The Vermes Quest: The Significance of Geza Vermes for Jesus Research (The Library of New Testament Studies, 576)

"Geza Vermes is a household name within the study of the historical Jesus, and his work is associated with a significant change within mainstream Jesus research, typically labelled 'the third quest'. Since the publication of Jesus the Jew in 1973, many notable Jesus scholars have interacted with Vermes's ideas and suggestions, yet their assessments have so far remained brief and ambiguous. Hilde Brekke Moller explores the true impact of Vermes's Jesus research on the perceived change within Jesus research in the 1980s, and also within third quest Jesus research, by examining Vermes's work and the reception of his work by numerous Jesus scholars. Moller looks in particular depth at the Jewishness of Jesus, the Son-of-Man problem, and Vermes's suggestion that Jesus was a Hasid, all being aspects of Vermes's work which have attracted the most scholarly attention. Moller's research-historical approach focuses not only on the leading scholars of the field such as E.P. Sanders, J.D. Crossan, J.P. Meier and C.A. Evans, but also sheds light on underplayed aspects of previous research, and responds to the state of affairs for recent research by challenging the rhetoric of current historical Jesus scholarship."--The publisher Cover 1 Contents 8 Acknowledgements 12 List of Abbreviations 13 Part I Introduction 16 Chapter 1 The Significance of Geza Vermes for Jesus Research 18 The Purpose of the Study 18 The Problem 19 Main Questions, Material, and Method 22 Historiographical Considerations and Terminology 24 Previous Assessments of Vermes’s Jesus Research 25 Outline 29 Chapter 2 Vermes and Jesus Research 32 Biographical Notes on Vermes 32 Vermes and Jesus Research 35 Vermes’s Works on Jesus 37 Early Essays 37 First Trilogy: The Jewish Jesus 38 Second Trilogy: Nativity, Passion, Resurrection 40 Follow-ups 42 Anthologies 43 Vermes’s Works as Material for This Study 45 Chapter 3 The History of Jesus Research: Mapping the Quest(s) 46 The Three-Quest Scheme 46 Limitations of the Three-Quest Scheme 47 Alternative Mappings of Jesus Research 50 The Third Quest 52 Part II The Significance of Vermes's Jewish Jesus for Jesus Research 56 Chapter 4 Vermes’s Jewish Jesus (1973) 58 Method and the Jewish Jesus in Jesus the Jew 58 A Historian’s Reading of the Gospels – Jesus the Jew as Jesus Research? 58 Authenticity of Gospel Narratives in Jesus the Jew 60 The Historical Jesus of Jesus the Jew 62 Vermes’s Judaism in Jesus the Jew 66 Charismatic Judaism 67 Galilee and Galilean Judaism 70 Conclusion 72 Chapter 5 The Significance of Jesus the Jew: the 1970s and 1980s 74 Reviews of Jesus the Jew from the 1970s 75 Book Reviews as Sources 76 A Varied First Reception 77 Jesus the Jew in Histories of the Third Quest from the 1980s 84 Conclusion 87 Chapter 6 The Jewishness of Jesus before Vermes 90 Anti-Semitic Tendencies in Jesus Research 93 De-Judaizing Methodology: The Dissimilar Jesus 96 Jewish Scholars and the Jewish Jesus 100 Christian Scholars and the Jewish Jesus 104 German Mission to the Jews and Institutum Judaicum 106 Franz Delitzsch and One Day in Capernaum 108 Hermann L. Strack and D. Paul Billerbeck’s Commentary 112 Gustav Dalman and Die Worte Jesu 116 Summary 119 Additional Reflections on the Jewishness of Jesus within Jesus Research 120 Chapter 7 The Significance of Vermes’s Work on the Son of Man 124 Vermes on the Son of Man in the 1960s and 1970s 125 The First Reception of Vermes’s Work 129 Vermes’s Significance for the Son of Man Debate 130 Vermes’s Significance Displayed in Accounts of the Son of Man Debate 130 Vermes’s Impact on Barnabas Lindars’s Work on the Son of Man 131 Vermes’s Impact on Maurice Casey’s Work on the Son of Man 132 Concluding Reflections on the Significance of Vermes’s Work on the Son of Man 135 Chapter 8 Final Considerations on the Jewishness of Jesus within Jesus Research 138 Part III The Significance of Vermes's Hasid Theory 146 Chapter 9 Vermes’s Hasid Theory and Its Precursors 148 The Hasid Theory before Vermes 149 The Hasid Theory in Jesus the Jew 151 The Hasidim 152 The Setting: Galilee 154 The Hasidim as Miracle Workers 155 God as Father, Hasid as Son 159 Summary and Reflections on Vermes’s Methodology 163 Chapter 10 The Hasid Theory within Jesus Research after 1973 168 The Debate on Vermes’s Hasid Theory 169 Approaches to Vermes’s Terminology and Categorization 174 Challenges to Vermes’s Categorization 174 Endorsements of Vermes’s Terminology 178 Vermes’s Work on the Hasid Category in the 1980s and 1990s 180 The History Approach to the Hasid Theory 182 Developments in Vermes’s View on the Hasid Theory 191 The Literary Approach to the Hasid Theory 196 Development in Vermes’s View on Parallels to the New Testament 205 The Significance of the Hasid Theory for Jesus Research 206 Chapter 11 Hanina Ben Dosa Heals from a Distance: A Case of Christian Influences upon Talmudic Judaism? 208 The Problem 208 Healing from a Distance 210 The Jesus Tradition 210 The Hanina Tradition 212 Date and Chronology of Traditions 216 The Possibility of Influence between Traditions 220 Examples of Rabbinic Appropriations 225 Concluding Reflections 228 Part IV Conclusions and Outlook 232 Chapter 12 Conclusion 234 Chapter 13 Outlook 236 Bibliography 240 Index 255