{"product_id":"the-messiah-confrontation-9780827615533","title":"The Messiah Confrontation","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e2023 Top Ten Book from the Academy of Parish Clergy\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Messiah Confrontation\u003c\/i\u003e casts new and fascinating light on why Jesus was killed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Grounded in meticulous research on the messianism debates in the Bible and during the Second Temple period, biblical scholar Israel Knohl argues that Jesus’s trial was in reality a dramatic clash between two Jewish groups holding opposing ideologies of messianism and anti-messianism, with both ideologies running through the Bible. The Pharisees (forefathers of the rabbinic sages) and most of the Jewish people had a conception of a Messiah similar to Jesus: like the prophets and most psalmists, they expected the arrival of a godlike Messiah. However, the judges who sentenced Jesus to death were Sadducees, who were fighting with the Pharisees largely because they repudiated the Messiah idea. Thus, the trial of Jesus was not a clash between Jewish and what would become Christian doctrines but a confrontation between two \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Knohl suggests that Jesus would not have been convicted and executed if tried by Pharisees instead of Sadducees. Accessible prose makes parsing scriptural texts and placing them in historical and political context enthralling, even for those unfamiliar with biblical criticism. This thought-provoking work fascinates.\"—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, starred review\u003cbr\u003e\"This book really is a gift to those of us who wish to pursue Jewish-Christian dialog that allows for a conversation about Jesus. His book also helps us read the New Testament and its descriptions of the various religious parties and their interactions with early Christians. As such, \u003ci\u003eThe Messiah Confrontation \u003c\/i\u003eoffers us a helpful guide to the roots of Jesus’ own sense of calling and purpose, while allowing us to embrace the Jewish roots of the Christian faith more fully (especially the Pharisaic ones, to rehabilitate the Pharisees in the eyes of Christians).\"—\u003ci\u003eWord\u0026amp;Way\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Messiah Confrontation\u003c\/i\u003e is an engaging, provocative book.\"—John J. Collins, \u003ci\u003eJewish Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Knohl's treatment of Isaiah, Hosea, Jeremiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Daniel, the Psalms of Solomon, and other important texts is astute and perspicacious. The writing is felicitous. . . . I teach a freshman seminar at USC on the history of the messianic idea, and I imagine I will be consulting this new volume periodically as I hone my lessons moving forward.\"—Joshua Garroway, \u003ci\u003eCCAR Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Brilliant . . . detailed and scientific. . . . Knohl’s thorough analysis has far-reaching consequences for the relationship between Jews and Christians today. . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Messiah Confrontation\u003c\/i\u003e unfolds like a fascinating mystery.\"—\u003ci\u003eJerusalem Report\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“For Christians, rejecting the theological anti-Jewishness of their own tradition and embracing the Jewishness of Jesus require radical revisions of basic understandings. \u003ci\u003eThe Messiah Confrontation\u003c\/i\u003e moves this project forward by showing that the defining conflict leading to the death of Jesus took place \u003ci\u003ewithin\u003c\/i\u003e Judaism, not against it. Knohl’s bold analysis is compelling, illuminating, and important for Christian and Jewish readers alike.”—James Carroll, author of \u003ci\u003eConstantine’s Sword\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A fascinating interpretation of two strands of biblical thought that developed over a millennium and collided in the trial of a Jew named Jesus of Nazareth. Erudite and a page-turner.”—Ronald Hendel, Norma and Sam Dabby Professor of Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies, University of California–Berkeley\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Messiah Confrontation\u003c\/i\u003e is the product of meticulous research yet it takes away one’s breath. It can be seen as a key that allows us to understand messianic phenomena hundreds of years after the writing of biblical literature, and in reality until this very day. Knohl lays the foundation for the development of a narrative that allows us to classify, categorize, and evaluate key events throughout Jewish history in light of messianic tension. In essence, it provokes the reader and the scholar to develop a new narrative of Jewish history—one based entirely on the tensions between different messianic ideas.”—Dov Schwartz, professor of Jewish philosophy, Bar Ilan University\u003cbr\u003e“Knohl not only documents a series of transformations in Israelite messianism but also meticulously discusses their political ramifications. This thought-provoking work is a must-read for anyone interested in the biblical world as well as in Jewish thought and politics throughout history.”—Ishay Rosen-Zvi, chair of the Department of Jewish Philosophy and Talmud, Tel Aviv University\u003cbr\u003e“In \u003ci\u003eThe Messiah Confrontation\u003c\/i\u003e, Israel Knohl, one of the leading Bible scholars of our time, proposes an original and provocative history of messianism from the Bible through ancient Judaism, culminating in a new interpretation of the trial and death of Jesus. This profoundly learned and accessibly written book will be of great interest to scholars and laypersons alike, and especially to all readers concerned with the fraught history of Judaism and Christianity and their many intersections.”—David Stern, Harry Starr Professor of Classical and Modern Hebrew and Jewish Literature, Harvard University\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e Introduction\u003cbr\u003e 1. Birth of the Messianic Figure\u003cbr\u003e 2. Rejection of the Kingship Concept\u003cbr\u003e 3. Reconceiving the Messiah\u003cbr\u003e 4. Messianic Rise and Fall of “the Branch”\u003cbr\u003e 5. Shifting Sands of Torah Authority\u003cbr\u003e 6. Torah Distinctions between the Human and the Divine\u003cbr\u003e 7. Introducing Resurrection of the Dead into Jewish Thought\u003cbr\u003e 8. The Sadducees’ Denial of the Doctrine of Reward\u003cbr\u003e 9. Qumran Accounts of an Exalted and Suffering Messiah\u003cbr\u003e 10. The Pharisees’ Expectations of an Imminent Messiah\u003cbr\u003e 11. Jesus’s Messianic Conception\u003cbr\u003e 12. The Trial of Jesus\u003cbr\u003e Afterword\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e Subject Index\u003cbr\u003e Scriptural Index","brand":"Jewish Publication Society","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49406206312791,"sku":"9780827615533","price":22.79,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780827615533.jpg?v=1730494924","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-messiah-confrontation-9780827615533","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}