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Secondary sourceBook1886

The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, vol. 1

Alfred Edersheim · 1886

A detailed 1886 scholarly biography by Alfred Edersheim placing Jesus within the history and culture of his Jewish world.

A later scholarly biography studying the historical and Jewish context of Jesus's life.

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About this source

What it is

This is the first volume of a two-volume biography of Jesus written by Alfred Edersheim, a 19th-century scholar, published in 1886. It is held in library collections and digitized by the Internet Archive.

Why it matters

Edersheim aimed to set Jesus firmly within the Jewish history, customs, and conditions of his time. The book reflects how 19th-century Christian scholars tried to use historical research to understand the world Jesus lived in, rather than relying only on theology.

Look closer

  • Why might a scholar writing centuries later want to study the Jewish background of Jesus's life in such detail?
  • What kinds of sources might Edersheim have used to reconstruct this history?
  • How might a biography written in the 1880s differ from one written today?

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