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The Shadow of the Galilean: The Quest of the Historical Jesus in Narrative Form
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Customer Reviews
Rating:  - The Shadow of the Galilean
A bit disappointing in a way. I was waiting for the main character to meet up with Jesus, but he never does. Didn't give very much information on Jesus.
Rating:  - Learning with Trying To
In this beautiful, interesting and easy to read narrative, imaginary characters are introduced from around the time of Jesus. In this "story" Theissen creatively allows the parties, issues, concerns, and major characters of Historical Jesus research to arrive within the storyline itself. In so doing he makes them believeable and sympathetic. This is an utterly unique way of beginning the educational journey through Jesus' history and all of the theories and personalities present. I was hooked from the first page. If you are interested in historical Jesus research I recommend this book as an interesting, unusual, and brilliant way to begin the journey.
Rating:  - Poorly written, sometimes heretical
I was very disappointed in this book. It is poorly written and contains many grammatical errors. Theissen's Jesus seems limited to restructuring Jewish society and also seems more involved in politics than the Biblical Jesus. Theissen also suggests that Jesus' miracles weren't really miracles. One of the characters, a wealthy woman who supports Jesus, says,
"When I or others send him food . . . and my people suddenly bring it out, the crowd thinks it's a miracle that there's so much to eat. These poor people have often never seen so much food all at once. If you like, it's indeed a miracle." (page 120)
Later, she adds,
"[H]e knows that the people have an exaggerated belief in miracles because they mistrust their own powers. So he often stresses that `Your faith has healed you.' He explicitly says: "I didn't do the miracle; the power to become whole lies in you yourself.' He wants to cure these little people of their superstitious mistrust of themselves." (page 123)
Although the book was somewhat interesting, I didn't think that it was worth the time spent reading it. I would recommend Lew Wallace's Ben-Hur, perhaps, as an alternative to this book.
Rating: - A different twist to Jesus
It is told from a very interesting point of view. A person who is seeking Jesus, always one step behind, gets to see the results of Jesus' good deeds along the way. Some of them didn't quite come out as one would expect. Often, chaos fell upon the villages, resulting from the interference of Jesus. It's a different view point of Jesus and his work along the way.
Rating: - "Experiencing" Those Who Interpreted Jesus
In this amazing and enjoyable book, Gerd Theissen (pronounced "Tyson") allows us to experience Jesus the Galilean in a way which demonstrates the manner in which the Christian Testament came to exist. To attempt to understand Jesus is to interpret Jesus, and through the eyes of Theissen's characters we see a theoretical construct at work which is not only insightful, but also faithful to the methods of modern biblical criticism and Christian theology as a whole. I highly recommend this book for those who would like insights into the development of the Christian canon of scripture and for those who wish to better understand the Jewishness of Jesus.
Pastors, lay leaders and religious educators of all types will gain invaluable information from this work. It is both scholarly and easy-to-read and it has been enjoyed and cited by educators and theologians alike.
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