A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Volume V: Probing the Authenticity of the Parables (Volume 5) (The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library) Hardcover – Illustrated, January 5, 2016

I was very pleased to see the fifth volume of "A Marginal Jew" published this year, particularly on such an interesting topic as the parables. I have read and poured over the four previous volumes and found them ALL to be of top-notch writing and reasoning. I eagerly churned through vol. 5. These books are quite literally master works, and result from years and years of Meier’s impressive and painstaking care, rigor, and analyses. What a lens to try to see history from 2,000 years ago!Working your way through vol.5 will remind you of the vast grasp of knowledge that Meier possesses on New Testament writings, prophetic Old Testament passages, early turn of the Common Era history, non-Canonical writings, other scholarship / scholars and Church history / Theology / Christology--- There's even a brief, pertinent discussion on Orwell's "Animal Farm." It is precisely Meier’s strong intellect, keen judgement, and dedication to historical critical analyses -- regardless of where the findings may lead him -- that make these books so valuable and separate him (at a great distance) from the rest of the pack of Bible scholars and historians.Vol. 5 is in keeping with all that has gone before it in Vols.1-4 and involves particularly sensitive (because it is beloved) but murky material -- the historicity of the parables. Meier bravely blazes forward, anticipating and addressing in several places those readers that may grow increasingly uncomfortable with the slim number of “authentic” determinations as Meier shifts through the Gospel material. WARNING to readers of faith: Make every effort to carefully take in and then understand Meier’s points on the Historical Jesus, the “Real” Jesus and the Jesus of Christology and what his methodology yields and doesn’t yield. While Meier’s writing may “break the mold” in some ways, it doesn’t have to shatter your faith, in the slightest. Christians, volume 5 is worth working your way though, even if it “freaks you out” at first look. Non-Christians interested in the historical Jesus will appreciate Fr. Meier’s unflinching stare at the conclusions.Additionally, you will also be delighted with the shiny bits of wit and humor Meier has dropped in -- always with great discretion and professional judgement... it’s terrific tongue in cheek stuff that you would expect to get from a brilliant, witty mind like Meiers.Where I personally find Meier particularly fascinating is when he follows up his conclusions on authenticity with EXCELLENT discussions of how these findings cohere with the much larger picture that has emerged in Vols. 1-4 and stands as the historical Jesus’ message and ministry. This is really, really good stuff and I hope that his concluding volume sums up the entire body of “authentic” findings from the whole Marginal Jew series and then articulates the entire ministry and message of the historical Jesus that emerges from Meier’s decades long effort. I may be putting too much into this, but it is when Meier talks about the “authentic,” coherent message from Jesus that I feel he lets a little of his “Father Meier” shine through! -- although he carefully speaks from the “historical” side at all times.Lastly, I appreciate Meier’s decision to put Van Gogh's painting of the Good Samaritan on the cover. He gives special treatment /discussion to the analysis of the Good Samaritan parable in the book, and it’s beautiful cover art! And beautiful scholarship deserves beautiful art.

This is the fifth volume of maybe the definitive attempt to extract as much as possible of historic content about Jesus the man from the New Testament and other sources as well as to acknowledge what cannot be proved or is probably a later addition. It is extremely erudite and yet very readable. The footnotes can be as enjoyable as the work. Dr. Meier has way of repeating himself which was for me somewhat annoying until I realized how important it was to have everything clarified. I suggest as does Dr. Meier that the reader start with the first volume.

This is an excellent book and is historically very rigorous. Of course, with the limited sources for the first century many questions will not be able to be resolved and this is frustrating. One wonders if even part of the library at Caesarea Maritima had been preserved how much more we might know historically. I am hoping that Meier releases Volume 6 soon.

