A Review of the Book "Jesus and Easter" by Willi Marxsen

Title: Jesus and Easter

Author: Willi Marxsen

Publisher: Abingdon Press

Year: 1990

92 pages

From the Back: In this volume, prepared specifically with American readers in mind, Professor Marxsen takes up several matters or foundational importance for Christian faith. This distinguished New Testament scholar comments on the nature and significance of the church's confession of Jesus as the Christ, and then offers a compelling account of how the earliest Christians came to believe that God had raised up Jesus from the dead. Insights gained from years of careful research and reflection on these topics are not only drawn together here, but are in various ways extended and deepened. the result is a marvelously lucid discussion of profoundly important themes.

Personal Thoughts: I'm not sure what to say about this book. Because I had to keep backtracking and rereading, I think I may have read the entire thing twice through! Even so, I'm not sure I grasped the point the author was trying to make. It felt like Marxsen was trying to disprove the resurrection of Jesus, but as he labels himself an expert in the New Testament, I'm wondering if I misunderstood his thesis. Many scholars have studied the historical Jesus and I think Marxsen was trying to show the reader that the resurrection was an event that could not be proved, and that the entire New Testament was formed on the assumption of and faith in the resurrection. The subtitle for the book is "Did God raise the historical Jesus from the dead?" I suppose my question back would be "why does it matter"? Faith is faith for a reason. It's all a mystery and we only have the words found in the bible to rely on to understand the life and times of Jesus Christ. Was Marxsen trying to give us words that would help us defend out faith?

Has anyone else read this book? Have I missed the point of it? Because truly, I got to the end of the book and simply shook my head wondering what I had just read.