/Ta’wil) and Mysticism (Tasawwuf)

Conclusion

Notes

References

CHAPTER 16 Hindu Perspectives on Jesus

Sandy Bharat

Jesus as an Avatar

Other Hindu Appropriations of Jesus

Jesus in India

Hindu – Christian Encounter

Conclusion

References

CHAPTER 17 Buddhist Perspectives on Jesus

Peggy Morgan

Buddhist Bases for Inclusivism and Pluralism

Images of Jesus from Buddhist Perspectives

Parallels between Jesus and Gautama

Conclusion

References

PART IV Philosophical and Historical Perspectives on Jesus

CHAPTER 18 Skeptical Perspectives on Jesus’ Resurrection

Michael Martin

Background of the Question

The Improbability of the Resurrection

Swinburne’s Argument Expanded

Davis’s Apology

Summary of the Case Against the Resurrection

References

CHAPTER 19 The Quest for the Historical Jesus: An Overview

David B. Gowler

Sources for the Quest

Reasons for the Quest

Brief History of the Quest

The Quest for Reliable Criteria of Authenticity

Recent Portraits of Jesus

Conclusion

Notes

References

CHAPTER 20 The “Jesus” of the Jesus Seminar

Robert J. Miller

The Seminar’s Conclusions about the Sayings

The Gospel of Thomas

Some Implications of the Black Material

Problems in Understanding the Seminar’s Work

So-called “Rules of Evidence”

Critics and Criticisms

The Seminar and the Deeds of Jesus

The Seminar’s “Jesus”

Notes

References

CHAPTER 21 The Quest for the Historical Jesus: An Appraisal

Helen K. Bond

Quest or Quests? Messiness and Disorder

Distinguishing Features of Recent Jesus Research

Disputed Areas

Critique of the Quest

Future Inquiries

References

PART V Modern Manifestations of Jesus

CHAPTER 22 Modern Western Christology

John P. Galvin

Nineteenth-Century Protestant Christology

Nineteenth-Century Catholic Christology

Twentieth-Century Protestant Christology

Twentieth-Century Catholic Christology

Conclusion

Notes

References

CHAPTER 23 Christology in Africa, Asia, and Latin America

Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen

Interpretations of Christ from Latin America

Interpretations of Christ from Asia

African Christologies

Notes

References

CHAPTER 24 Jesus in American Culture

Paul Harvey

Jesus in Early American History

Jesus of the Awakening

The Evangelical Jesus Rises

What Color Was Jesus? Christ in the South

Jesus Christ Superstar

References

CHAPTER 25 The Black Christ

Kelly Brown Douglas with Delbert Burkett

Roots of the Black Christ

The Black Christ in the Black Struggle

Theological Development of the Black Christ

A Womanist Approach to the Black Christ

Conclusion

References

CHAPTER 26 Feminist Christologies

Lisa Isherwood

Post-Christian Feminist Perspectives

Feminist Liberation Christologies

Feminist Biblical Christologies

Feminist Christologies of Embodiment

Ecofeminist Christologies

Conclusion

References

CHAPTER 27 The “Gay” Jesus

Theodore W. Jennings Jr.

Intimations

The Gospel of John

Religious Perspectives

The Arts

Theology

References

CHAPTER 28 Modern Mystifications of Jesus

Per Beskow

Recent Discoveries

Mystifications

References

Further Reading

PART VI Jesus in Art, Fiction, and Film

CHAPTER 29 Jesus in Christian Art

Robin M. Jensen

Earliest Depictions of Jesus

Jesus as Healer and Wonder-Worker

Episodes from Christ’s Life in Visual Art

Dogmatic Themes

The Image and Likeness: Jesus’ Portrait in Christian Art

Notes

References

CHAPTER 30 Jesus Novels: Solving Problems with Fiction

Zeba A. Crook

Birth and Youth

Mission

Miracles

Betrayal

Trial

Post-Death Appearances

Conclusion

References

CHAPTER 31 Jesus in Film

Adele Reinhartz

Historical Accuracy versus Invention

The Jesus of Jesus Movies

Jesus as Savior

Conclusion

Notes

References

Index

Blackwell Companions to Religion

The Blackwell Companions to Religion series presents a collection of the most recent scholarship and knowledge about world religions. Each volume draws together newly commissioned essays by distinguished authors in the field, and is presented in a style which is accessible to undergraduate students, as well as scholars and the interested general reader. These volumes approach the subject in a creative and forward-thinking style, providing a forum in which leading scholars in the field can make their views and research available to a wider audience.