No one familiar with John Meier's work would be surprised that this volume is comprehensively researched and cogently argued. It is a pleasure to watch a master plying his trade. One would have to say that he does well what he sets out to do. Was it worth doing? Another novelist (H.G. Wells, perhaps) once observed that reading a Henry James novel was like watching a hippo pick up a pea. The effort was out of all proportion to the result. The first volume in this series saw print in 1991. This fifth volume is not the last. Meier's meticulously reasoned conclusion is that only four of the parables probably stem from "the historical Jesus." One must note that the "probability" here is nowhere near so high as the probability that Jesus spoke his troubling divorce logion. The argument in favor of the parable of the Mustard Seed depends on Meier's having discovered Q and Mark versions of the parable. The argument in favor of the parables of the Great Supper and the Servants Entrusted with Money depends on his having teased out M and L versions. The argument in favor of the Vineyard Tenants is that the original form (ending with the murder of the son) is discontinuous with anything the Church might have fabricated. These are reasonable rather than overwhelming arguments. It is undeniable, in Meier's view, that Jesus was a famous teller of parables; yet we have at most four parables that he probably told. Had Oscar Wilde made only four witty remarks, would people remember him as a great wit? Has the tradition exaggerated Jesus' fondness for parables? Or did he tell lots of parables, but parables so unmemorable that within a generation his followers had forgotten all but four? It is obvious that "the historical Jesus" which (not whom; WHICH) Meier unearths is desiccated and attenuated: would Pilate, let alone Mary, have recognized him? John Le Carre's metaphor comes to mind here: "the historical Jesus" is like a bullion cube; Jesus of Nazareth is like a Black Angus. Now, the hippo who can pick up a pea might find an appreciative audience at a circus. Where does Meier expect to find his? What he writes is neither much of a challenge nor much help to a believing Christian, and would a skeptical secular historian be much interested in a person who thought he could work miracles? I very much look forward to reading Meier's next volume (and his next, and his next?), but chiefly for the pleasure of watching a master ply his trade.

This book was a bit of a surprise, based on what Dr. Meier had led us to believe his Volume 5 would be, but it turned out to be an important milestone on the way to completion of his monumental work on the Historical Jesus. He's now promising that Volume 6 will be what he had suggested Volume 5 would be, which was, among other things, his view on why Jesus was executed by the Romans as an insurrectionist.This work on the parables is likely to be disappointing to those who've thought all along that the parables were the one part of the written record that went most reliably back to Jesus, the man of history, when Dr. Meier, on the contrary, uses his preceding fundamental work to relegate most of the parables to the category of either not determinable or not from Jesus.

John P Meier is rigorous in his ambition to define a minimal core of authentic knowledge of Jesus as a historical figure, as opposed to the theological interpretation of later generations of Christian believers. He therefore subjects the gospel narratives to systematic criticism. His account of Jesus as a Jewish eschatological prophet who taught the imminent arrival of the kingdom of God is convincing, albeit now mainstream. In his volume however he goes possibly too far in arguing that the parables recorded in the synoptic gospels were probably not by Jesus, excepting four. He does so by classifying most parables as uncertain because we lack multiple attestation or some other reason (such as them being embarrassing to the early Church ) to believe them to be probably authentic. He correctly notes tat the later synoptic gospels by Matthew and Luke contain ever more parables, and is also right to conclude that some famous ones, such as the good Samaritan, are best understood in the context of the interests of Luke the evangelist. However, he underplays his own criterion of coherence, and the extent to which the fact that Jesus taught in parables became crucial to his legacy and teaching. Consider for example that the oldest gospel by Mark makes this a central issue, in order to explain why his disciples did not quite understand what Jesus was saying. Meier seems to agree with the idea that Mark's major gospel theme, the "messianic mystery", has little to do with the historical Jesus, but this leaves the whole gospel tradition on very shaky grounds as evidence for anything other than the rhetorical and polemical needs of particular Christian communities a few decades after the crucifixion. Meier is right to assert that he does not claim that the majority of the parables are false, he simply says that we cannot be confident that they are authentic. But he does not analyze many of the "uncertain" parables, spending much more effort debunking the historical value of the Coptic gospel of Thomas. At the same time he fails to explain what kind of picture emerges if we consider many of the uncertain parables as actually false, that is, not the result of oral transmission and interpretation, but the absolute creation of the gospel writers a few decades after the death of Jesus. Presumably this will become clear in later volumes. The book is no doubt salutary, but Meier needs to decide what he wants to do with all those sayings that may or may not be authentic.

John P. Meier again hits a home run. The style of writing is engaging. The level of scholarship is superb. One does not need to agree with each point to benefit from this new volume.

I have the whole series (5 volumes) of Father Meier's book. The subject is of course extremeley intriguing, but as a busy layman I lack the energy to read through the complex and lengthy text. I also believe, based on my partial reading, that the purpose of this project, i. e. to give shape to the Historical Jesus, leeds to somewhat disappointing results, as we just do not have enough historically reliable sources about the historical Jesus. Paradoxically, I sometimes find that anti-Christian writers like Renan or Nietzsche bring you even closer to the true spirit of Jesus, but then, the Marginal Jew is a historcial study, not a spiritual work. I hope that one day when less busy, I can dig -into a micro-reading of some of the chapters, and I am almost certain that it will be very rewarding.

A great read.