O que Casey nos conta sobre Jesus de Nazaré?

O livro de Maurice Casey sobre Jesus de Nazaré está fazendo barulho desde o fim do ano passado. Há reações como: é uma obra-prima, é um livro de leitura obrigatória… E muito mais.

As resenhas estão aparecendo. Aqui aponto algumas que li.

O livro é um relato de um historiador independente sobre a vida e os ensinamentos de Jesus de Nazaré. O britânico Maurice Casey é Professor Emérito de Línguas e Literatura do Novo Testamento na Universidade de Nottingham, Reino Unido. Outro livro recente de Casey também foi muito comentado: The Solution to the ‘Son of Man’ Problem. London: T & T Clark, 2009, 416 p. – ISBN 9780567030702 (Paperback). Hardcover: 2007, xiv + 359 p. – ISBN 9780567030696.

CASEY, M. Jesus of Nazareth: An independent historian’s account of his life and teaching. London: T & T Clark, 2010, 576 p. – ISBN 9780567645173.

Michael Kok on Casey – Sheffield Biblical Studies: November 5, 2010

The OOs has been much quieter compared to the heyday for the study of the historical Jesus in the 80s/90s (Sanders, Horsley, Wright, Crossan, Borg, collectively Jesus Seminar, etc) and recently William Arnal questioned the academic legitimacy of the quest (cf. Symbolic Jesus, 73-78), so time will tell if Maurice Casey’s Jesus of Nazareth or Dale Allison’s Constructing Jesus (see Loren Rosson’s review) help revitalize this area. I approach this review of select chapters with a fellow postgraduate with a bit of trepidation, knowing Prof. Casey’s expertise on the subject far exceeds my own. This book is a must-read, especially Casey’s proficiency in reconstructing the underlying Aramaic of the sayings material (close to the ipsissima verba?), detailed knowledge of the Jewish background and unrivalled expertise on the Son of Man debate.

Christopher Markou On Casey, Ch. 2 – Sheffield Biblical Studies: November 14, 2010

It is my task to offer my thoughts on the second chapter of Maurice Casey’s Jesus of Nazareth. First however, it would be prudent of me to offer some general comments about the book and some of my opinions on it. Casey’s latest work is nothing short of a magnum opus, the sort of work a scholar can produce only at the culmination of a distinguished career of scholarship. It seems unfitting for someone such as myself who has yet to begin their own career to have the task of critiquing such a work, but I can confess to being daunted by Professor Casey’s mastery of the subject matter and can only hope that within my own career I am able to produce a monograph of such quality and argumentation. Jesus of Nazareth: An Independent Historian’s Account of His Life and Teaching is both comprehensive and commanding in its scope and argumentation and should certainly take its place as the most important work on the life of the historical Jesus since Sanders’ The Historical Figure of Jesus.

Mike Kok on Casey ch. 3 – Sheffield Biblical Studies: December 1, 2010

Here Casey covers the standard methodology in the study of the HJ: multiple attestation, double dissimilarity, embarrassment, plausibility, Aramaic, and so on.

Mike Kok: concluding thoughts on Casey and the historical Jesus – Sheffield Biblical Studies: January 2, 2011

This will be my last review of Casey’s magnus opus before I retire back to the world outside of blogdom J. I skip sections on upbringing, baptism, monotheism or ethics, for though I differ on an interpretation here or there, overall I agree with Casey’s portrait of a pious eschatological prophet. I would further like to wed Casey’s reconstruction with the social implications noted by a Horsley or a Crossan, such as how Jesus’ reign of God or ethics confronted social or economic disparities in first century Galilee/Judaea or Roman imperialism mediated through the native aristocracy and temple elites (…) So to turn to Ch. 9, Casey introduces Scribes, Pharisees, or Priests.

Did Jesus Rise from the Dead? Casey on Jesus: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 (de 7 partes, publicadas durante esta Semana Santa) – Deane Galbraith: Bulletin for the Study of Religion – 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 e 23 de abril de 2011 [também aqui]

Released late in 2010, Maurice Casey’s historical reconstruction of the life and teachings of Jesus has become the major reference work in the controversial New Testament subdiscipline of historical Jesus studies. This seven-part review of Jesus of Nazareth will engage especially with the twelfth and final chapter of the book (“Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?”) – each part to appear daily over ”Holy Week”. One of the great benefits of Casey’s Jesus of Nazareth for contemporary Jesus scholarship is the way it has taken a great big broom to the accumulated rubbish and detritus which has recently cluttered the field. Casey is never afraid to challenge head-on – often abrasively; always decisively – some of the more blatantly apologetic arguments and conclusions issued recently by more conservative scholars, in a field which has, in these latter days, become dominated by conservative reactionism. This particular quality of Jesus of Nazareth may very well be, if I dare to predict it, the major benefit of the book for critical posterity. Given the sheer volume of quasi-academic, faith-based approaches to the person of Jesus, Casey has arguably cleared the field – for a little while at least – allowing more critical scholars (whether Christian or otherwise) to offer genuine criticism without being bogged down with the sheer weight of defences of the faith presented in the guise of scholarship. At least… here’s hoping that will be the case!