Finding the Historical Christ

Description

Paul Barnett’s title Finding the Historical Christ is a calculated jab against the popular dichotomy between the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith. In this book Barnett seeks to establish that the two figures are, in fact, one and the same. / The culmination of Barnett’s After Jesus trilogy, Finding the Historical Christ carefully examines the ancient sources pertaining to Jesus, including writings by historians hostile to the Christian movement (Josephus, Tacitus, Pliny), the summarized “biographies” of Jesus in the book of Acts, and especially the four canonical Gospels.

Based on compelling historical evidence, in Finding the Historical Christ, Barnett maintains that Jesus of Nazareth regarded himself as the prophesied Christ, as did his disciples before Jesus died and rose again. This is the only way to explain the phenomenon of the early church worshiping Jesus. / “There is currently something of a revival of confidence in the historical value of the Gospels. Paul Barnett’s work, notable for its sober use of historical method and its many fresh observations and proposals, is an excellent contribution to that development.”— Richard Bauckham / University of St. Andrews / “Over his illustrious career, Paul Barnett has returned repeatedly to questions about the historical Jesus, the historicity of the Gospels, and the history of earliest Christianity. Drawing together scattered strands of all of that work, elaborating them further, and adding still new ones, Barnett here mounts what may be his most impressive case yet for the accuracy of the canonical material and the messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth on historical grounds alone.”— Craig L. Blomberg / Denver Seminary
Barnett, Paul, Author
Paul Barnett is Visiting Fellow in Ancient History at Macquarie University, and teaches at Moore College in Sydney and Regent College in Vancouver. His many other books include The Second Epistle to the Corinthians (NICNT) and The Birth of Christianity: The First Twenty Years (both Eerdmans).