PublishedThe Blackwell Companion to JudaismEdited by Jacob Neusner and Alan J. Avery-PeckThe Blackwell Companion to Sociology of ReligionEdited by Richard K. FennThe Blackwell Companion to the Hebrew BibleEdited by Leo G. PerdueThe Blackwell Companion to Postmodern TheologyEdited by Graham WardThe Blackwell Companion to HinduismEdited by Gavin FloodThe Blackwell Companion to Political TheologyEdited by Peter Scott and William T. CavanaughThe Blackwell Companion to ProtestantismEdited by Alister E. McGrath and Darren C. MarksThe Blackwell Companion to Modern TheologyEdited by Gareth JonesThe Blackwell Companion to Christian EthicsEdited by Stanley Hauerwas and Samuel WellsThe Blackwell Companion to Religious EthicsEdited by William SchweikerThe Blackwell Companion to Christian SpiritualityEdited by Arthur HolderThe Blackwell Companion to the Study of ReligionEdited by Robert A. SegalThe Blackwell Companion to the Qur’ānEdited by Andrew RippinThe Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Islamic ThoughtEdited by Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi’The Blackwell Companion to the Bible and CultureEdited by John F. A. SawyerThe Blackwell Companion to CatholicismEdited by James J. Buckley, Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt, and Trent PomplunThe Blackwell Companion to Eastern ChristianityEdited by Ken ParrThe Blackwell Companion to the TheologiansEdited by Ian S. MarkhamThe Blackwell Companion to the Bible in English LiteratureEdited by Rebecca Lemon, Emma Mason, John Roberts, and Christopher RowlandThe Blackwell Companion to the New TestamentEdited by David E. AuneThe Blackwell Companion to Nineteenth Century TheologyEdited by David FergussonThe Blackwell Companion to Religion in AmericaEdited by Philip GoffThe Blackwell Companion to JesusEdited by Delbert BurkettForthcomingThe Blackwell Companion to Religion and ViolenceEdited by Andrew MurphyThe Blackwell Companion to African ReligionsEdited by Elias BongmbaThe Blackwell Companion to Christian MysticismEdited by Julia A. LammThe Blackwell Companion to Pastoral TheologyEdited by Bonnie Miller McLemoreThe Blackwell Companion to Chinese ReligionsEdited by Randall NadeauThe Blackwell Companion to BuddhismEdited by Mario Poceski and Michael Zimmermann

This edition first published 2011© 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s publishing program has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell.

Registered OfficeJohn Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom

Editorial Offices350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UKThe Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK

For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell.

The right of Delbert Burkett to be identified as the author of the editorial material in this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The Blackwell companion to Jesus/edited by Delbert Burkett.p. cm. – (Blackwell companions to religion)Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-1-4051-9362-7 (hardcover: alk. paper)1. Jesus Christ–History of doctrines. I. Burkett, Delbert Royce. II. Title: Companion to Jesus. BT198.B543 2011 232'.809–dc22 2010016187

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Figures

1Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Catacomb of Peter and Marcellinus.2“Christ Healing the Sick,” Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, ca. 1647. British Museum, London.3Jesus as healer and wonder-worker. Sarcophagus of Marcia Romania Celsa, Musée départemental Arles antique.4Madonna and Child, mid sixth century. From the Basilica of Sant’ Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna.5Baptism of Christ, late fifth or early sixth century. From the Arian Baptistery, Ravenna6Transfiguration. Portable mosaic from Constantinople, ca. 1200 CE. Louvre Museum, Paris.7Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, last quarter of the fourth century. Sarcophagus from the Vatican Museo Pio Cristiano.8Last Supper, early sixth century. From the Basilica of Sant’ Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna.9Arrest and trial of Jesus, ca. 350. Sarcophagus from the Vatican Museo Pio Cristiano.10Jesus crucified, ca. 432. Panel from the wooden doors of Santa Sabina, Rome.11Christ resurrected, Fra Angelico, 1438. Museo di San Marco, Florence.12Trinity creating Adam and Eve, mid-fourth century. Sarcophagus from the Vatican Museo Pio Cristiano.13Christ giving the new law to Peter and Paul, ca. 350. Mosaic from an apse of Santa Constanza (Mausoleum of Constantina), Rome.14Last Judgment, ca. 1230. Tympanum of west portal, Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris.15Portrait of Christ, mid-sixth century. From the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna.

Notes on Contributors

Edward Adams is Senior Lecturer in New Testament Studies in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, King’s College London. He is the author of Constructing the World: A Study in Paul’s Cosmological Language (T&T Clark 2000) and The Stars Will Fall from Heaven: Cosmic Catastrophe in the New Testament and its World (T&T Clark 2007).

Khaled Anatolios is Associate Professor of Historical Theology at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. He is the author of Athanasius: The Coherence of his Thought (Routledge 1998, 2004) and the Athanasius volume of the Routledge Early Church Fathers series, as well as many articles on topics in early Christian, systematic, and Eastern Christian theology.

Harold W. Attridge, Dean and Professor of New Testament at Yale Divinity School, has made scholarly contributions to New Testament exegesis, the study of Hellenistic Judaism, and the history of early Christianity. His publications include Hebrews: A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (Fortress 1989), and Nag Hammadi Codex I: The Jung Codex (Brill 1985), as well as numerous book chapters and scholarly articles.

Per Beskow is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Lund, Sweden. His main field is patristic studies. His works include Rex Gloriae: The Kingship of Christ in the Early Church (Almquist & Wiksell 1962). Strange Tales about Jesus (Fortress 1982/1983) is an example of his interest in literary forgeries.

Sandy Bharat is former director, now trustee, of the International Interfaith Centre at Oxford. Her publications include Christ Across the Ganges: Hindu Responses to Jesus (O-Books 2007). She has an honours degree in theology from the University of Exeter, has edited for the Encyclopaedia of Hinduism project (India Heritage Research Foundation and University of South Carolina), and manages two websites, Interfaith Information Online (www.interfaithinfo.net) and Spirituality for Daily Life (www.spiritualityfordailylife.com).

Helen K. Bond is Senior Lecturer in New Testament at the University of Edinburgh. Interested in the historical, political, and social background to the gospels and in the life (and execution) of Jesus, she has published Pontius Pilate in History and Interpretation (Cambridge 1998) and Caiaphas: Friend of Rome and Judge of Jesus? (Westminster John Knox 2004). She is currently writing a book on the historical Jesus for Continuum’s Guide for the Perplexed series.

