Career
He holds a degree in New Testament from Cambridge University (Street John"s College). He has previously held academic positions at the Universities of Cambridge, Sheffield, and Münster. He wrote the first critical commentary on the Aramaic version of Isaiah (The Isaiah Targum, 1987), as well as academic studies that analyze Jesus in his Judaic context (A Galilean Rabbi and His Bible, 1984.
The Temple of Jesus, 1992.
Pure Kingdom, 1996), and explain the Bible critically (Redeeming Time: The Wisdom of Ancient Jewish and Christian Festal Calendars, 2002. The Cambridge Companion to the Bible, 2007).
He founded two academic periodicals, Journal for the Study of the New Testament and The Bulletin for Biblical Research. His popular books have been widely reviewed.
Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate Biography showed Jesus" development through the environments that proved formative influences on him.
Those environments, illuminated by archaeology and by historical sources, include: (1) rural Jewish Galilee, (2) the movement of John the Baptist, (3) the towns Jesus encountered as a rabbi, (4) the political strategy of Herod Antipas, and (5) deep controversy concerning the Temple in Jerusalem.
