(+) Saint Saul: A Skeleton Key to the Historical Jesus (2000 Akenson), book

Saint Saul: A Skeleton Key to the Historical Jesus (2006) is a book by Donald H. Akenson.

Abstract

"In Saint Saul Donald Harman Akenson shows that the answer to the most persistent question in Christianity - What do we know about the historical Jesus? - is best found in the writings of a caustic itinerant preacher named Saul. Saul, the author of the Epistles and known to Christians as Saint Paul, is the closest thing we have to a direct witness and our only opportunity to encounter Yeshua, as Jesus was known in his time, in something approaching the original. Recreating a time rich with prophets, savants, and god-drunk fanatics, Akenson sifts the evidence for and against the historical status of Saul and Yeshua and illuminates the circumstances that gave rise to Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism."--Publisher description.

"In Saint Saul, Donald Harman Akenson offers a lively and provocative account of what we can learn about Jesus by reading the letters of Paul. As the only direct evidence of Jesus we have that were composed before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE forever altered the outlook of the Christian and Jewish faiths, Akenson claims that these letters are the most reliable source of information. He dismisses the traditional method of searching for facts about Jesus by looking for parallels among the four gospels because they were handed down to us as a unit by a later generation. Akenson painstakingly recreates the world of Christ, a time rich with ideas, prophets, factions, priests, savants, and god-drunk fanatics. He insistently stresses throughout the Jewishness of Jesus, referring to Jesus and Paul as Yeshua and Saul, as they were then known. As an eminent historian, Akenson approaches his subject with a fresh eye and a scholarly rigor that is all too rare in this hotly disputed field."--Publisher description.

Editions

Published in Oxford [England]: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Table of contents

The world of Saul of Tarsus and Yeshua of Nazareth -- 1. The wounded Magus -- 2. Exciting times : the religious world of Saul of Tarsus and Yeshua -- 3. Avoiding words that make us lie -- The front-edge quest -- 4. The search for a distant dominion -- 5. Minting new gospels -- A skeleton key to the Yeshua-faith -- 6. Saul's life and letters -- 7. Missionary in a swirling universe -- 8. Saul and four basic "facts" about the historical Yeshua -- 9. Melding Saul and the Gospels : a beginning -- 10. Words from the Master's table -- 11. Saul and the imitation of Christ