Ian Boxall is Senior Tutor and Tutorial Fellow in New Testament at St Stephen’s House, University of Oxford. He is the author of Revelation: Vision and Insight (SPCK 2002) and The Revelation of St John in the Black’s New Testament Commentary series (Hendrickson, Continuum 2006).

Delbert Burkett, Professor of Religious Studies at Louisiana State University, has written on the gospels and teaches a course on images of Jesus in history and tradition. Two volumes of his series Rethinking the Gospel Sources have appeared: From Proto-Mark to Mark (T&T Clark 2004) and The Unity and Plurality of Q (Society of Biblical Literature 2009). Other books include An Introduction to the New Testament and the Origins of Christianity (Cambridge 2002), and The Son of Man Debate (Cambridge 1999).

Warren Carter is Professor of New Testament at Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University. His scholarship has focused on the gospels and on the diverse ways in which early Jesus-believers negotiated the Roman imperial world. He has written numerous articles and books, including John and Empire: Initial Explorations (T&T Clark/Continuum 2008); John: Storyteller, Interpreter, Evangelist (Hendrickson 2006); and Matthew: Storyteller, Interpreter, Evangelist (rev. edn, Hendrickson 2004).

Mary L. Coloe PBVM is Associate Professor of the School of Theology at Australian Catholic University in Melbourne, Australia. She is the author of numerous articles and several books, including Dwelling in the Household of God: Johannine Ecclesiology and Spirituality (Liturgical 2007) and God Dwells with Us: Temple Symbolism in the Fourth Gospel (Liturgical 2001).

Michael J. Cook is Sol and Arlene Bronstein Professor of Judeo-Christian Studies at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati campus. He is the only rabbi in America with a Full Professorial Chair in New Testament, and more than one thousand rabbis have been graduated from his New Testament courses. His numerous publications include Modern Jews Engage the New Testament: Enhancing Jewish Well-Being in a Christian Environment (Jewish Lights 2008).

Zeba A. Crook is Associate Professor of Religion at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. He is the author and editor of several books and is currently writing a book on representations of Jesus in modern fiction. On this topic, he has made several public lectures and published one article: “Fictionalising Jesus: Story and History in Two Recent Jesus Novels,” Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 5 (2007): 33–55.

Kelly Brown Douglas is the Chair of Philosophy and Religion at Goucher College, where she holds the Elizabeth Conolly Todd Distinguished Professorship. She was the first black woman to be ordained as an Episcopal priest in the Southern Ohio Diocese. A leading voice in the development of a womanist theology, she has published numerous essays and articles and several books, including The Black Christ (Orbis 1994).

J. K. Elliott is Professor (Emeritus) of New Testament Textual Criticism at the University of Leeds, England. He is the editor of The Apocryphal New Testament (Clarendon 1993) and The Apocryphal Jesus (Oxford 1996). He has also written many books and articles on Greek New Testament manuscripts and on textual criticism. He is secretary of the International Greek New Testament Project, having previously been the executive editor of the Project’s two-volume critical apparatus to Luke’s Gospel.

Stephen Finlan is adjunct faculty at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island, and has taught at the University of Durham, where he obtained his PhD. He is the author of The Background and Content of Paul’s Cultic Atonement Metaphors (SBL/Brill 2004); Problems with Atonement: The Origins of, and Controversy about, the Atonement Doctrine (Liturgical 2005); Options on Atonement in Christian Thought (Liturgical 2007); and The Apostle Paul and the Pauline Tradition (Liturgical 2008).

Majella Franzmann is Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Humanities and Professor of Religion at the University of Otago, New Zealand. She has published Jesus in the Nag Hammadi Writings (T&T Clark 1996), Jesus in the Manichaean Writings (T&T Clark 2003), and translations and analysis of the fourth-century Manichaean Syriac remains from ancient Roman Kellis in Egypt. More recently she has been working on the fourteenth-century Christian Syro-Turkic tombstones in Quanzhou, China.

John P. Galvin, Professor of Systematic Theology at The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, received his doctorate in theology from the University of Innsbruck, Austria, in 1970. He is the co-editor, with Francis Schüssler Fiorenza, of Systematic Theology: Roman Catholic Perspectives (2 vols., Fortress 1991), to which he also contributed the chapter on Jesus Christ.

David B. Gowler is the Dr Lovick Pierce and Bishop George F. Pierce Professor of Religion at Oxford College of Emory University. He is also affiliated with the Center for Ethics at Emory. His books include What Are They Saying About the Historical Jesus? (Paulist 2007). He has published dozens of articles, book chapters, and book reviews and has edited several other books. His current project is James Through the Centuries (Blackwell, forthcoming).

Paul Harvey is Professor of History and Presidential Teaching Scholar at the University of Colorado. He is the author of Freedom’s Coming: Religious Cultures and the Shaping of the South, from the Civil War through the Civil Rights Era (2005) and the co-editor of the Columbia Guide to Religion in American History.

Lisa Isherwood is Professor of Feminist Liberation Theologies and Director of Theological Partnerships at the University of Winchester. She is executive editor of the international journal Feminist Theology and editor of five international book series. She has published seventeen books in the area of feminist theologies, gender, and sexuality. She is Director of the Britain and Ireland School of Feminist Theology and has served as Vice-President for the European Society of Women in Theological Research.

