Jesus Christ

In the Bible, and specifically in its New Testament, Jesus Christ is portrayed as The Messiah, the person who, according to Jewish theological tradition will lead the faithful from their earthly sins into a more spiritual existence. While Jewish tradition holds that that person has not yet appeared on earth, according to Christian theological tradition, the man known as Jesus was that person. This book, however, is less interested in either tradition and more in the social, historical and political contexts of the man Jesus' life, work, teaching, and death.

In those contexts, then, Jesus was born into poverty, was probably illiterate and mostly uneducated, was raised in a family with several siblings, and as he grew into manhood became a preacher of what was radical liberal thought for that time period. He advocated breaking down traditional social, political, economic, and moral barriers that had for centuries...