Wrestling with the Bible (ta biblia, the books)

"We think of the Bible as a book...But the Greek term that stands behind the modern English equivalent - ta biblia, the books - conveys more accurately the manifold nature of these ancient texts. This collection comprises a multitude of individual writings...multitude of voices, literary genres, religious and political visions, local oral traditions - the work of now lost authors, editors, and scribes. The Bible is not a book: it is a library."
Professor Paula Fredriksen
John Dominic Crossan was originally drawn to the priesthood because "God had the most interesting game in town"
"He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty."
Mary's Song
"Most striking in all this is the diversity of modern Jesus scholars...this means that a Christian agenda can no longer set the questions, let alone the outcomes. Perhaps the most important development in modern Jesus studies is the fact that the Jewishness of Jesus is now central...it sees him as very much part of the first-century Jewish world...Second Temple Judaism is now seen to have been extremely complex and diverse; no longer can scholars imagine a normative, monolithic Judaism against which Jesus stood out. The question now is not so much 'Was Jesus a Jew?', but what kind of a Jew was Jesus? An Essene, a Pharisee, a nationalist, a prophet?"
Professor Helen Bond, Christian Origins Head of the School of Divinity
"Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God."
Jesus of Nazareth, Luke Q source
In The Challenge of Jesus, renowned historical Jesus scholar John Dominic Crossan, presents his life’s work exploring the matrix of Jesus’ unique time and place. Drawing on scholarly text, excavation and history, Dr. Crossan introduces us to the flesh and blood people who shaped the world into which Jesus was born.
“My point, once again, is not that those ancient people told literal stories and we are now smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told them symbolically and we are dumb enough to take the literally.”
“The past is recorded almost exclusively in the voices of elites and males, in the viewpoints of the wealthy and the powerful, in the visions of the literate and the educated.”
~John Dominic Crossan

[@aaroncrawford8123]

James was obviously written out.