A hundred years after A. Schweitzer's Von Reimarus zu Wrede, the study of the historical Jesus is again experiencing a renaissance. Ongoing since the beginning of the 1980's, this renaissance has produced an abundance of Jesus studies that also displays a welcome diversity of methods, approaches and hypotheses. The Handbook of the Study of the Historical Jesus is designed to create a means to handle the diversity and abundance. Drawing from first-class scholarship throughout the world, the four large volumes of the Handbook offer a unique assembly of leading experts presenting their approaches to the historical Jesus, as well as a thought-out compilation of original studies on a large variety of topics pertaining to Jesus research and adjacent areas.

Table of Contents

Volume I: How to Study the Historical Jesus

Part One

Contemporary Methodological Approaches

How to Marginalize the Traditional Criteria of Authenticity, Dale Allison

Fourth Quest? What did Jesus Really Want?, Ernst Baasland

The Search for Jesus Special Profile, Jurgen Becker

The Historical Jesus: How to Ask Questions and Remain Inquisitive, James H. Charlesworth

Method in a Critical Study of Jesus, Bruce D. Chilton

Context and Text in Historical Jesus Methodology, John D. Crossan

Remembering Jesus: How the Quest of the Historical Jesus Lost its Way, James D. G. Dunn

Jesus-in-context: A Relational Approach, Richard Horsley

Sources, Methods and Discursive Locations in the Quest of the Historical Jesus, John Kloppenborg

Basic Methodology in the Quest for the Historical Jesus, John P. Meier

Jesus Research as Feedback on His Wirkungsgeschichte, Petr Pokorny

The Role of Greek Language Criteria in Historical Jesus Research, Stanley E. Porter

From the Messianic Teacher to the Gospels of Jesus Christ, Rainer Riesner

The Gospel of the Historical Jesus, James M. Robinson

Scholarly Rigor and Intuition in Historical Research into Jesus, Jacques Schlosser

Critical Feminist Historical-Jesus Research, Elisabeth Schnssler Fiorenza

Historical Scepticism and the Criteria of Jesus Research: My Attempt to Leap Over Lessing?s Ugly Wide Ditch, Gerd Theissen

Part Two

Various Aspects of Historical Jesus Methodology

With the Grain and against the Grain: A Strategy for Reading the Synoptic Gospels, Colin Brown

Form Criticism and Jesus Research, Arland Hultgren

Tradition Criticism and Jesus Research, Grant Osborne

The Criteria of Authenticity, Stanley E. Porter

Alternatives to Form and Tradition Criticism in Jesus Research, Tobias Nicklas

Social Scientific Approaches and Jesus Research, Bruce J. Malina

New Literary Criticism and Jesus Research, Elizabeth Struthers Malbon

Memory Theory and Jesus Research, Alan Kirk

The Burden of Proof in Jesus Research, Dagmar Winter

Volume II: The Study of Jesus

Part One

The Ongoing Quest for the Historical Jesus

The Quest of the Unhistorical Jesus and the Quest of the Historical Jesus, Colin Brown

Futures for the Jesus Quests, Bengt Holmberg

The Parable of the Goose and the Mirror: Historical Jesus Research in the Theological Discipline, Scot McKnight

Historical Jesus Research in Global Cultural Context, Teresa Okure

Diverse Agendas at Work in the Jesus Quest, Clive Marsh

Jesus of Nazareth and the Christ of Faith: Approaches to the Question in Historical Jesus Research, Sven-Olav Back

The Jesus Quest and Jewish Christian Relations, Donald Hagner

Historic Jesuses, Cees den Heyer

Part Two

Current Questions of Jesus Research

Jesus and Cynicism, Gerald Downing

Jesus and the Scriptures of Israel, Steve Moyise

Implicit Christology and the Historical Jesus, Edwin Broadhead

Jesus and the "Partings of the ways", Michael F. Bird

Prophet, Sage, Healer, Messiah, and Martyr: Types and Identities of Jesus, Craig A. Evans

Jesus im Licht der Qumrangemeinde, Heinz-Wolfgang Kuhn

Jesus without Q, Michael Goulder

Dispensing with the Priority of Mark, David Dungan

The Role of Aramaic in Reconstructing the Teaching of Jesus, P.M. Casey

The Quest for the Historical Jesus in Postmodern Perspective: A Hypothetical Argument, MoisTs Mayordomo & Peter-Ben Smit

Why Study the Historical Jesus?, Colin Brown

Part Three

Persisting Issues Adjacent to the Jesus Quest

The Context of Jesus: Jewish and/or Hellenistic?, Stanley E. Porter

The Transmission of the Jesus Tradition, Samuel Byrskog

Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Herodians, Etienne Nodet

The Son of Man in Ancient Judaism, John J. Collins

Jewish Apocalypticism, Crispin Fletcher-Louis

Anti-Judaism and the New Testament, Luke Timothy Johnson

The Writings of Josephus: Their Significance for New Testament Study, Steve Mason