Theodore W. Jennings Jr. is Professor of Biblical and Constructive Theology at Chicago Theological Seminary. In 1991 he initiated the program in Gay Studies there, which is now the Center for LGBTQ Religious Studies. In addition to lecturing at many universities in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, he has written scores of essays and more than fifteen books, including The Man Jesus Loved: Homoerotic Narrative in the New Testament (Pilgrim 2003).

Robin M. Jensen is the Luce Chancellor’s Professor of the History of Christian Art and Worship at Vanderbilt University, where she holds a joint appointment in the Divinity School and the Department of the History of Art. Her books include Understanding Early Christian Art (Routledge 2000); Face to Face: Portraits of the Divine in Early Christianity (Fortress 2005); and The Substance of Things Seen: Art, Faith and the Christian Community (Eerdmans 2004).

Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen is Professor of Systematic Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary and Docent of Ecumenics at the University of Helsinki. He has authored eleven scholarly books, including The Trinity: Global Perspectives (Westminster John Knox 2007) and Christology: A Global Introduction (Baker Academic 2003), as well as more than one hundred articles that have appeared in several languages. Dr Kärkkäinen is also co-editor of the Global Dictionary of Theology (with William Dyrness; InterVarsity 2008).

Michael Martin has a PhD in Philosophy from Harvard University and is Professor Emeritus at Boston University. He is the author of many articles and reviews as well as several books, including Atheism: A Philosophical Justification (Temple University 1990) and The Case Against Christianity (Temple University 1991). He is the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Atheism (2007) and co-editor with Ricki Monnier of The Improbability of God (Prometheus 2006) and The Impossibility of God (Prometheus 2003).

Reem A. Meshal holds a PhD in Islamic Studies from McGill University. She is currently Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Louisiana State University. Her specialization is Islamic Law and Society in the Ottoman Era. She has published articles in two edited volumes and has one forthcoming in the Journal of Islamic Studies. She is currently working on a book on the Shari’a courts of Ottoman Cairo.

Robert J. Miller is Rosenberger Professor of Christian Thought and Religious Studies at Juniata College in Pennsylvania. Miller has been an active member of the Jesus Seminar since 1986 and has served on the steering committee for the Society of Biblical Literature Historical Jesus Section since 2004. His publications include The Jesus Seminar and its Critics (Polebridge 1999) and Born Divine: The Births of Jesus and Other Sons of God (Polebridge 2003).

Peggy Morgan tutors courses in the study of religions for the Faculty of Theology at Oxford. Her published work includes the section on Buddhism in Ethical Issues in Six Religious Traditions, which she also edited (with Clive Lawton; 2nd edn, Edinburgh University Press 2007), Get Set for Religious Studies (with Dominic Corrywright; Edinburgh University Press 2006), and “Buddhism” in Jesus in History, Thought and Culture (ed. Leslie Houlden; ABC/Clio 2003).

M. Reza Pirbhai received a PhD in history from the University of Toronto (2004) and is currently Assistant Professor of History at Louisiana State University. His specialization is Islamic thought and institutions in Modern South Asia. He has published articles in Modern Intellectual History and Journal of Asian History. He is also author of the book Reconsidering Islam in a South Asian Context (Brill 2004).

Adele Reinhartz is Professor in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa in Canada. Her main areas of research are the Gospel of John, early Jewish–Christian relations, feminist criticism, and, most recently, the Bible and Film. Her most recent book is a study of the Jesus movies, entitled Jesus of Hollywood (Oxford 2007). She is the author of numerous articles and several other books, including Scripture on the Silver Screen (Westminster John Knox 2003).

William R. Telford is Senior Lecturer in Christian Origins and the New Testament at Durham University. His research interests include the historical Jesus, the Gospel of Mark, methods of biblical interpretation, and the Bible in literature and film. His books on Mark include Writing on the Gospel of Mark (DEO 2009), Mark (T&T Clark 2003), The Theology of the Gospel of Mark (Cambridge 1999), and The Barren Temple and the Withered Tree (JSOT 1980).

Christopher Tuckett is Professor of New Testament Studies in the University of Oxford, having also worked in the University of Manchester. He has published widely on matters concerning the Synoptic Problem and Q, New Testament christology, non-canonical gospels, and other New Testament topics. His books include Q and the History of Early Christianity (T&T Clark 1996), Christology and the New Testament (Westminster John Knox 2001), and The Gospel of Mary (Oxford 2007).

Elaine M. Wainwright is Professor of Theology and Head of the School of Theology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She specializes in New Testament Studies, in particular, the Gospel of Matthew. She has published widely including Toward a Feminist Critical Reading of the Gospel according to Matthew (De Gruyter 1991), Shall We Look for Another? A Feminist Rereading of the Matthean Jesus (Orbis 1998) and Women Healing/Healing Women: The Genderization of Healing in Early Christianity (Equinox 2006).

Acknowledgments

Figure 1The International Catacomb Society. Photo: Estelle Brettman.Figure 2Photo credit: © The Trustees of the British Museum/Art Resource, NY.Figure 3Photo: author, with permission of Musée départemental Arles antique.Figure 4Photo: author.Figure 5Photo: author.Figure 6Photo credit: R é union des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY.Figure 7Photo: author, with permission of the Vatican Museo Pio Cristiano.Figure 8Photo credit: Sacred Destinations Images.Figure 9Photo: author, with permission of the Vatican Museo Pio Cristiano.Figure 10Photo credit: Lee Jefferson.Figure 11Photo credit: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY.Figure 12Photo: author, with permission of the Vatican Museo Pio Cristiano.Figure 13Photo: author.Figure 14Photo credit: Sacred Destinations Images.Figure 15Photo: author.

