Armand Puig i Tàrrech – författare

What do we really know about Jesus of Nazareth? Two thousand years after his death, this adored yet controversial figure continues to raise a wealth of questions.In Jesus: A Biography, celebrated Catalan New Testament scholar Armand Puig i Tàrrech weaves a comprehensive historical narrative to answer many of the most intriguing questions about Jesus. What do we know about the way Jesus was raised? Why did he spend so much time with social outcasts? How did he simultaneously attract loyal followers and fierce adversaries? What did his words and actions mean? What can be said about his death and resurrection from a historical perspective?Puig i Tàrrech highlights Jesus' most profound and distinctive features - from his purposeful identification with the sick and poor and his relationship with his devoted followers to his astute trust in God's care of human history - bringing into view a vivid, active, and believable Jesus.

The contributions in this volume are focused on the historical origins, religious provenance, and social function of ancient Jewish and Christian apocalyptic literature, including so-called ‘Gnostic’ writings. Although it is disputed whether there was a genre of ‘apocalyptic literature,’ it is obvious that numerous texts from ancient Judaism, early Christianity, and other religious milieus share a specific view of history and the world to come. Many of these writings are presented in form of a heavenly (divine) revelation, mediated through an otherworldly figure (like an angel) to an elected human being who discloses this revelation to his recipients in written form. In different strands of early Judaism, ancient Christianity as well as in Gnosticism, Manichaeism, and Islam, apocalyptic writings played an important role from early on and were produced also in later centuries. One of the most characteristic features of these texts is their specific interpretation of history, based on the knowledge about the upper, divine realm and the world to come. Against this background the volume deals with a wide range of apocalyptic texts from different periods and various religious backgrounds.

Die Annäherung an den historischen Jesus ist eine faszinierende Aufgabe, die zahlreiche interpretative Möglichkeiten offen hält. Eine allgemeine Ansicht ist schwer zu finden, und sowohl methodologische Einsicht als auch wissenschaftlicher Austausch sind dazu nötig. Wie die vielfältigen neutestamentlichen Schriften zeigen, scheint es fast unmöglich, die Figur des Rabbis von Nazareth, seine Tätigkeit und Identität wirklich zu verstehen. Somit kann das Leben Jesu als eine Reise gesehen werden, die unübliche Entwicklungen und eine bestimmte Perspektive widerspiegelt: die Beziehung zwischen ihm und Gott, dem Vater. Armand Puig i Tàrrech scheut keine schwierigen Themen wie Jesu Geburt und Familie, die normalerweise nicht im third quest behandelt werden. Zudem findet der Leser weitere Schlüsselfragen, die für die historische Jesusforschung von Bedeutung sind: die Taufe; die Frage, ob er ein Mystiker war und die Traditionen, die er initiierte.