Rabbinic Writings in New Testament Research, David Instone-Brewer

Synagogue and Sanhedrin in the First Century, Lester L. Grabbe

Echoes from the Wilderness: The Historical John the Baptist, Knut Backhaus

Historiographical Literature in the New Testament period (1st and 2nd centuries CE), Eve-Marie Becker

Volume III: The Historical Jesus

Part One

Jesus Tradition in Individual Documents

The Historical Jesus in the Gospel of Mark, Joanna Dewey

Jesus Tradition in non-Markan Material Common to Matthew and Luke, Christopher Tuckett

The Special Material in Matthew's Gospel, Donald Senior

LukeS and Acts, John Nolland

The Non-Synoptic Jesus: An Introduction to John, Paul, Thomas, and Other Outsiders of the Jesus Quest, Michael Labahn

Jesus Tradition in the Gospel of John, D. Moody Smith

Jesus Tradition in the Letters of the New Testament, David Wenham

The Thomas-Jesus Connection, Edwin Broadhead

Traditions about Jesus in Apocryphal Gospels (with the Exception of the Gospel of Thomas), Tobias Nicklas

Jesus Tradition in Early Patristic Writings, Riemer Roukema

Jesus Traditions in Classical and Jewish Writings, Robert E. Van Voorst

Part Two

Fundamentally about Jesus

The Historicity of Jesus: How Do We Know That Jesus Existed, Samuel Byrskog

Background I: Jesus of History and the Topography of the Holy Land, James H. Charlesworth

Background II: (Some) Literary Documents, Martin McNamara

Background III: The Social and Political Climate in which Jesus of Nazareth Preached, Wolfgang Stegemann

The Chronology of Jesus, Harold Hoehner

The Birth of Jesus, Richard T. France

The Death of Jesus, Joel B. Green

The Resurrection of Jesus, Pheme Perkins

Family, Friends, and Foes, Joel B. Green

The Language(s) Jesus Spoke, Stanley E. Porter

The Self-Understanding of Jesus, Mathias Kreplin

The Message of Jesus I: Miracles, Continuing Controversies, Graham Twelftree

The Message of Jesus II: Parables, Arland Hultgren

Part Three

Jesus and the Legacy of Israel

Jesus and God, Marianne Meye Thompson

Jesus and The Sabbath, Sven-Olav Back

Jesus and the Temple, Jostein Adna

Jesus and the Shema, Kim Huat Tan

Jesus and the Purity Paradigm: An Inverse Strategy, Tom Holmen

Jesus and the Law, William Loader

Jesus and the Holy Land, Karen Wenell

Jesus and Sinners and Outcasts, Bruce Chilton

Jesus and Israel's Eschatological Constitution, Steven M. Bryan

Jesus, Satan, and Company, Darrell Bock

Jesus and Apocalypticism, Crispin Fletcher-Louis

Volume IV: Individual Studies

The "Dark Side of the Force?" Beelzebul: Manipulated and Manipulator? Reflections on the History of a Conflict in the Traces Left in the Memory of its Narrators, Michael Labahn

Did Jesus break the Fifth (Fourth) Commandment?, Peter Balla

Did Jesus Stay at Bethsaida? Arguments from Ancient Texts and Archaeology for Bethsaida and et-Tell, Heinz-Wolfgang Kuhn

Flawed Heroes and Stories Jesus Told: The One about a Man Wanting to Kill, Charles Hedrick

Jesus and Magic: The Question of the Miracles, Bernd Kollmann

Jesus and the Greeks: A Semiotic Reading of John 12:20-28, Joseph Pathrapankal

Jesus and the Synagogue, Graham Twelftree

Jesus and the Ten Words, Hermut Loehr

Jesus as Moving Image: The Public Responsibility of the Historical Jesus Scholar in the Age of Film, Clive Marsh

Jesus Magic from a Theodicean Perspective, Tom Holmen

Jesus "Rhetoric": The Rise and Fall of "The Kingdom of God", James Robinson

Jewish Galilee, Etienne Nodet

On Avoiding Bothersome Busyness: Q/Luke 12.22-31 in its Greco?Roman Context, Gerald Downing

Poverty and wealth in Jesus and the Jesus tradition, Heinz Giesen

The Question of the Baptist's Disciples (Mt 9:14-17; Mk 2:18-22; Lk 5:33-39), Rainer Riesner

Riddles, Wit, and Wisdom, Tom Thatcher

Three Questions about the Life of Jesus, Christian-Bernard Amphoux

Why Was Jesus Not Born in Nazareth?, Armand Puig i Tarrech

Words of Jesus in Paul: On the Theology and Praxis of the Jesus Tradition, Petr Pokorny