“What is in question is whether the reconstruction of a Jesus other than the Jesus of the Gospels, the attempt, in other words, to do all over again what the Evangelists did, though with different methods, critical historical methods, can ever provide the kind of access to the reality of Jesus that Christian faith and theology have always trusted we have in the Gospels. Oral testimony was preferable to written sources, and witnesses who could contribute the insider perspective only available from those who had participated in the events were preferred to detached observers.” ( ) “Byrskog has shown that testimony-the stories told by involved participants in the events-was not alien to ancient historiography but essential to it. Logos Research Subscription for Schools.In this expanded second edition Bauckham is adding a new preface, three substantial new chapters that respond to critics and clarify key points of his argument, and a comprehensive new bibliography.

Sure to ignite heated debate on the precise character of the testimony about Jesus, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses is a groundbreaking work that will be valued by scholars, students, and all who seek to understand the origins of the Gospels. Finally, Bauckham challenges readers to end the classic division between the ‘historical Jesus’ and the’Christ of faith’, proposing instead the ‘Jesus of testimony’ as presented by the Gospels. Jesus and the Eyewitnesses also taps into the rich resources of modern study of memory, especially in cognitive psychology, refuting the conclusions of the form critics and calling New Testament scholarship to make a clean break with this long-dominant tradition. To drive home this controversial point, Bauckham draws on internal literary evidence, the use of personal names in first-century Jewish Palestine, and recent developments in the understanding of oral tradition. The author challenges the assumption that the accounts of Jesus circulated as ‘anonymous community traditions’, asserting instead that they were transmitted in the name of the original eyewitnesses. Jesus and the Eyewitness’ argues that the four Gospels are closely based on the eyewitness testimony of those who knew Jesus. Noted New Testament scholar Richard Bauckham challenges the prevailing assumption that the Jesus accounts circulated as “anonymous community traditions,” asserting instead that they were transmitted in the names of the original eyewitnesses.

Winner of the 2007 Christianity Today Book Award in Biblical Studies, this momentous volume argues that the four Gospels are closely based on the eyewitness testimony of those who personally knew Jesus.

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Jesus and the eyewitnesses