The Wisdom of Jesus

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How would the image of Jesus appear if it were based only on sayings that scholars generally agreed originated with Jesus? And how would the wisdom of Jesus reflected in those few sayings compare to the wisdom of the sages of ancient Israel and the apostles of the early first-century church? To answer such questions historians face serious difficulties. Everything we know about Jesus comes from what later writers thought about him, none of the things they claimed he said came directly from him. "Everything in the early Christian gospels is either derived from historical memory, or is borrowed, or invented, " Hedrick claims. Even those few sayings receiving near-universal agreement from historians as sayings of Jesus can only be affirmed as probable rather than certain. The aim of this study is to allow Jesus to speak for himself directly to readers, as nearly as possible in his own words without the theological explanations of his interpreters. The resulting image of Jesus that emerges is a complex picture of a first-century lower-class man who was not religious in a traditional sense. His discourse was the language of the secular world and addressed issues of common life. "Hedrick distills a lifetime of learning as he invites and equips us to learn from the wisdom of Jesus in the only way one can learn wisdom: by thinking along with it. Those willing to benefit from Hedrick's expert guidance and ponder the historical Jesus's shrewd observations, dark humor, and paradoxical perspectives, run the real (and exhilarating) risk of changing their minds about what they thought they knew." --Robert J. Miller, Professor of Religious Studies, Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA "Basing his construction of the distinctive figure of Jesus on the Jesus Seminar's minimal reconstruction of the authentic sayings of Jesus, Hedrick contrasts him with both the earlier tradition of Israel and the later tradition of the church. Both those who affirm this approach and those who challenge it can be informed by this provocative study." --M. Eugene Boring, I. Wylie and Elizabeth M. Briscoe Professor of New Testament emeritus, Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX "Building upon the Jesus Seminar's inventory of authentic Jesus sayings, Hedrick provides an analysis that is informed by Israel's literary context as much as by its historical context. A genuine strength of Hedrick's book is its appreciation for the artistry of those sayings. Hedrick respects the enigmatic quality of Jesus's teachings, he does not attempt to impose a normative meaning upon them. This truly is an important book for scholars, and it is accessible for laypersons." --Perry Kea, Associate Professor, University of Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN "Charles Hedrick takes the reader on a fascinating exploration of the distinctive wisdom discourse of Jesus that sets him apart from early Christian wisdom and the ancient sages of Israel. Hedrick's careful analysis, which recognizes the collective work of the Jesus Seminar, concludes with a consideration of images of Jesus penned by six contemporary historical Jesus scholars and, finally, gives his own impression of Jesus as a first-century idiosyncratic Jewish wisdom teacher from Galilee." --W. Barnes Tatum, Jefferson-Pilot Professor emeritus of Religion and Philosophy, Greensboro College, Greensboro, NC "Charles Hedrick's The Wisdom of Jesus presents a major advancement in the quest for the voiceprint of the historical Jesus. Resolute and focused, this study builds critically and with nuance on the monumental work of the Jesus Seminar. . . . He invites readers to realize that while a detailed biography of Jesus is no longer possible, precisely from the fragments of a complex tradition a shrewd artisan's wisdom can be encountered.