The Meaning of Jesus Two Visions

Was Jesus born of a virgin?

Did he know he was the Messiah? Was he bodily resurrected from the dead? Did he intentionally die to redeem humankind? Was Jesus God?

Marcus J. Borg traces the early layers of the gospel tradition, uncovering a Jewish mystic and social prophet who never claimed divine status for himself.

By contrast, N. T. Wright investigates the same first-century context through Jewish eschatology, arguing that Jesus acted with a messianic vocation that led directly to the cross.

Drawing upon decades of historical research, the two authors meet in vigorous debate to test whether faith and critical scholarship can illuminate each other. Two leading Jesus scholars with widely divergent views go right to the heart of these questions and others, presenting the opposing visions of Jesus that shape our faith today.

• Historical Jesus: Evaluates whether the earliest records in Mark and the reconstructed Q source disclose a Galilean healer and mystic, or whether the full synoptic narrative reflects a prophet inaugurating the kingdom of God.
• Biblical Criticism: Contrasts Borg's division of the text into history remembered and history metaphorized with Wright's method of testing overarching historical hypotheses against first-century Jewish expectations.
• Bodily Resurrection: Examines whether Easter required the physical transformation of a buried corpse or whether the earliest disciples encountered the living Christ through visionary apparitions and continuing spiritual presence.
• Christology: Investigates whether Jesus acted as a one-man counter-temple movement enacting the return of YHWH, or whether titles like Son of God represent retrospective metaphors crafted by the early church.
• Also by This Author: Ultima Semana, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time and The Heart of Christianity.