Jesus the Prophet: His Vision of the Kingdom on Earth

By R. David Kaylor

Book Overview

R. David Kaylor believes that Jesus' vision of a just society and his prophetic engagement with social, political, and economic conditions led to his execution by the Romans. Here he presents Jesus' message of a just society based on Israel's covenant tradition. He shows the prophetic background and social content of Jesus' ethical teaching and demonstrates that the parables (especially those with economic and agricultural associations) critiqued the social conditions and called for a restructuring of community life. He provides evidence that Jesus' vision endures, offering criticism of the present and promise of a future. Book jacket.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0664255051
• ISBN13: 9780664255053
• Release Date: February 1994
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.9" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Definitely Worth Reading

I was motivated to read this book by the previous review. It is one of the better books I have read in regard to the historical Jesus. However, I don't completely share the enthusiasm of the previous reviewer. My main criticism is the author's interpretation of some of the parables. The author is too suspicious of the ulterior motives of the Gospel writers and doesn't feel that anything taught by the church can be trusted. By putting his own spin on these parables, the author complicates and confuses teachings which were meant to be simple and straightforward. For example, the author tries to debunk the eschatological meaning behind the parable of the wheat and the tares. The individual who sowed the wheat with the tares represents an absentee landlord whose servants are not as adept at farming as the native peasant farmers. (SAY WHAT?) Some of his other parable interpretations are just as confusing. I wholeheartedly agree with the main theme of the book and it is definitely worth reading. The author's ideas are very close to those of Richard Horsely in Jesus and Empire (see my review). However, the author gives us some of his own unique insights without straying into modern politics. The author interprets the Lord's Prayer as thoroughly Jewish in that it addresses real world concerns. "Hallowed be thy name" is a call for God's people to be vindicated in order to restore honor to His name. Matthew's use of "debts" is probably closer to the original meaning in that it calls for a Jubilee in which we will be released from our debts as we release those who are indebted to us. Jesus did not address personal salvation which is an obsession with Calvinistic Christianity. Jesus was concerned with restoring the Kingdom of God as Israel's salvation. This was a kingdom of peace and justice held in place by the Mosaic Covenant, not as a set of rules or traditions, but as a real way of life to be put into practice. I applaud the author for debunking failed attempts to try to modernize Jesus. Jesus was neither a captitalistic individualist (ie a right wing conservative) nor was he a socialist calling for a bureaucratic state (ie a left wing liberal). He rejected violence yet he was not a pacifistic philosopher who avoided conflict. The main theme of the book is that Jesus was, above all, a prophet who was shaped by the prophetic traditions of his ancestors. Like the prophets of Israel's past, he was intimately involved with the political and social turmoil of his time. His intimate relation with God led him to social action in which he was perceived as a threat by the status quo. His spirituality was not egocentric mysticism which led to withdrawal and detachment from the turmoil around him. Like the prophets before him, Jesus fearlessly proclaimed God's will as he saw it without pandering to the establishment or popular opinion. He shared their vision of a renewed Israel as God's Kingdom. To fully understand Jesus, we need not go any furt

Jesus the Prophet of the Kingdom of God on Earth

Of all the works on the historical personage of Jesus up to the present, this may well be the most impressive. Having personally read most everything on the topic from von Harnack through Eisenman, this book to me offers the most compelling and coherent explication of the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth I have yet encountered. While R. David Kaylor does nothing to diminish the "universal Christ" of Christian worship, he describes a man with a far different mission. And, that mission was the preaching of the Kingdom of God in a specific time and place. From the very first page of the preface, the author asserts his premise. In doing so, it is immediately evident that Kaylor is going to describe the mission of Jesus on earth in very practical terms. And I quote the author, "... not surprisingly, the universal Christ of faith is regarded as incompatible with a particular Jesus located in a particular history. What is not so evident to those that feel that way is the extent to which what they regard as a "universal" Christ actually mirrors the values they derive not from the New Testament but from their own culture. Thus, to challenge their universal Christ is not merely to challenge a theology thought to derive from the New Testament but also to call into question the concrete cultural values by which they live." And what does Kaylor find in Jesus' preaching of the Kingdom? He finds a thoroughly political Jesus challenging the root assumptions of the arrangements of the earthly Kingdom of the Roman Empire, the Hellenized Jewish ruling class, and the commercializing agricultural economy of first century C.E. Roman Palestine. This is not a new concept, however, it has never been handled in a completely convincing manner by prior scholars as far as I am concerned. Kaylor is aware of and in touch with all the prior scholarly material on his topic and explains his interface with it in detail including among others, Brandon, Hengel, Horsley and Crossan. He makes it clear that his historical methodology is rigorous so as to yield as objective a picture of Jesus' ministry as possible. What is new in this book and what I find convincing is the explanation of Jesus as the prophet of a Kingdom of God based on the convenantal relationship of God to his people. His covenantal conception is expansive and goes well beyond the Torah, and while, preached to his fellow Jews, it obviously could be inclusive of all of mankind. Jesus' message demanded a change in the social and political arrangements of his day and was subversive. For his troubles, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified as a threat to the state. Jesus attracted a following otherwise there would have been no reason to execute him in Kaylor's reading. That his following was among the poor and dispossessed is amply attested to. The powerful and the rich are not among his followers and were his executioners. This reified picture of a very human Jesus of Nazareth will be disconcerting to many.