Excavating Jesus: Beneath the Stones, Behind the Texts
"Why did Jesus happen when and where he happened?" is the  question that drivesExcavating Jesus, a  collaboration between the leading historical Jesus scholar John Dominic Crossan and noted  Galilean archeologist Jonathan Reed.Excavating Jesusis a groundbreaking work of  popular biblical scholarship, an extraordinarily mature and accessible integration of textual  study with archeological research. "Words talk. Stones talk too. Neither talks from the past  without interpretive dialogue with the present. But each demands to be heard in its own  way," the authors write. True to this principle, Crossan and Reed consider  archaeology and exegesis "as twin independent methods, neither of which is subordinate or  submissive to the other." The bulk of the book identifies, analyzes, and integrates what the  authors believe to be the "top 10" archeological discoveries pertaining to the life of Jesus  (such as the house of the apostle Peter at Capernaum), and the top 10 exegetical  discoveries (such as the Dead Sea Scrolls). Their excavation of the most important sites  and texts, accompanied by stunning illustrations and photographs, provide perhaps the  most precise picture of the world in which Jesus lived. For many readers, this  information will also shed light on the central themes of Christianity. For instance, in the  first century in Galilee, "the Kingdom" meant the Roman Empire. "When, therefore, Jesus  spoke of the Kingdom of God, he chose the one expression most calculated to draw  Roman attention to what he was doing. Not the 'people' or the 'community' of God, but the  'Kingdom' of God." That's why the Baptism movement of John and the Kingdom  movement of Jesus started there and then."--Michael Joseph Gross--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.