A Marginal Jew, Rethinking the Historical Jesus: Volume 4, Law and Love.
John P. Meier.
Yale University Press. 2009.
ISBN: 9780300140965.

​A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Volume 4 focuses on Jesus’ relationship to Mosaic law and on major legal and moral topics such as divorce, oaths, the Sabbath, purity rules, and the love commandments. Meier presents Jesus as a first-century Palestinian Jew deeply engaged in debates about Torah observance rather than as someone simply abolishing the Law. The work is framed as a historical study of the halakic Jesus, meaning Jesus in relation to Jewish legal interpretation and practice. Jesus worked from within the Law rather than outside it, and his teaching shows both continuity with Judaism and striking originality.

John P. Meier was an American Catholic priest and biblical scholar, born in New York City in 1942 and died in 2022 at age 80. He taught New Testament and theology at St. Joseph’s Seminary, the Catholic University of America, and later the University of Notre Dame, where he became professor emeritus. He was widely regarded as one of the leading historical Jesus scholars of his generation.

​A Marginal Jew, Rethinking the Historical Jesus: Volume 3, Companions and Competitors.
John P. Meier.
Yale University Press. 2001.
ISBN: 9780300140323.
 
A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Volume 3 focuses on the groups around Jesus, his followers (the crowds, disciples, and the Twelve), His rivals (the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes/Qumranites, Samaritans, scribes, Herodians, and Zealots), and how those relationships shaped his ministry. Meier’s broader argument that Jesus should be understood as deeply Jewish, not detached from first-century Jewish life. This volume is often noted for showing that Jesus’ movement had real structure, including distinct circles of followers, rather than being a loose, purely egalitarian movement. It is also used as a major scholarly resource for historical Jesus research because it compares Jesus with the major Jewish groups of his time.
 
John P. Meier was an American Catholic priest and biblical scholar, born in New York City in 1942 and died in 2022 at age 80. He taught New Testament and theology at St. Joseph’s Seminary, the Catholic University of America, and later the University of Notre Dame, where he became professor emeritus. He was widely regarded as one of the leading historical Jesus scholars of his generation.