Images of Jesus: An Overview

Delbert Burkett

Jesus of Nazareth is arguably the most influential person in human history. As the founding figure of Christianity, the largest of the world religions, his influence has extended to the billions of people who have professed this religion, as well as to the billions of others who have been affected by it. Christians past and present have worshiped Jesus as a god, prayed to him for assistance, looked to him for salvation, and professed to emulate his life and teachings. They have traversed the globe to bring the knowledge of his name to the entire world.

Jesus’ influence on the world has been complex and varied. In his name, his adherents have practiced pacifism or launched crusading armies, initiated missions of mercy and assistance or participated in pogroms and inquisitions, withdrawn from the world or established social and political movements. No single conception or image of Jesus could have spawned such diversity. From the beginning of Christianity, the image of Jesus has been protean, adaptable to the different perspectives and needs of different communities and individuals.

The Blackwell Companion to Jesus explores these diverse conceptions and images of Jesus that have arisen over the past 2,000 years, from the beginning of Christianity to the present. While no single volume can claim to cover all of these, the present volume does examine the most significant ways in which Jesus has been imagined or portrayed.

Jesus in the New Testament

Diverse conceptions of Jesus appear already in the earliest accounts of his life that have been preserved: the four gospels of the New Testament. The Gospel of Mark (see chapter 1) never suggests that Jesus is anything more than human. Though he is adopted as God’s “son” and appointed as the “Christ,” his special character comes not from his genes, but from the Spirit that God has given him, thus enabling him to perform miraculous deeds. In contrast, the Gospel of Matthew (see chapter 2) elevates Jesus to the rank of a demigod, the literal offspring of a divine father and a human mother. Additionally, it presents Jesus as a Jewish rabbi, an interpreter of the Jewish Law. But while some passages present Jesus as a lenient rabbi, others make him very strict. The Gospel of Luke (see chapter 3) retains the portrayal of Jesus as a demigod but lacks the image of Jesus as a strict rabbi. For Luke, Jesus is primarily a friend of the poor and oppressed, the outcast and the sinner, women and non-Jews. Only in the Gospel of John (see chapter 4) does Jesus exist in some form prior to his birth on earth, and only this gospel calls him “God.” For John, Jesus is a pre-existent divine being who comes from heaven to become incarnate as a human being, to accomplish God’s will, and to ascend back to the heavenly realm.

These gospels probably used earlier sources and traditions that have not been preserved, such as the one that New Testament scholars call “Q,” a source common to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (see chapter 5). These earlier sources and traditions did not necessarily present the same perspective on Jesus. Consequently, as the authors of the gospels combined them in their own works, the gospel portraits of Jesus that emerged were not necessarily consistent internally or with each other.

Other writings in the New Testament contribute other significant images of Jesus. The letters written by or attributed to the apostle Paul (see chapter 6) focus on the crucified and resurrected Christ as the means of salvation for those who confess that he is Christ, Son of God, or Lord. Jesus is also the “last Adam,” whose obedience to God reversed the consequences of Adam’s disobedience. The “cosmic Christ” of Colossians reconciles the entire world to God. Among the general or non-Pauline epistles (see chapter 7), the letter to the Hebrews is unique in presenting Christ as a heavenly high priest, comparable to, but superior to, those high priests that served in the Jewish tabernacle. The book of Revelation (see chapter 8) symbolically portrays Jesus not only as a lamb that had been slain, but also as a victorious rider on a white horse, leading the armies of heaven into war.

These images, for the most part, were not based on personal knowledge of Jesus. Paul did not know Jesus personally, though he knew people who did. Nor did the authors of the gospels know Jesus, according to New Testament scholars, but wrote forty to seventy years after his death. Nevertheless, new images of Jesus continued to emerge after Jesus’ death, from people who never met him. In some cases, they could attribute their conceptions of Jesus to the “Spirit” of God, who inspired them and taught them new things about Jesus (John 14:25–26; 15:26; 16:12–15). In other cases, they developed their images of Jesus from passages in the Hebrew Bible or “Old Testament” (see chapter 9). Since they believed that these scriptures spoke about Jesus, they used them to construct their conceptions of him.

Jesus Beyond the New Testament

Other conceptions of Jesus appear in the early centuries of the Christian era in the “apocryphal” writings (see chapter 10). These circulated alongside those writings that eventually became the canon of the New Testament. Some of these sought to fill in the gaps in the life of Jesus that were left by the canonical gospels. For example, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas relates stories about Jesus’ childhood. The young Jesus portrayed in this gospel is occasionally volatile, as when he curses another child who offends him and the child drops dead. Other apocryphal writings used Jesus to promote certain religious beliefs or practices. For example, the Acts of John promotes a “docetic” perspective by portraying Jesus as a purely spiritual being who only appeared to be human. In the Acts of Thomas, Jesus, in the form of his identical twin and apostle Thomas, functions as a mouthpiece to promote the “encratite” practices of abstinence from marriage, wine, and certain foods.

