Episode: Has the quest for the historical Jesus been plagued by an anti-liturgical sentiment? Michael Barber joins OnScript to discuss the historical Jesus, best method, and Jesus's mysterious engagement with the temple and its system. Cohosted by Matthew Bates and Chris Tilling.

The Book: Michael Patrick Barber, The Historical Jesus and the Temple: Memory, Methodology, and the Gospel of Matthew (Cambridge University Press, 2024). In this book, Michael Patrick Barber examines the role of the Jerusalem temple in the teaching of the historical Jesus. Drawing on recent discussions about and memory research in Jesus studies, he advances a fresh approach to reconstructing Jesus' teaching. Barber argues that Jesus did not reject the temple's validity but that he likely participated in and endorsed its rites. Moreover, he locates Jesus' teaching within Jewish apocalyptic eschatology, showing that Jesus' message about the coming kingdom and his disciples' place in it likely involved important temple and priestly traditions that have been ignored by the quest. Barber also highlights new developments in scholarship on the Gospel of Matthew to show that its Jewish perspective offers valuable but overlooked clues about the kinds of concerns that would have likely shaped Jesus' outlook. A bold approach to a key topic in biblical studies, Barber's book is a pioneering contribution to Jesus scholarship. (Publisher's description).

Guest: Michael Patrick Barber (PhD Fuller Theological Seminary) is Professor of Sacred Scripture and Theology at the Augustine Institute. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles and publications, including Paul, A New Covenant Jew: Rethinking Pauline Theology (Eerdmans, 2019), co-written with Brant Pitre and John Kincaid. In addition to his academic research, Dr. Barber has written public-facing works, most recently, The True Meaning of Christmas: The Birth of Jesus and the Origins of the Season. He also writes for the website, TheSacredPage.com, and can be found on Twitter (@MichaelPBarber).

OnScript's Review: In this important contribution to the quest for the historical Jesus, Michael Barber shows the deree to which previous attempts have been hampered by an anti-liturgical bias. What emerges is a more thoroughly Jewish Jesus who had a complex relationship with the temple and its system. -- Matthew W. Bates, author of The Birth of the Trinity; professor of theology at Quincy University.

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