Continuatum a parte nona.
Christography requires a massive amount of reading to do correctly; Christology requires a thorough Christography to be grounded in the real phenomenon of the Christian revelation as it has unfolded historically and as it continues to do so today. Below I offer a variety of publications for the reader interested to know how early Christians came to believe what they did about Jesus and what they meant when they made the claims they did for him. I have keyed the various entries to the different posts in this series. The bibliography is not complete; I invite any and all suggested entries below, but claim no responsibility for those that are suggested that do not deserve their readership.
Jesus and Christ
Christography requires a thorough grounding in Early Judaism and especially how Early Jews thought about messiahs. For Early Judaism and its literature generally, James L. Kugel, The Bible As It Was (Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 1997); John C. Collins and Daniel C. Harlowe, Early Judaism: A Comprehensive Overview (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012); Shaye J.D. Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah, 3rd ed. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2014); Malka Z. Simkovitch, Discovering Second Temple Literature: The Scriptures and Stories That Shaped Early Judaism (Lincoln: JPS, 2018); James C. VanderKam, An Introduction to Early Judaism, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2022). For messianism generally: Adela Yarbro Collins and John J. Collins, King and Messiah as Son of God: Divine, Human, and Angelic Messianic Figures in Biblical and Related Literature (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007); Matthew C. Novenson, The Grammar of Messianism: An Ancient Jewish Political Idiom and Its Users (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017); and Gregory R. Lanier, Corpus Christologicum: Texts and Translations for the Study of Jewish Messianism and Early Christology (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2021). One also has to consider the origins and growth of apocalypticism in Early Judaism; for this, one should consult John J. Collins, whose seminal article in Semeia 14 (1979) launched the modern discipline, and his book, The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016); one should also look to Christopher Rowland, The Open Heaven: Study of the Apocalyptic in Judaism and Christianity (London: SPCK, 1982). For the life of the historical Jesus, the standard reference is that of the late, great John Paul Meier, A Marginal Jew, 5 Vols. (AYBRL; New Haven, Yale University Press, 1991, 1994, 2001, 2009, and 2016), the sixth volume of which may or may not be published posthumously (it remains to be seen; it also remains to be seen whether the series will be picked up by someone else, though it is difficult to imagine anyone other than Meier at the helm of the project). There are also more popular-level historical works that should orient the reader. Here, the classic work is Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus (reprinted by Dover in 2005); E.P. Sanders, Jesus and Judaism (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1985); Dale Allison, Jesus of Nazareth, Millenarian Prophet (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998); James DG Dunn, Jesus Remembered, Christianity in the Making Vol I (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003); Paula Fredriksen, From Jesus to Christ: The Origins of the New Testament Images of Jesus (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988; rep. in a new edition 2008); eadem, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: A Jewish Life and the Emergence of Christianity (New York: Vintage, 2000); Bart Ehrman, Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999); and idem, Did Jesus Exist? The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2012). Other notable mentions: Amy-Jill Levine, The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2009); Matthew Thiessen, Jesus and the Forces of Death: The Gospels’ Portrayal of Ritual Impurity in First-Century Judaism (Grand Rapids: BakerAcademic, 2022). For Jesus’ resurrection, it is necessary to address both the diversity of beliefs about the resurrection in antiquity as well as the specific claims for Jesus’ resurrection. See John Levenson, Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel: The Ultimate Victory of the God of Life (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006); idem and Kevin J. Madigan, Resurrection: The Power of God for Christians and Jews (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009); Outi Lehtipuu, Debates Over the Resurrection of the Dead: Constructing Early Christian Identity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012); C.D. Elledge, Resurrection of the Dead in Early Judaism, 200 BCE - 200 CE (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017); Candida Moss, Divine Bodies: Resurrecting Perfection in the New Testament and Early Christianity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019). For Jesus’ resurrection, the most recent, up-to-date, and judicious treatment is Dale Allison, The Resurrection of Jesus: Apologetics, Polemics, History (London: T&T Clark, 2021). The distinction between the life of the historical Jesus, the evolution of oral tradition about Jesus, and the editorial choices of the Evangelists means that studying the life of the historical Jesus and studying his presentation by the Gospels are distinct but related enterprises. One should consult the relevant Hermeneia, Anchor Bible, and Word commentaries for introductions to the Gospels; each Gospel has its own relevant bibliography which I cannot reasonably offer here. For the presentation of Jesus as messiah in the New Testament, see Novenson, Christ Among the Messiahs: Christ Language in Paul and Messiah Language in Ancient Judaism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015); Joshua W. Jipp, Christ the King: Paul’s Royal Ideology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015); idem, The Messianic Theology of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2020); Paula Fredriksen’s Paul: The Pagans’ Apostle (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017) also details Paul’s messianism.
