John P.

Meier, Companions and Competitors (Rethinking the Historical Jesus)

A Marginal JewCompanions and Competitors (Rethinking the Historical Jesus) by John P.
Meier,
Review by: E.P.Sanders
The Journal of Religion, Vol. 84, No. 4 (October 2004), pp. 609-611
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
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Book Reviews
609
ing class interests between agricultural laborers and well-to-do peasants in the
Third World, just as it masks the economic stratication that characterized
rural society in the Eastern Roman Empire.
The degree to which the agrarian myth informs Horsleys model of rst-
century Palestine is revealed by the number of times the people appear in
the pages of Jesus and Empire. In short, Horsleys portrait of Jesus and Empire
is strikingly neopopulist.
SHARON LEA MATTILA, Toronto, Ontario.
MEIER, JOHN P. A Marginal Jew. Vol. 3, Companions and Competitors (Rethinking
the Historical Jesus). Anchor Bible Reference Library. New York: Doubleday,
2001. xiv703 pp. $42.50 (cloth).
This volume, like the two preceding, is essential reading for New Testament
scholars and students. All who are interested in religious studies should nd
some way of familiarizing themselves with the authors main views and methods
(hints will be given below). One assumes that the projected fourth and nal
volume will be of equal importance.
In John P. Meiers work, thoroughness and patience are raised to the level
of an art form, and clear prose to the level of elegance. Meier is engaged in
publishing the most complete and compelling account of the historical Jesus
that has ever been offered.
The nonspecialist who would like to catch up will nd a summary of the
main points of all three volumes in the conclusion to volume 3. Reading these
pages plus a few of the main chapters in one or more of the three volumes
will give the reader a very good idea of what Meier thinks and how he argues.
The overall goal of Meiers work is a reasonably reliable sketch of the Jesus
whom we can recover or reconstruct by using the scientic tools of modern
historical research. This Jesus coincides only partially with the real Jesus of
Nazareth (p. 9). It is refreshing that Meier never lapses into wishful thinking
in the effort to write more than can be known.
Meiers principal view of the historical Jesus, in the briefest possible terms,
is that he was an eschatological prophet who modeled himself in some respects
on Elijah. Eschatology, he correctly points out, refers not to cosmic dissolu-
tion but to the end of the present state of things . . . and the denitive
beginning of a new, permanent state of affairs. God would soon rule Israel
directly as its king (p. 624).
Part 1 of the present volume lays out evidence for various categories of fol-
lowers. Jesus himself provided his movement with some shape and structure.
He did not foresee the rise of the Christian church, but his movement was not
entirely amorphous. The principal evidence is the fact that Jesus called disci-
ples and that from these he selected twelve. This evidence of built-in structure
is bolstered by acute observations about eschatological groups: Qumran, with
strong eschatological views, also had a veritable mania for structure in the
present time. Jewish expectations of the future did not include the idea that
all structures would disappear in the end time. Change of structures, yes; total
disappearance, no (p. 626).
The evidence for followers indicates that there were three groups, best rep-
resented as three concentric circles. On the outside, there were the crowds,
whom Jesus continued to attract throughout his ministry (p. 26), but whose
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The Journal of Religion
610
level of commitment to Jesus is hard to measure. Next, there were the disciples,
people whom Jesus called and who actually followed him (p. 54). Jesus warned
these followers that they risked much but that they would save their lives. The
saying about losing and saving ones life, he notes, appears in Mark, Q, and
John, thus achieving a rare kind of multiple attestation, triple attestation.
(This is a key criterion of authenticity, to which we shall return below.) A
special question with regard to discipleship is whether or not some of the
women followers should be considered disciples. The question is difcult, in
part because there are no call stories involving women. Meier concludes that
the women followers were not disciples in name, but in reality they were
(p. 79). One may be a little dubious because Meiers denition of disciples
includes taking to the road with Jesus and a band of males, but Meier makes
an admirably clear and well-balanced argument for full discipleship apart from
the name.
The closest insiders were the Twelve. The existence of the Twelve as a group
is proved by multiple attestation of sources and forms (p. 128), embarrass-
ment (because one of the Twelve betrayed Jesus), and by the general ow
of the tradition (since so much of the New Testament does not mention the
Twelve, it is hard to think that the number is a later invention). The Twelve
served as prophetic symbols of the regathering of the twelve tribes of Israel
(p. 148). Numerous scholars have made the same suggestion, but Meiers suc-
cinct and comprehensive argument is all one really needs. Moreover, they were
prophetic missionaries to Israel (p. 154). In this section, Meier offers an
admirable summary of the two forms of the missionary discourse (he accepts
the Mark-Q hypothesis). A nal chapter in part 1 summarizes what is known
about a few of the individuals in the Twelve.
