Tucker S. Ferda examines the theory of the Galilean crisis: the notion that the historical Jesus himself had grappled with the failure of his mission to Israel. While this theory has been neglected since the 19th century, due to research moving to consider the response of the early church to the rejection of the gospel, Ferda now provides fresh insight on Jesus' own potential crisis of faith. Ferda begins by reconstructing the origin of the crisis theory, expanding upon histories of New Testament research and considering the contributions made before Hermann Samuel Reimarus. He shows how the crisis theory was shaped by earlier and so-called "pre-critical" gospel interpretation and examines how, despite the claims of modern scholarship, the logic of the crisis theory is still a part of current debate. Finally, Ferda argues that while the crisis theory is a failed hypothesis, its suggestions on early success and growing opposition in the ministry, as well as its claim that Jesus met and responded to disappointing cases of rejection, should be revisited. This book resurrects key historical aspects of the crisis theory for contemporary scholarship.

Tucker S. Ferda examines the notion that the historical Jesus himself had grappled with the failure of his mission to Israel. This theory, known as the Galilean crisis achieved traction in the 19th century before research moved on to consider the response of the Jesus movement to the rejection of the gospel. Tucker makes three main contributions. First, he reconstructs the origin of the crisis theory in a way that greatly expands traditional histories of New Testament research. Tucker considers contributions before Hermann Samuel Reimarus to show that the crisis theory was shaped in many ways by earlier (in some cases pre-critical) gospel interpretation. Second, despite the claims of modern scholarship to have moved beyond the 19th century quest, Tucker shows that the logic of the crisis theory is still very much a part of current scholarship, albeit in a different guise. Finally Tucker makes the case that while the crisis theory is a failed hypothesis, its suggestions about early success and growing opposition in the ministry, as well as its claim that Jesus met and responded to disappointing cases of rejection, should be revisited. This book thus resurrects some of the key historical moves of the crisis theory for contemporary scholarship.

The work reflects an unusually high level of scholarly maturity [... ] Throughout the book the author constructs generally plausible arguments for the positions that he takes and is very much aware of the limitations imposed on the historical method by the very nature of the Gospels. He is very much aware of what the limits are to what can be known about the order of events in the life of Jesus [...] In my view it will encourage scholars to look again at works on Jesus and the Gospels between the Reformation and the 19th century. Further, the author's reconstruction of what can be said of the proclamation of the kingdom of God by Jesus will encourage scholars to frame their approaches to the life of Jesus more circumspectly.