Saint Saul
A Skeleton Key to the Historical Jesus
Description
In this follow-up to his acclaimed Surpassing Wonder, Akenson recreates the world of Christ, a time rich with ideas, prophets, factions, priests, savants, and god-drunk fanatics. Saint Saul sheds light on Yeshua's birth and his relationship to his family, clarifies Yeshua's views on issues such as divorce and resurrection, and examines his sense of himself as Messiah. Throughout Saint Saul Akenson insistently stresses the Jewishness of Yeshua. He dismisses the traditional way of searching for facts about him by looking for parallels among the four gospels, arguing that the gospels were handed down as a unit by a later generation. In contrast Saul, although he did not know Yeshua personally, knew his most important followers and wrote immediately after his death. Saul's teachings were approved, though sometimes reluctantly, by Yeshua's brothers and other early leaders. Akenson sifts and probes the evidence for and against the historical status of Saul and Yeshua, a mystery as fascinating as a good detective story and one where readers must come to their own conclusions about the circumstances and texts that gave rise to two great world-faiths, Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism.
Reviews
"Akenson's work is distinguished by the highest standards of scholarship, exceptional courage and candour, and a remarkable gift of opening up even the most abstruse questions of history and theology to the fresh air and sunlight of plain speaking. And Ak
"Awe inspiring. This book will help to reorient the study of this period; it will revise our basic understanding of the relationship between Jesus and St Paul, and it will help to save the study of religion from the 'experts' by returning these important questions to a creative popular discourse. Saint Saul is a fascinating and engaging book." William Westfall, Department of History, York University "Akenson is able to penetrate to the heart of things in a manner that one can only envy. He writes vigorous and arresting prose, and is not afraid to go into the corners and mix it up." Terence L. Donaldson, Lord and Lady Coggan Professor of New Testament Studies, Wycliffe College, University of Toronto