Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict

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This account of the life of Jesus is neither a historical novel nor a scholarly monograph. It represents an excellent fusion of these approaches: copious and informed material information by way of well-wrought and well-written biographical narrative. The book conveys a sharp sense of the times and places, the issues and discussions, the difficulties and possibilities. A marvelous idea on the part of Crossley and Myles—altogether well done!

Others may find this is one of the work’s greatest achievements in that it shatters a number of lazy liberal assumptions about Jesus which strive anachronistically to restrict him to the role of a soixante-huitard hippy. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader supported. At People’s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all.

One of the ways James connects his interest in these two periods is through his focus on how people understand and negotiate historical change. His work on political rhetoric, for instance, looks at how the social, economic, and geopolitical upheavals have led to distinctive ways of constructing what the Bible and religion "really means" Similarly, his work on first-century Palestine looks at how socio-economic changes in Galilee and Judea intersected with traditions associated with Jesus and how these were then interpreted, ignored, rethought, modified, adapted, and so on. To my knowledge, this book will be the first major contemporary biography on Jesus from a historical materialist perspective and written by respected experts in the field. Written for a broad audience, it understands the Jesus movement and rise of Christianity without resorting to the usual Great Man view of history and instead pursues a history from below. In doing so, it distils the main findings of historical Jesus research in a way that will be of interest and relevance to a wide variety of readers on the Left and in the academy.

Some readers may be irritated by the retro-fitting of 19th and 20th century language to a first century setting (the Twelve Disciples are referred to as the Jesus Movement’s “Politburo,” and the desired millenarian outcome as a “Dictatorship of the Peasantry,” for instance). I think that this volume is, perhaps, going to go down as one of the most notable biographies of Jesus to have been published. I consider it a strong corrective to the works of past scholars like Sanders, who consistently framed Jesus as this special and unique individual. Crossley, J. (2022). Towards a Vulgar Marxist Reading of Christian Origins Today, Critical Theory and Early Christianity,, s. 252 - 267. Equinox Publishing, ISBN: 9781781794135 James Crossley (MF Norwegian School of Theology and Centre for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements) will present his new book co-authored with Robert J. Myles (Wollaston Theological College, Perth, Australia)

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TWO books about the historical Jesus, taking diametrically opposed positions. The former is written by a distinguished Christian scholar, formerly Director of the prestigious Farmington Institute for Christian Studies, and seeks to show that the Gospel accounts are basically historically reliable. The latter is written from a Marxist viewpoint, presenting Jesus not as “a Great Man of history”, but as a religious organiser, formed by and emerging from the peasantry of Galilee and Judaea, the vanguard of a new political party with its own politburo, a dictatorship to serve the interests of the non-elite peasantry, but also with a mission to the rich. This combination produced a millenarianism that was both ideologically focused on right behaviors, and adroitly pragmatic enough to embark on a sustained “mission to the rich” to swell its numbers and financing. They have found most to be wanting, if not serious distortions predicated upon the writers’ own contemporary class interests, including revered Biblical scholars such as E.P. Sanders.

Two of our most capable Marxist biblical interpreters offer a historical materialist life of Jesus, grounded in the social and material forces of Jesus’ age rather than on efforts to read Jesus’ mind. Precise, clear, accessible, and important. I can think of no better introduction to the historical Jesus for the general reader, no clearer statement on the legacy of the Jesus movement in the sweep of subsequent history, or a more worthy challenge to contemporary scholarship on Jesus and the rise of Christianity. Crossley and Myles locate Jesus’s class position as that of a tektōn, an ancient Greek noun meaning craftsman or carpenter. Being born and raised in this artisan rural working stratum, Jesus and his immediate family would have felt the full force of the economic dislocations and displacements caused by the massive Herodian building schemes at Sepphoris and Tiberias. Dr Robert Myles of Wollaston Theological College in the University of Divinity, together with Professor James Crossley of MF Oslo, have co-authored a new book: Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict. The book, published by Zer0 Books, was officially released on 24 th February 2023.We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, please support great working-class and pro-people journalism by donating to People’s World. Sometimes, Crossley and Myles try too hard in their debunking mission. The claims of hyper or “servant” masculinity and the downgrading of the Movement’s radical inclusion of women needs far more substance to stand up than they provide here.