Richard A Horsley

Far from being a stable situation, the historical context in the late Second Temple Era was full of conflict at the level of the empires and that of the rulers in Palestine. Ordinary people, including both Jerusalemites and villagers, periodically mounted resistance and even revolts against exploitative and/or domineering rulers. Pharisees and scribes, sometimes as retainers of the temple-state but sometimes as dissident retainers, usually attempted to mediate tensions and conflicts but also offered resistance at certain crisis points. With broader critical assessment of the sources and a clearer sense of the changing social-political context, it is possible to construct a (provisional) history of the Pharisees' political position and role in, or in opposition to, the temple-state in Judea under imperial rule. --from the Introduction

In this innovative study, Horsley builds on his earlier works concerning the problematic and misleading categories of "magic" and "miracle" to examine in-depth the meaning and importance of the narratives of healing and exorcism in the Gospels. Incorporating his work on oral performance and turning to important works in medical anthropology, a new image emerges of how these narratives help us re-evaluate Jesus's place in first-century Galilee and Judea. In his exorcisms and healings, Jesus-in-interaction was empowering the villagers in their struggles for renewal of personal and communal dignity in resistance to invasive Roman rule.

Economic justice is the core of the biblical tradition. In this innovative volume, Horsley takes the reader deep in examining how Jesus' economic project was shaped in opposition to the Roman imperial order and how Paul's development of communities around the Mediterranean was part of creating an alternative society among those subject to Rome. This analysis sets in the foreground the fundamental issues of food security, access to resources, and liberation. These movements emerged in opposition to Roman violence, political oppression, and economic extraction. This ultimately leads the author to consider how these issues are more relevant than ever in confronting the most recent form of empire in global capitalism. While we are not living in a Roman imperial world, we must strategize to confront the ways in which the new empire uses violence, oppression, and extraction to the detriment of the vast majority in the world, but especially those who are most vulnerable.

Economic justice is the core of the biblical tradition. In this innovative volume, Horsley takes the reader deep in examining how Jesus' economic project was shaped in opposition to the Roman imperial order and how Paul's development of communities around the Mediterranean was part of creating an alternative society among those subject to Rome. This analysis sets in the foreground the fundamental issues of food security, access to resources, and liberation. These movements emerged in opposition to Roman violence, political oppression, and economic extraction. This ultimately leads the author to consider how these issues are more relevant than ever in confronting the most recent form of empire in global capitalism. While we are not living in a Roman imperial world, we must strategize to confront the ways in which the new empire uses violence, oppression, and extraction to the detriment of the vast majority in the world, but especially those who are most vulnerable.

In Jesus and the Politics of Roman Palestine, Richard A. Horsley offers one of the most comprehensive critical analyses of Jesus of Nazareth's mission and how he became a significant historical figure. Horsley brings a fuller historical knowledge of the context and implications of recent research to bear on the investigation of the historical Jesus. Breaking with the standard focus on isolated individual sayings of Jesus, Horsley argues that the sources for Jesus in historical interaction are the Gospels and the speeches of Jesus that they include, read critically in their historical context. This work challenges the standard assumptions that the historical Jesus has been presented primarily as a sage or apocalyptic visionary. In contrast, based on a critical reconsideration of the Gospels and contemporary sources for Roman imperial rule in Judea and Galilee, Horsley argues that Jesus was fully involved in the conflicted politics of ancient Palestine. Learning from anthropological studies of the more subtle forms of peasant politics, Horsley discerns from these sources how Jesus, as a Moses- and Elijah-like prophet, generated a movement of renewal in Israel that was focused on village communities. This paperback edition is updated with a new preface, bibliography, and indexes.

