Rabbi Jesus, an Intimate Biography: The Jewish Life and Teaching That Inspired Christianity. (Book Review).

Bruce Chilton, Rabbi Jesus, an Intimate Biography: The Jewish Life and Teaching That Inspired Christianity, Doubleday, 2000, hardcover, 330 pp. $38.00

This book is not recommended reading for anyone seeking Christian truth. Unfortunately, the cover picture of a pensive, gentle, bearded young man, the title, the well-heeled publisher, the author's credentials, along with the dust cover promotionals together will draw a good number of readers. The text itself is imaginative and compelling at times for those who want a studied reflection of contemporary fallen humanity instead of the real Christ.

Author Bruce Chilton, an Episcopalian minister, is a professor of religion at Bard College in New York State. The dust cover notes that "Chilton draws on recent archaeological findings to paint a vivid portrait of social customs, political forces and religious beliefs and practices of the period." One can feel caught up in the times as one reads Chilton's evocative descriptions of first-century Palestine, smoothly shifting in and out of fictional accounts of Jesus from apparent factual material that is usually insubstantial conjecture.

Chilton unmistakeably has the basic Christian creed askew. Joseph got Mary pregnant out of wedlock. Jesus' disciples saw him after his death not in his physical body, but as a vision while they were in a trance, accompanied by "disciplined" frenzy and hysteria. Jesus was a naive social outcast with a rebellious spirit, bitter after childhood rejection. "He seemed lost at times, the direction of his life unclear, but then he could turn around and flaunt his prophetic conviction."

Further we read, "There is no evidence that Jesus did or did not enjoy sexual contact during his life." He had "a bipolar tendency evident throughout his life", and was a teacher of the Kabbalah with mind-altering visions and "shamanic power." Chilton writes, "Jesus' techniques as an exorcist centred on the esoteric practice he had learned from John [the Baptist]. He went into a trance by meditating on the divine Throne." Ho hum, it's hippiedom revisited, a New Age guru with typical yuppie psychological hang-ups.

Unsettling accolades of praise appear prominent on the dust cover, from influential persons from whom one would expect more good faith and sense. "One can only be grateful for his fresh and innovative views on the teacher from Nazareth," writes John Meier, a dissenting Catholic biblical scholar and professor of the New Testament, Catholic University of America. The Episcopalian Bishop of Los Angeles states, "Rabbi Jesus is as close as any reader is likely to get to the historical Jesus." Craig E. Evans, Professor and Director, Graduate Program on Biblical Studies, Trinity Western University, British Columbia writes, "Bruce Chilton's Rabbi Jesus offers an imaginative yet very informed and plausible account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth." Alas for those who embrace novelties and fail to defend and proclaim the biblical truths of Christ Jesus.