Praise for "Jesus Behaving Badly"

Now Featured in the Patheos Book Club
Jesus Behaving Badly
The Puzzling Paradoxes of the Man from Galilee
By Mark L. Strauss

"In Jesus Behaving Badly, Mark Strauss provides a clear and compelling portrait of Jesus in his own terms and historical context. Strauss skillfully guides the reader through the maze of current questions about Jesus, such as 'Was Jesus a revolutionary?' and 'Why did Jesus curse a fig tree?' Students and pastors alike will find Jesus Behaving Badly an enriching read and invaluable tool in understanding the Jesus of the Gospels."

—Lynn H. Cohick, Wheaton College

"Mark Strauss provides a wonderful account of Jesus full of wit and wisdom that shows that the meek and mild Jesus is Sunday school fiction. The Jesus of the Gospels is a much more complicated character who felt compassion and anger, who preached peace and kicked over tables, who made friends with prostitutes and offended the religious establishment, who resisted family values of the day and even started a revolution in Judaism. Reading this book could be like meeting Jesus for the first time."

—Michael F. Bird, lecturer in theology at Ridley College, Melbourne, Australia

"We have rehabilitated Jesus so much today that we can't imagine how anyone wouldn't admire Jesus. How could anyone hate this lovable guy enough to scream, 'Crucify him!'? Yet, a fuller reading of the Gospels reveals a tree-hating, name-calling troublemaker who often didn't play well with others. Maybe the home crowd at Nazareth wanted to stone him because he was a 'stubborn and rebellious son' (Deut 21:18-21). Yet, in a delightfully written book, Strauss treats fairly these typical objections to Jesus and guides the reader to a fuller understanding of this complex man from Galilee. Anyone wanting to understand Jesus better, whether in a classroom or Bible study, should read this book."

—E. Randolph Richards, dean, school of ministry, professor of biblical studies, Palm Beach Atlantic University

"Many people have the view that Jesus was basically a friendly and warm teacher. Those who have read the Gospels closely recognize, though, that Jesus said and did things that upset this rosy portrait. Jesus Behaving Badly engages the hard 'sayings' and 'doings' of Jesus, not by merely explaining them away, but by representing a fullness of Jesus in the three dimensions of a real historical figure and in the fourfold portrayal of the Gospels. If the aim of this book is to reckon with the whole Jesus and not a mere caricature, Strauss has accomplished this with sense and wit."

—Nijay K. Gupta, George Fox Evangelical Seminary