Constructing Jesus: Memory, Imagination, and History

Best Book Relating to the New Testament 2011 Biblical Archaeology Society (BAS) Publication Award

What did Jesus think of himself? How did he face death? What were his expectations of the future? In this volume, now in paperback, internationally renowned Jesus scholar Dale Allison Jr. addresses such perennially fascinating questions about Jesus. The acclaimed hardcover edition received the Biblical Archaeology Society’s ＂Best Book Relating to the New Testament＂ award in 2011.

Representing the fruit of several decades of research, this major work questions standard approaches to Jesus studies and rethinks our knowledge of the historical Jesus in light of recent progress in the scientific study of memory. Allison’s groundbreaking alternative strategy calls for applying what we know about the function of human memory to our reading of the Gospels in order to ＂construct Jesus＂ more soundly.

Dale C. Allison Jr. (PhD, Duke University) is the Richard J. Dearborn Professor of New Testament Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey, and is counted among the top Jesus scholars working today. He is the author of numerous books, including The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus, Studies in Matthew, Resurrecting Jesus, The Intertextual Jesus: Scripture in Q, and Jesus of Nazareth: Millenarian Prophet. He is also coeditor of The Historical Jesus in Context and coauthor of a three-volume commentary on Matthew in the International Critical Commentary series.