Jesus the central Jew

André LaCocque

In this book, LaCocque presents the case that Jesus was totally and unquestionably a Jew. He lived as a Jew, thought as a Jew, debated as a Jew, and died as a Jew. He was not a Jew marginally, but centrally. He had no intention of creating a new religion; rather, he was a reformer of the Judaism of his day whose critique went far beyond an intellectual subversion. In fact, Jesus progressively thought of himself as the "Son of Man" inaugurating the advent of the kingdom of God on earth. LaCocque writes not about Christianity or Christology. Instead, the book purposely addresses both restricted sources (the Synoptic Gospels) and numerous other sources of information, leaving no stone unturned, to contribute to the modern understanding of the historical--as opposed to the mythical or the "real"--Jesus. (back cover).