Diverse images of Jesus continued to emerge as various Christian groups competed for supremacy. Judaic Christian groups generally regarded Jesus as a human being. Since these groups continued to view the Jewish Law as the way to God, they placed little emphasis on the death of Jesus, typically regarding it as the death of a rejected prophet. Jesus’ primary importance lay in his role as the future Messiah, who would return to liberate the Jewish people from Roman domination. For Proto-Orthodox groups, the precursors of what would later become “mainstream” or orthodox Christianity, Jesus was both human and divine. His primary importance lay in his death, seen as a sacrifice for others. The shedding of his blood atoned for sins. For Gnostic Christian groups (see chapter 11), who combined Christian ideas with Hellenistic philosophy, the problem for human beings was not sin, but ignorance of their true selves. Human souls were sparks of divine light that had fallen from the heavenly realm to become ensnared in material bodies. Jesus’ primary importance lay in his role as a revealer, who descended from the heavenly world to bring self-knowledge to ensnared souls so that they might ascend back to the heavenly realm. Many Gnostics regarded the Christ who performed this task as a purely spiritual being who never became ensnared in a material body.

In the early centuries of Christianity, the question of Jesus’ “nature,” whether human or divine, became a topic of considerable debate. On one end of the spectrum, adoptionists regarded Jesus as a purely human being. On the other end, docetists and many Gnostics saw him as a purely divine being. While some theologians wished to make him partly human and partly divine, others wanted him fully human and fully divine. These debates continued unabated through the eighth century and resulted in the formulation of the major creeds of Christendom (see chapter 12). The creed adopted at the Council of Nicea in 325 described Jesus as “of the same substance (homoousios) as the Father.” Theologians from Cappadocia explicated this to mean that Jesus was one of three “persons” of the Trinity, who shared a single divine “nature.” The creed adopted at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 insisted that Jesus had two natures, divine and human, which in some inexplicable way were neither mixed nor separated. Through these creeds and writings, emperors and bishops sought to establish one official interpretation of Jesus as the “orthodox” view, thus rendering all other views “heretical.” This attempt only partially succeeded, since a number of Christian groups never accepted the official interpretations of Jesus’ nature.

Interpretations of Jesus’ death have been similarly diverse, though never reduced to an official creedal statement. Some early passages in the gospels present Jesus’ death as that of a prophet. God sent Jesus to Israel not in order to die, but to deliver his message. Jesus’ death came from those who rejected that message. Alongside this conception developed another, in which Jesus’ death did not contravene God’s will, but fulfilled it. God sent Jesus to die, and in some way he died on behalf of others as an “atonement” for sins (see chapter 13). While this conception prevailed to become the dominant view of Christianity, theologians and critics have continued to debate why Jesus needed to die and how his death could be for others.

During the Middle Ages, Christian theologians understood the nature of Jesus within the parameters set earlier by the creeds, though new theories of the atonement were developed by Anselm and Abelard. Thomas Aquinas justified the real presence of Christ in the Mass by the theory of “transubstantiation.” Mystics sought mystical union with Jesus, while monks and nuns emulated his life of celibacy and poverty. Images of Jesus for the masses portrayed him primarily as hanging on the cross or presiding at the last judgment.

In the sixteenth century, the Protestant Reformation splintered Europe into warring factions. Reformers generally continued to restate earlier doctrines about Jesus. Building on earlier theories of atonement, Martin Luther and John Calvin developed the “penal substitutionary theory.” A controversy over the Lord’s Supper arose as Luther continued to accept the bodily presence of Jesus in the elements, while Calvin did not. Anabaptists who died for their faith looked to the suffering of Jesus as their model.

Jesus in World Religions

Alongside these developments, Jesus became a figure in religious traditions other than Christianity. Christianity has traditionally presented Jesus as the only way to the divine. As adherents of other religious traditions have encountered this claim, they have often found themselves compelled to respond. As part of their response, they have produced alternative visions of Jesus that are compatible with their own religious traditions.

Since Jesus was a Jew, as were his earliest followers, Judaism had the first encounter with Jesus (see chapter 14). As Jewish Christians preached that Jesus was the Christ, this message found little acceptance among Jews but had greater success among non-Jews. Christianity thus became a religion primarily of Gentiles, who increasingly developed hostility toward the Jews who rejected their view of Jesus. After Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the fourth century, it had the power to put this animosity into effect. Jews throughout Europe became a persecuted minority in a hostile Christian environment. Not surprisingly therefore, Jews developed a less than positive attitude toward the Jesus in whose name they suffered. Ancient and medieval Jewish sources portray Jesus as an illegitimate child, an apostate from Judaism, a sorcerer who led Israel astray into idolatry, who was rightly condemned for blasphemy. Not until the nineteenth century, when Jews became more fully integrated into European culture, did Jewish scholars develop a more positive conception of Jesus as a Jewish prophet or sage, whose teachings have a place alongside those of other Jewish sages.

When Muhammad founded the religion of Islam in the seventh century, Christianity was a dominant power that required a response. The Qur’an provides a response by presenting an image of Jesus acceptable to the monotheistic faith of Islam (see chapter 15). This portrait adopts many aspects of the Christian Jesus: Jesus is born of a virgin, he is the Messiah, he performs miracles, and he is taken up to God. However, unlike the Jesus of Christianity, this Jesus is neither God nor the son of God nor a member of a divine Trinity. In the Qur’an, Jesus himself repudiates such claims. He is the greatest prophet other than Muhammad, but he is not divine. Nor did he die as an atonement for sins. In fact, he did not die at all, but was raised up to God alive. Later Islamic literature develops the portrait of Jesus in line with this basic image.