Son of God
I will refer the reader once more to Collins and Collins, King and Messiah as Son of God, listed above for the origin of the language of divine sonship; also, see Michael Peppard, The Son of God in the Roman World: Divine Sonship in its Social and Political Context (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012) for the use of the language in the wider Roman Empire. The political, mythological, literary, scriptural, philosophical, and theological scaffolding of the Infancy Narratives has long been recognized. Meier addresses traditions of Jesus’ birth in Vol. 1 of A Marginal Jew; but the classic study is Raymond Brown, The Birth of the Messiah (AYBRL; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999). A more recent, conservative treatment is Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives (New York: Image, 2012). For “Son of God” in an evolving context of ante-Nicene and Nicene Christology, and claims for Jesus’ divinity, see the relatively recent debate between Bart Ehrman, How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2014) and the response volume from Michael Bird, Craig Evans, Simon Gathercole, Charles Hill, and Chris Telling, How God Became Jesus: The Real Origins of Belief in Jesus’ Divine Nature: A Response to Bart Ehrman (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2014); in a word, while there are some important points made in the second volume, its overall agenda is so dictated by apologetic necessity that the authors very nearly attempt to argue that the first followers of Jesus were all effectively Nicenes. For the development of Nicene Christology of Jesus as consubstantial Son of God, see John Behr, The Way to Nicaea (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2001); idem, The Nicene Faith, 2 vols. (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2004); Khaled Anatolios, Retrieving Nicaea: The Development and Meaning of Trinitarian Doctrine (Grand Rapids: BakerAcademic, 2011). For the antecedent and parallel developments in Judaism, see Peter Schafer, Two Gods in Heaven: Jewish Concepts of God in Antiquity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020).
Lord
For a general introduction to the antique social hierarchy, see Zeba A. Crook, The Ancient Mediterranean Social World: A Sourcebook (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2020); on ancient slavery in particular, see Sandra R. Joshel, Slavery in the Roman World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010); Peter Hunt, Ancient Greek and Roman Slavery (London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2017); Eftychia Bathrellou and Kostas Vlassopoulos, Greek and Roman Slaveries (London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2022); for Jewish and Greco-Roman resonances of Jesus as Lord, see Larry Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005); for the Christian moral revolution, see Wayne A. Meeks, The Origins of Christian Morality (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993); Tom Holland, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World (New York: Basic, 2019).
Savior and Teacher
On health, wellness, illness, and medicine in the ancient world, see Winston Black, Medicine and Healing in the Premodern West (Ontario: Broadview, 2019); Vivian Nutton, Ancient Medicine, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 2012); for mystery cults, see Marvin W. Meyer, The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook of Sacred Texts (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999); Richard Reitzenstein, Hellenistic Mystery-Religions: Their Basic Ideas and Significance (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2018); for philosophy as a path to salvation, see Vishwa Adluri, Philosophy and Salvation in Greek Religion (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013); on benefaction as salvation, Marc Domingo Gygax, Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016); Teresa Morgan, Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churches (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017); on philosophy generally, see the first two volumes of the Peter Adamson A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps series; see also John Sellars, Hellenistic Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017); an otherwise more detailed bibliography on Hellenistic and Late Ancient philosophy would require its own post. For education in Judaism, see James Crenshaw, Education in Ancient Israel: Across the Deadening Silence (ABRL; New York: Anchor, 1998); for the rabbis, Gabriele Boccaccini, Roots of Rabbinic Judaism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001); Alexei M. Sivertsev, Households, Sects, and the Origins of Judaism (Leiden: Brill, 2005); and once more Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah.
Coming Again
Several of the books on the historical Jesus above cover the development of early eschatological beliefs; what I will offer here are books specifically on both exegesis of relevant texts and speculative eschatology. I might add to it Ben F. Meyer, The Aims of Jesus (rep.; Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2002). For N.T. Wright’s revisionist reading of the Olivet Discourse as suggesting a realized, preterist eschatology as a result of 70, see Jesus and the Victory of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997) and his various popular commentaries on the Synoptics; for what I call the “Hays et. al hypothesis,” see Christopher Hays et al., When the Son of Man Didn’t Come: A Constructive Proposal on the Delay of the Parousia (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2016). For other takes on eschatology from a contemporary critical perspective, attempting to wrestle honestly with the question of Jesus’ return and so forth, see Jerry L. Walls, The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008); Anthony C. Thiselton, Life After Death: A New Approach to the Last Things (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012); Dale Allison, Night Comes: Death, Imagination, and the Last Things (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016); Gerhard Lohfink, Is This All There Is? On Resurrection and Eternal Life (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2020); Sergius Bulgakov, The Sophiology of Death: Essays on Eschatology: Personal, Political, Universal, ed. and trans. Roberto De La Noval (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2021).
Mystery
For Christian tradition as an evolving thing, see Robert Louis Wilken, The Myth of Christian Beginnings (South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1971; rep. 2009), and David Bentley Hart, Tradition and Apocalypse: An Essay on the Future of Christian Belief (Grand Rapids: BakerAcademic, 2022). See also a comparison of the two here by Jesse Hake.
Concludit.
I noted nothing by N.T. Wright. Curious that his work on the Resurrection or other volumes were not mentioned. I assume a critique of his work.
Although I've read quite a few of the authors in this bibliography, I think the only book I've actually read is Michael Bird's edited response to Ehrman's book. I can tell I take a slightly less positive view of Ehrman as a scholar than you do (and given the obvious anti-apologetic content of his popular works, it seems like a bit of a double standard to chatise Bird et al. for their apologetic interests), but I agree that about half of the book is just them trying a bit too hard to get a more pious view of Jesus. They score a few impressive blows, but Bird's chapters are just awful, and the writers are straight-jacketed by their commitment to historical irrerancy.
I think Larry Hurtado's critiques of Ehrman's arguments are more compelling, since he's gives credit where credit's due while still pointing out when Ehrman's lack of historical training (he is, after all, just a talented textual scholar that's interested in the historical Jesus) trips him up.