Prophet and Teacher

William Herzog, one of my favorite scholars, has a new intro to the historical Jesus.

Prophet&Teacher

I haven't read it yet, but I'm sure it's up to Bill's usual standards. In his previous works (Parables as Subversive Speech; Jesus, Justice, and the Reign of God), he presented Jesus as the product of an honor-shame culture in the Jewish prophetic tradition, a blend of three prophetic types all in one: a popular prophet who acquired honor by outwitting his adversaries in the daily game of challenge-riposte (and through exorcist-healing); an oracular prophet who leveled social critiques through the parables; and a Deuteronomic prophet who both critiqued and defended the Torah. In particular, Jesus used parables much in the same way Paulo Freire used codifications to teach peasants in Brazil how to understand the world on their own terms for a change. It will be interesting to see how Herzog does an introduction to the whole HJ field. We can probably count on healthy doses of the honor-shame model.