Jacob Neusner

A Home for the Homeless

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“The power of this book lies in its demonstration of how we move from philology and literary studies to history and sociological reconstruction. Elliott is the first to show that from the meanings of words and their theology we are able to draw insight in the social reality, therefore relevance, of an important religious text from Judeo-Christian antiquity. The book is a methodological model, but also a tour de force of intellect and imagination.”

A Myth of Innocence

“This is an epic-making work because it turns scholarship on its head. Mack asks questions not about origins but about social meaning. The entire conception of what we want to know, why we want to know it, and how we shall find it out is new and compelling.”

An Introduction to the Complete Dead Sea Scrolls

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“This marvelous book brings us up-to-date on the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls, taking its place at the head of the line in introductions to the subject . . . Students will be grateful for the interesting way in which issues are laid forth, a classic of elegant exposition of scholarly problems.”

Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash

World Religions

“Strack's classic introduction to rabbinic literature. . . is completely updated in a truly brilliant and erudite way by Stemberger . . . The account is lucid and well informed throughout, sophisticated and critical.”

Jesus of Nazareth

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“This theological masterpiece courageously confronts head-on two centuries of historical exegesis and establishes a fresh way of reading the Gospels as both biography and theology in a coherent way. The author explains, "I set out to discover the real Jesus, on the basis of whom something like a Christology from below would then become possible. The quest for the historical Jesus, as conducted in mainstream critical exegesis in accordance with its hermeneutical presuppositions, lacks sufficient content to exert any significant historical impact. It is focused too much on the past for it to make possible a personal relationship with Jesus."." Here we find a compelling model for the presentation of the life of holy rabbi, Hillel or Aqiba, in the same context as we account for the life of Jesus.”

The Cross that Spoke

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Crossan writes with the pen of angels and takes up the formidable task, requiring skill of heaven, of winning a fresh hearing for the extra-canonical Gospel of Peter. . . . Only a scholar of Crossan's perspicacity, independence of perspective, and capacity for persuasive argument could have framed and presented with such elegance this long-neglected Christian writing. No one who cares for the formative age of Western civilization and for the history of religion in that time will want to miss this masterpiece of scholarly with and intelligence.”