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Finalist for the Biblical Foundations Book Award 2021
How did the controversy between Jesus and the scribal elite begin? We know that it ended on a cross, but what put Jesus on the radar of established religious and political leaders in the first place? Chris Keith argues that an answer to these questions must go beyond typical explanations such as Jesus's alternative views on Torah or his miracle working and consider his status as a teacher.
Keith examines Jesus' own likely educational background, and situates Jesus within his first-century context, showing readers that some of the tensions between Jesus and the scribal authorities may have originated in Jesus' own lack of formal education. Keith builds on his earlier work on Jesus' literacy and uses insights from memory theory and ancient media studies to consider how Jesus' actions and teachings may have specifically been seen to challenge an elitist scribal culture.
Chris Keith
Chris Keith (PhD, University of Edinburgh) is professor of New Testament and early Christianity and director of the Centre for the Social-Scientific Study of the Bible at St. Mary's University, Twickenham. He was a 2010 recipient of the John Templeton Award for Theological Promise for his book The Pericope Adulterae, the Gospel of John, and the Literacy of Jesus and was named a 2012 Society of Biblical Literature Regional Scholar.
More by Chris Keith
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