Who is Jesus?

Book excerpt: Keck clarifies the difference between the way Jesus is presented in the gospels and the way critical historians portray him. He then looks at Jesus as a first-century Jew, conscious of the difficulty and importance of recovering Jesus' particular form of Jewishness. He then considers how Jesus' mission was energised by his grasp of the kingdom of God, contending that Jesus clearly expressed a conviction that God's definitive reign was impending and would transform the lives of those who responded affirmatively to his message. He goes on to probe the meaning of the crucifixion of Jesus, in light of the biblical understanding of God's holiness, a theme largely neglected today. He concludes by looking at Jesus' role in the moral life of the Christian community.