As Hindus have encountered the Jesus preached by Christian missionaries, they have developed images of Jesus that understand him within the context of Hinduism (see chapter 16). Hindus have no trouble accepting Jesus as an incarnation of God in human form, since the Hindu tradition itself includes the concept of an “avatar,” a divine being who descends to the world to bring revelation of the truth. Some Hindus therefore regard Jesus as an avatar. However, they part company with the Christian view when it claims that Jesus was the only incarnation of God. For Hindus, Jesus was one avatar among others, such as Rama and Krishna. Other Hindus regard Jesus not as an avatar, but as a teacher of morality and ethics.

Similarly, Buddhists understand Jesus within the context of Buddhism (see chapter 17). In the most common appropriation of Jesus in Buddhism, he is a bodhisattva, a being who postpones entrance into nirvana in order to help other sentient beings toward enlightenment. Since there are many bodhisattvas, this perspective too rejects the Christian claim that Jesus is the only way to ultimate reality. Buddhists also regard Jesus as a spiritual teacher. They especially appreciate Christian teachings about love, which correspond to the Buddhist emphasis on the virtue of compassion.

Philosophical and Historical Perspectives on Jesus

With the Enlightenment of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a new era dawned in perceptions of Jesus. Ideas about Jesus based on tradition or revelation or theological speculation came under suspicion. Since that time, rational philosophical enquiry, applied to the traditional image of Jesus, has raised doubts about the supernatural aspects of it. Jesus’ birth from a virgin, his divinity, his miracles, his resurrection from the dead, the whole concept of the Trinity, have all come under scrutiny (see chapter 18 on the resurrection). Many critics have regarded these claims about Jesus as impossible, improbable, or incredible.

A similar result has issued from secular historical methods applied to the story of Jesus. The historical-critical method understands the past as analogous to the present. If the events that occur in the present have a natural explanation, then the same must be true for events that occurred in the past. Consequently a historical reconstruction gives natural explanations for the events of Jesus’ life, just as it would for the life of Alexander the Great or any other figure of history. A reconstruction of Jesus as a historical figure presents Jesus in purely human terms.

The application of this method to the gospel accounts of Jesus’ life has led to an ongoing quest for the historical Jesus (see chapters 19, 20, and 21). New Testament scholars engaged in this quest seek to place Jesus firmly within the historical context of first-century Judaism in the Roman Empire. But since the sources about Jesus are few and subject to interpretation, this quest has produced not one, but many different images of the historical Jesus. Scholars have portrayed Jesus as a revolutionary seeking to overthrow Roman domination, as an eschatological prophet announcing that God was about to establish his kingdom on earth, as a social reformer trying to improve the society in which he lived, as a Jewish rabbi concerned about the correct interpretation of the Jewish Law, as a magician, a sage, and even a feminist.

Modern Manifestations of Jesus

Alongside these various forms of the historical Jesus, other images of Jesus have also emerged in the modern era. Christian theologians, primarily in Europe and North America, have grappled with the problem that modernity poses for traditional conceptions of Jesus (see chapter 22). Some have embraced the Enlightenment goal of “religion within the limits of reason alone,” seeking an understanding of Jesus that is credible within those limits but still relevant for Christian faith. Others have rejected those limits and developed more traditional christologies based on revelation and faith.

Theologians in Africa, Asia, and Latin America have also produced christologies that have relevance for their particular cultures (see chapter 23). South American theologians find most meaningful an understanding of Jesus as a liberator of the poor and oppressed. Theologians in Asia use various cultural analogies to make Christ relevant for that context, including the Hindu concept of the avatar to understand the incarnation of Jesus, the Chinese concept of yin and yang to understand the divine and human in Jesus, and the analogy of the guru to understand Jesus as a spiritual teacher. Similarly theologians in Africa portray Jesus in terms from their own culture, as an ancestor, a chief, or a medicine man (healer).

If Jesus has thus been adaptable to different cultures, that has been true nowhere more than in the United States, where Jesus has been a ubiquitous cultural icon (see chapter 24). In America, Jesus has ousted God the Father as the central figure of Christian devotion. Freed from creeds and tradition, he has become an intensely personal Savior. Members of the Ku Klux Klan take him as their role model, football players give thanks to him when they score, and presidents look to him for guidance in their foreign policy.

Since Jesus is typically portrayed as a white male, many black people have found it ironic to worship a Christ who resembles the white people responsible for their oppression. The struggle of blacks in the United States for liberation thus gave rise to an image of Christ as black (see chapter 25). In one sense, to call Christ black means that he supports blacks in their struggle for freedom; in another sense, it means that Jesus was ethnically black with dark skin. Proponents of the Black Christ have adopted one sense or the other or both, producing an image of Christ with which black people can identify.

While the whiteness of the traditional Christ has alienated many blacks, his maleness has posed a problem for many women. The depiction of God and Christ as male has traditionally justified the subjugation of women. Consequently the relevance of Jesus for women has come under scrutiny by the feminist movement that arose in the 1970s. While some feminists regard Jesus and his religion as incompatible with their goal of liberation, many Christian feminists have sought to retain Jesus by developing feminist christologies (see chapter 26). These have sought to develop an understanding of Christ that supports the goals and aspirations of women. “Womanist” christologies have developed such an understanding specifically for black women (see chapter 25). From these efforts, new images of Jesus have emerged, such as the Jesus who is a prophet of Sophia, a feminine personification of God’s wisdom in the Jewish tradition. This is a Jesus who opposes patriarchal structures.

