Thoughts Turned to Jesus (or someone very probably, almost certainly, clearly somewhat like him) on Reading Crossley and Myles, Jesus

Abstract This essay is an extended review of, and engagement with, James Crossley and Robert J. Myles’s Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict (2023). The review particularly commends them for a work which addresses the difficult question of whether one is able to recover an ‘historical’ figure from tradition, and notes that effort, in many ways, becomes a compelling form of reception criticism. It notes, as well, some key places for future consideration (e.g., the implications of their work for masculinity studies).