It has become standard in modern interpretation to say that Jesus performed miracles, and even mainline scholarly interpreters classify Jesus's healings and exorcisms as miracles. Some highly regarded scholars have argued, more provocatively, that the healings and exorcisms were magic, and that Jesus was a magician. As Richard Horsley points out, if we make a critical comparison between modern interpretation of Jesus's healing and exorcism, on the one hand, and the Gospel stories and other ancient texts, on the other hand, it becomes clear that the miracle and magic are modern concepts, products of Enlightenment thinking. 'Jesus and Magic' asserts that Gospel stories do not have the concepts of miracle and magic. What scholars constructed as magic turns out to have been ritual practices such as songs (incantations), medicines (potions), and appeals to higher powers for protection. Horsley offers a critical reading of the healing and exorcism episodes in the Gospel stories. This reading reveals a dynamic relationship between Jesus the healer, the trust of those coming for healing, and their support networks in local communities. Horsley's reading of the Gospel stories gives little or no indication of divine intervention. Rather, the healing and exorcism stories portray healings and exorcisms.

In Jesus and the Politics of Roman Palestine, Richard A. Horsley offers one of the most comprehensive critical analyses of Jesus of Nazareth's mission and how he became a significant historical figure. In his study Horsley brings a fuller historical knowledge of the context and implications of recent research to bear on the investigation of the historical Jesus. Breaking with the standard focus on isolated individual sayings of Jesus, Horsley argues that the sources for Jesus in historical interaction are the Gospels and the speeches of Jesus that they include, read critically in their historical context. This work addresses the standard assumptions that the historical Jesus has been presented primarily as a sage or apocalyptic visionary. In contrast, based on a critical reconsideration of the Gospels and contemporary sources for Roman imperial rule in Judea and Galilee, Horsley argues that Jesus was fully involved in the conflicted politics of ancient Palestine. Learning from anthropological studies of the more subtle forms of peasant politics, Horsley discerns from these sources how Jesus, as a Moses- and Elijah-like prophet, generated a movement of renewal in Israel that was focused on village communities. Following the traditional prophetic pattern, Jesus pronounced God's judgment against the rulers in Jerusalem and their Roman patrons. This confrontation with the Jerusalem rulers and his martyrdom at the hands of the Roman governor, however, became the breakthrough that empowered the rapid expansion of his movement in the immediately ensuing decades. In the broader context of this comprehensive historical construction of Jesus's mission, Horsley also presents a fresh new analysis of Jesus's healings and exorcisms and his conflict with the Pharisees, topics that have been generally neglected in the last several decades.

This ground-breaking volume gathers the best new work in Gospels criticism centered on how the Gospels actually came to be: through oral tradition, story performance, and cultural memory. Contributors include: -John Miles Foley -Martin Jaffee -Jonathan A. Draper -Ellen Aitken -Holly Hearon -Vernon K. Robbins -Whitney Shiner -Jan Assmann -Jens Schroeter -Richard A. Horsley.

Refusing a false dichotomy between "politics" and "religion" in Jesus' world (and our own), Jesus and the Powers rediscovers Jesus' response to the imperial power of his day. Richard A. Horsley describes the relevance of political realities under great empires for understanding the rise of covenantal theology and apocalyptic vision in Israel's history. Then he explores aspects of Jesus' activity in the context of the Roman Empire. Horsley examines Jesus as an exorcist and prophetic figure and the character of his death by crucifixion. He also shows how the community life in the early Pauline assemblies gave form to a new response to imperial powers--and stimulus to contemporary readers to re-imagine their own response to political realities in our own day.

In previous studies, Richard A. Horsley has set Jesus in the context of Jewish prophetic and social banditry movements and has elaborated the imperial context of the New Testament writings. Here he surveys responses in Second Temple Jewish literature to the rise of Hellenistic and Roman empires, discovering in a range of apocalyptic writings the traces of a coherent movement of defiance, critique, and resistance to tyranny. Revolt of the Scribes breaks new ground in the study of apocalyptic origins and in our understanding of Jewish life in the Greco-Roman world.

The Bible might seem like the last place one would look for information and guidance on economics, but in fact the Bible deals with all aspects of life. Richard Horsley's Covenant Economics explores economic issues in the Bible, offering pastors, students, and laity a clearer understanding of the Bible's clarion call for economic justice for all--an issue that is sure to resonate during today's trying economic times. Questions for discussion and suggestions for further reading are included in this volume--a work that will spark lively conversation.