While the maleness of Jesus raises one issue for women, it raises another for gay men (see chapter 27). Can Jesus be relevant for gays? Could Jesus himself have been gay? Some interpreters have in fact found evidence that Jesus engaged in a homoerotic relationship with another man, pointing to his relationship with “the disciple whom Jesus loved” in the Gospel of John (John 13:21–26; 19:26–27, 34–35; 20:1–10; 21:1–8, 18–24). Depictions of Jesus as homoerotic also occur in art, literature, and theater. Some theologians argue that a “gay” Jesus is not incompatible with Christian theology.

Outside of official Christianity or the academic study of religion, more popular images of Jesus have abounded (see chapter 28). Modern apocrypha, forged texts that claim to be ancient documents, present a variety of perspectives about Jesus. For example, the Life of Issa fills in the “lost years” of Jesus between the ages of twelve and thirty, by relating how he traveled to India and studied with Hindu and Buddhist teachers. The Essene Letter describes how Jesus survived the crucifixion. Without using a forged text, modern “mystifications” – unverified speculations about Jesus – continue this tradition. Among these new mythologies is that disseminated most successfully in The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. This claims that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had children whose descendants are still among us. While Brown’s book is fiction, it relies on works that actually make this claim.

Jesus in Art, Fiction, and Film

It is not surprising that a figure as popular as Jesus has frequently been depicted in art, fiction, and film. The history of Christian art testifies to various conceptions of Jesus (see chapter 29). Artists have depicted him as the good shepherd, the teacher of true philosophy, a healer and wonder-worker, a member of the Trinity, the creator, the giver of the new covenant, and the judge at the final judgment. Icons of Jesus have invited the veneration of the faithful.

Literature too has produced its own portrayals of Jesus. Since 1770, around 300 novels about Jesus have appeared in English, no two of which are exactly alike (see chapter 30). Most of these attempt to harmonize the differences between the four stories of Jesus in the gospels, in order to produce a single unified account. By rewriting the story, novelists are able to provide what they consider satisfactory solutions to problems in the gospel narratives. They answer such problematic questions as how Jesus’ virgin birth occurred, how he regarded himself, what he thought he was doing, how he could perform miracles, who was responsible for his death, and what happened to his body. The novel allows the author to present his or her own perspective on Jesus, which may be characterized by devotion, cynicism, or humor.

Similarly, since the invention of motion pictures in the late nineteenth century, hundreds of movies about Jesus have appeared (see chapter 31). Like Jesus novels, most of these attempt to harmonize the four gospels. Yet no two portray exactly the same Jesus. While King of Kings presents a clear-headed and self-confident messiah of peace, The Last Temptation of Christ portrays a man beset by doubts and struggling with his own desires. While The Greatest Story Ever Told depicts a pious Christ, whose every word drips with solemnity, Jesus Christ Superstar gives us a hippy Jesus who sings his dialogue to the accompaniment of rock music.

Reflections on Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth would probably have a hard time recognizing himself in the plethora of different images that have borne his name over the past 2,000 years. How should we explain this diversity? No doubt a variety of factors were involved, but here I will focus on only one: the Christian claim that Jesus is “the truth.” This claim emerged as early as the Gospel of John, in which Jesus proclaims, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

But if a particular understanding of Jesus represents ultimate truth, then all those who do not accept it are aligned with falsehood to a correspondingly ultimate degree. Christianity has frequently promoted precisely this perspective: it has claimed the status of ultimate truth for its own understanding of Jesus and thus condemned all those who reject it. To such a potent claim, spread by Christian missionizing, some communities and individuals have responded by putting forward a counter-image, an alternative image of Jesus as the truth. Such responses have produced numerous images of Jesus, because every community and individual has a different conception of the truth.

Some communities have rejected Jesus as a symbol for the truth, yet even such rejection may produce an image of Jesus. For example, the Jews of antiquity and the Middle Ages rejected the Jesus of their oppressors. In the process, they created a counter-image of Jesus as the opposite of the truth, as a deceiver who led Israel astray.

More frequently, communities have accepted Jesus as a symbol for the truth but have assimilated his image to their own particular truths. This process is attested already in the earliest writings about Jesus. A Jewish community that strictly followed the Law portrayed Jesus as a strict rabbi. One that had a more lenient attitude toward the Law depicted him as a lenient rabbi. Communities immersed in Hellenistic culture portrayed him as a demigod or incarnation. Another steeped in the tradition of sacrifice regarded him as a sacrifice for sins. Each of these communities produced a Jesus who reflected and supported its own particular truth.

This process continued as various world religions encountered the Jesus of Christianity. Islam adopted a Muslim Jesus who supported the truth of Islam. Hindus and Buddhists likewise assimilated Jesus to the truths of their own traditions, imagining him as an avatar or bodhisattva. This process has continued down to the present, as images of Jesus have emerged that support the particular truths of black people, feminists, and gay men.

Ultimately humans have created Jesus in their own image, and since humans are infinitely diverse, this diversity has extended to their images of Jesus. These images may not tell us a great deal about Jesus of Nazareth, but they do tell us about the people who conceived or imagined them. The continuing influence of Jesus in the future will depend on his ability to maintain this protean character, his ability to be all things to all people.

PART I

Jesus in the New Testament

1Mark’s Portrait of JesusWilliam R. Telford2Who Do You Say That I Am? A Matthean ResponseElaine M. Wainwright3Jesus in Luke-ActsDelbert Burkett4John’s Portrait of JesusMary L. Coloe5Jesus in QChristopher Tuckett6Paul, Jesus, and ChristEdward Adams7Jesus in the General EpistlesHarold W. Attridge8Jesus in the ApocalypseIan Boxall9Constructing Images of Jesus from the Hebrew BibleWarren Carter