{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060616296?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"0060616296","authors":["John Dominic Crossan"],"book_id":"9780060616298","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780060616298","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780060616298.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","description":"\"He comes as yet unknown into a hamlet of Lower Galilee. He is watched by the cold, hard eyes of peasants living long enough at a subsistence level to know exactly where the line is drawn between poverty and destitution. He looks like a beggar yet his eyes lack the proper cringe, his voice the proper whine, his walk the proper shuffle. He speaks about the rule of God and they listen as much from curiosity as anything else. They know all about rule and power, about kingdom and empire, but they know it in terms of tax and debt, malnutrition and sickness, agrarian oppression and demonic possession. What, they really want to know, can this kingdom of God do for a lame child, a blind parent, a demented soul screaming its tortured isolation among the graves that mark the edges of the village?\" –– from \"The Gospel of Jesus,\" overture to The Historical Jesus The Historical Jesus reveals the true Jesus––who he was, what he did, what he said. It opens with \"The Gospel of Jesus,\" Crossan's studied determination of Jesus' actual words and actions stripped of any subsequent additions and placed in a capsule account of his life story. The Jesus who emerges is a savvy and courageous Jewish Mediterranean peasant, a radical social revolutionary, with a rhapsodic vision of economic, political, and religious egalitarianism and a social program for creating it. The conventional wisdom of critical historical scholarship has long held that too little is known about the historical Jesus to say definitively much more than that he lived and had a tremendous impact on his followers. \"There were always historians who said it could not be done because of historical problems,\" writes Crossan. \"There were always theologians who said it should not be done because of theological objections. And there were always scholars who said the former when they meant the latter.' With this ground–breaking work, John Dominic Crossan emphatically sweeps these notions aside. He demonstrates that Jesus is actually one of the best documented figures in ancient history; the challenge is the complexity of the sources. The vivid portrayal of Jesus that emerges from Crossan's unique methodology combines the complementary disciplines of social anthropology, Greco–Roman history, and the literary analysis of specific pronouncements, anecdotes, confessions and interpretations involving Jesus. All three levels cooperate equally and fully in an effective synthesis that provides the most definitive presentation of the historical Jesus yet attained.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780060616298","publication_date":"19930226","publisher":"HarperCollins","slug":"the-historical-jesus","subtitle":"The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasa","title":"The Historical Jesus"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"REL006710","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Jesus, Gospels & Acts","score":0.8227,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"REL006040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"New Testament Biography","score":0.8218,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"REL006800","confidence_band":"medium","label":"NT Commentary: Gospels & Acts","score":0.814,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"REL006710","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Jesus, Gospels & Acts","score":0.8227,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"REL006040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"New Testament Biography","score":0.8218,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"REL006800","confidence_band":"medium","label":"NT Commentary: Gospels & Acts","score":0.814,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"BIO006000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Lives in History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"BIO018000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Religious Lives","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"BIO022000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Women's Lives","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS002000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Ancient History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS026000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Middle Eastern History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"PHI022000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Religion & Philosophy","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"REL006040","confidence_band":"high","label":"New Testament Biography","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"REL006070","confidence_band":"high","label":"New Testament Commentary","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Jesus, Gospels & Acts","score":0.8227,"slug":"jesus-gospels-acts"},{"label":"New Testament Biography","score":0.8218,"slug":"new-testament-biography"},{"label":"NT Commentary: Gospels & Acts","score":0.814,"slug":"nt-commentary-gospels-acts"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy Jesus, Gospels & Acts","Good for readers interested in jesus","Good for fans of Religion"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Brandon Robbins"],"book_id":"9780830787227","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780830787227.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","score":19.5977,"title":"The Forgotten Teachings of Jesus","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780830787227"},{"authors":["Marcus J. Borg","John Dominic Crossan"],"book_id":"9780060872601","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780060872601.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","score":19.4647,"title":"The Last Week","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780060872601"},{"authors":["Dallas Willard","John Mark Comer"],"book_id":"9780310367949","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780310367949.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","score":19.1792,"title":"The Scandal of the Kingdom","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780310367949"},{"authors":["Titus Kennedy"],"book_id":"9780736984683","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780736984683.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","score":17.3768,"title":"Excavating the Evidence for Jesus","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780736984683"},{"authors":["Michael R. Licona"],"book_id":"9780310159599","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780310159599.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","score":17.36,"title":"Jesus, Contradicted","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780310159599"},{"authors":["John F. MacArthur","John F. MacArthur Jr."],"book_id":"9780718035044","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780718035044.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","score":17.3466,"title":"John","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780718035044"},{"authors":["Bear Grylls"],"book_id":"9781399820141","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781399820141.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","score":16.9937,"title":"The Greatest Story Ever Told","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781399820141"},{"authors":["Charles R. Swindoll"],"book_id":"9781400202584","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781400202584.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","score":16.9042,"title":"Great Lives: Jesus","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781400202584"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:cultural backgrounds study bible"],"label":"Bible","score":0.3233,"slug":"bible"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:life of jesus"],"label":"Life","score":0.1448,"slug":"life"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:cultural backgrounds study bible"],"label":"Study","score":0.1316,"slug":"study"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:jesus seminar"],"label":"Jesus","score":0.0801,"slug":"jesus"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:the greatest prayer"],"label":"Prayer","score":0.0531,"slug":"prayer"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Bible, Life, Study.","Reading lane: Jesus, Gospels & Acts and New Testament Biography.","Publisher: HarperCollins."]},"llm_signals":null,"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":false,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":333,"goodreads_ratings_count":1983,"goodreads_reviews_count":71,"quality_score":0.9254}}