"The Gospel of the Ebionites" in NTS

Honored to have been invited by Francis Watson, the editor of New Testament Studies, to contribute an article to the journal about my new book, Jesus and the Temple. My article, ‘“I Have Come to Abolish Sacrifices”: Re-examining a Jewish Christian Text and Tradition,’ explores how a particular passage from the Gospel of the Ebionites (a ‘text’ that exists only in fragments extrapolated from the writings of Epiphanius) raises a number of questions about the use of non-canonical gospel traditions in New Testament studies. 

The Temple Incident in JSHJ

My article, "Jesus and the Temple Incident: A New Proposal," has just been published in the Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus. This research was the basis of my monograph, Jesus and the Temple, published by Cambridge University Press last year. 

Jesus and the Temple - Expository Times

Paul Foster reviews my new book, Jesus and the Temple, in The Expository Times:

“Joseph presents a radical Jesus, who had a more wide-ranging programme of reforming Jewish religion than simply that of calling people back to wholehearted obedience. The ideas presented in this study are likely to generate significant discussion. Joseph presents a new way of understanding Jesus witihin Judaism, but which also means the divergence from normative Judaism found in early Christianity in fact is closely aligned with Jesus’ own critique of the parent religion.”

In Memoriam: James M. Robinson

(June 30, 1924 - March 22, 2016)

I met James Robinson in 2004, when I started my Ph.D. program in Religion (New Testament) at Claremont. Although this was my first meeting in person, I had known about him for a long time. He was an international star in New Testament studies. He served as the General Editor of the Nag Hammadi Library. He was the founder and director of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity and the International Q Project, and served as co-editor of The Critical Edition of Q. I was thrilled when he agreed to direct my Q studies. Jim and I met every week in the IAC Library and worked through his collected essays on the Sayings Gospel Q. We would also meet at his house where he generously shared many of the insights, stories, and knowledge from his long career. Jim was a guiding force on my dissertation committee and graciously described my first book, Jesus, Q, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, as "a new stage in the study of first-century Judaism and Christianity." A couple of years later, I dedicated my JBL article to him ("Why Do You Call Me 'Master?' Q 6:46, the Inaugural Sermon, and the Demands of Discipleship,"). He called it Jesus' "hardest" saying. He was a great scholar, mentor, and friend. I'm going to miss him.

Bishop Steven Charleston on Holy Man

"As a Christian, I am vowed by my baptism to be aware of and responsive to injustice. As a bishop of the Church and a professor of theology, I am well aware of the historic injustice practiced by my faith against Native American people. As a Native elder myself and follower of our traditional ways, I am committed to healing the spiritual wounds inflicted by this continuing injustice. For all three of these reasons, I urge every person . . . to watch Holy Man: The USA vs. Douglas White. This film weaves together the threads of conflict between two religions, the tragic history of colonial oppression, the pervasive power of racism, and the ongoing suppression of Native culture by a government long corrupted by its own colonial legacy. Holy Man is a film about Douglas White, but it is a story as old as Jesus. It is an ancient narrative, acted out over centuries around the world, but it is as contemporary as the terror that haunts our daily news."

Steven Charleston, author of The Four Vision Quests of Jesus

Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Alaska 

The Nonviolent Messiah - CBQ Review

Stephen Finlan reviews The Nonviolent Messiah for the Catholic Biblical Quarterly:

“This is a mature and well-researched work that would be useful for doctoral seminars or higher-level courses on the Synoptic Gospels . . . Without apparent bias, J. argues for a nuanced reflection on these topics . . . Altogether an intriguing book.”

Read the full review here.

Jesus and the Temple - King's Reader Review

Mina Monir at The King's Reader reviews my new book, Jesus and the Temple.