Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

JESUS REMEMBERED §1
the major transitions, from Jesus to Paul, from the NT to the early Fathers (and
'heretics'!) are also appreciated, neither the significance of Jesus nor that of
Paul, neither the Christianity of the NT writings nor that of the early Fathers can
be adequately comprehended or fully grasped.
In other words, what is envisaged in Christianity in the Making is the attempt
in three volumes to give an integrated description and analysis, both historical
and theological, both social and literary, of the first 120 or so years of Christianity
(27-150 CE). Volume 1 will, inevitably, focus on Jesus. Part One will
examine what has become universally known as 'the Quest of the Historical Jesus',
focusing on the crucial insights gleaned in the course of the two-hundredyear-old
quest and asking whether or in what degree they are still valid. It will argue
that the Gospel traditions provide a clear portrayal of the remembered Jesus
since they still display with sufficient clarity for present purposes the impact
which Jesus made on his first followers. Part Two will evaluate the sources available
to us and describe the historical context of Jesus' mission as concisely as
feasible, .alert to the current debate regarding these sources and drawing on the
most recent archaeological and sociological studies. The most distinctive feature
of the present study will be the attempt to freshly assess the importance of the
oral tradition of Jesus' mission and the suggestion that the Synoptic Gospels bear
testimony to a pattern and technique of oral transmission which has ensured a
greater stability and continuity in the Jesus tradition than has thus far been generally
appreciated. Parts Three to Five will then attempt to gain an overview of Jesus'
mission (as remembered by his first followers), dealing in succession with
its main themes, some much controverted, others surprisingly not so; also, inevitably,
the questions of what Jesus' hearers thought of him, what he thought of
himself, and why he was crucified. The volume will conclude with a discussion
of how and why the belief that Jesus had been resurrected arose and what were
the claims it embodied.
Volume 2 will begin with a section methodologically equivalent to Parts
One and Two of volume 1 — on the quest for the historical 'primitive community'
and the value of the sources available, including not just the Acts of the
Apostles, but also what can be deduced from the Gospels and the Epistles. In trying
to sketch out the earliest history and the emergence of 'the Hellenists' (Acts
6.1), it is important to appreciate the character of the early Nazarene sect within
the 'sectarianism' of late Second Temple Judaism. The earliest expansion of the
new movement, its causes and course, require careful detective work and sifting
of the evidence, not least in regard to the expansion which the Acts does not record.
A particular concern at this point will have to be an evaluation of the increasingly
vociferous claims that there were diverse and alternative forms of
Christianity as early as those attested in the canonical NT.
Given the place of Acts and the Pauline letters within the NT, the dominant
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