Part 2 seeks to clarify Jesuss relationships with competitors, who consist of
the other identiable groups of Jewish Palestine. For the most part, these re-
lationships are contrasts, though there are some parallels. Like the Essenes,
Jesuss outlook was eschatological. Like the Pharisees, he appealed to the com-
mon people.
The author presents admirable summaries of what is known of the main
Jewish parties and groups. His grasp of the nuances of these intricate discus-
sions is almost perfect. He not only reveals good judgment is evaluating schol-
arly arguments but also shows that he has studied the sources in considerable
detail. The quantity of homework that went into these chapters is almost awe
inspiring. The goal of the enquiry, of course, is to establish evidence about
how Jesus and these groups did or did not interact, which he does with his
customary thoroughness and skill.
In studying the competitors, he begins with the important recognition that
most Jews belonged to none of the named groups. The vast majority of or-
dinary Jews, as well as the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the scribes, belonged
to common Judaism, which he also calls mainstream Judaism. There was
a broad if not easily dened mainstream that held to the basic practices and
beliefs of the Jewish religion, including monotheism, the election of Israel,
the gift of the law, and worship in the temple in Jerusalem. It was this main-
stream Judaism of Palestine that Jesus the Jew addressed, wooed, and warned.
Indeed, it was from this mainstream Judaism that Jesus emerged, and it was in
relation to this Judaism that Jesus dened his special role (pp. 78).
With the major parties thus set in a broad context, Meier is under no pres-
sure to decide precisely what amount of authority the Pharisees, for example,
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Book Reviews
611
had in Judea or Galilee during Jesuss lifetime. He assesses the individual ac-
counts in the gospels, but he is free to treat the Pharisees peculiarities as only
partly distinctive within the broader mainstream Judaism. The consequence is
that this is the best brief characterization of the Pharisees that I know. Similar
remarks apply to the Sadducees. The Essenes (whom he equates with the Qum-
ran community) are distinctive, since they withdrew from mainstream Judaism.
Jesus competed directly only with the Pharisees, since both wanted the alle-
giance of the common people. The treatments of the scribes, the Herodians,
and the Zealots provide excellent information for the interested reader.
A main aspect of all of Meiers work is demonstrating how sources are as-
sessed as evidence and may or may not become facts. A principal question is
whether a theme or idea is attested in multiple sources or forms. As indicated
above, Meier is a true believer in the Mark-Q hypothesis, and moreover he
accepts M and L as separate sources as well. This enhances his ability to nd
cases of multiple attestation. Of the other criteria of authenticity, embar-
rassment (the Christian church would not have made this up) and disconti-
nuity (this stands out as characteristic of Jesus in comparison with other Jewish
and Christian sources) are especially important. These and other criteria es-
tablish what the historian can know. The authors most important task, how-
ever, is to put together the bits of information that he discovers, and Meiers
good judgment permits him to do that in a pleasant, elegant, and persuasive
way. It is impossible to praise this work too highly.
E. P. SANDERS, Duke University.
LOVELAND, ANNE C., and WHEELER, OTIS B. From Meetinghouse to Megachurch: A
Material and Cultural History. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2003.
307 pp. $59.95 (cloth).
Stand aside Yao Ming . . . Lakewood Church is going pro. Among Americas
largest churches with 25,000 attending weekly, Lakewood in Houston, Texas,
has made a successful bid to purchase and transform the Compaq Center
the former arena of the Houston Rocketsinto their new church campus. The
$75 million Lakewood International Center will include an ice-skating rink,
dining and retail plaza, 200,000 square feet of classrooms, convention center,
international broadcast and production studio, and a 16,000-seat worship cen-
ter with stage and orchestra pit anked by continuous waterfalls. The Lake-
wood Center promises to be an exemplar of that new church type expanding
across the landscape of American religion: the megachurch. Born in the 1970s
to evangelize the baby boomers, the megachurch epitomizes the Christian em-
brace of American popular culture: mass-, not Mass; Awesome!, not awe-some.
With campuses approximating shopping malls or corporate headquarters, pro-
ponents tout it as a radical new church model that has manifested a new ar-
chitectural vocabulary in American evangelicalism. But is it new?
Using architecture as their lens into evangelical culture, Anne C. Loveland
and Otis B. Wheeler ask just this question in From Meetinghouse to Megachurch:
A Material and Cultural History. In the books ten chapters, Loveland and
Wheeler take as their premise that the megachurch is only the most recent
iteration of a long history of utilitarianism in American evangelical architec-
ture. The rst six are dedicated to antecedents, of sorts, through the 1950s,
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