A New Life of Christ...

Dr. Tenhor’s first two books, That Rabbi from Nazareth and That Messiah from Qumran, the one on the humanity of Christ and the other on divinity of Christ, now have been combined with some additional Essene chapters to be called A New Life of Christ. Some of the most helpful chapters of each book are in this one volume telling about both the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith. Tenhor takes a look at what the real Jesus was like, who he really was, and how and why the Church has confessed Jesus as divine. He explains how the divinity confession took place through enormous struggles in the early centuries of the Church. He shows how doctrines developed through complex interpretations by various different parties of thought. He introduces the theologians of the first three centuries of the Church, both good and bad.Ed has you meet the Ebyonites, Docetists, Marcionites, Dynamic and Modalistic Monarchians, Sabellianist Patripassionists, Apollinarians, Monothelitists, Monophysites, and many more interpreters from the early centuries, producing a new apologetic volume for a local church study group, or for personal reading. Though this Life of Christ volume does not have all the extensive first person introductions to twenty centuries of theologians as the second volume on divinity, it does include five new chapters on the Essenes, the large Jewish tradition of Dead Sea Scroll fame, showing their possible relationship with Jesus and the early Christians. There is the astounding suggestion that the 3000 new converts in Acts 2 and the 5000 new converts in Acts 4 were primarily Essenes who had congregations all over the area of South West Jerusalem, right where the upper room is said to have been located. The Essene converts then discarded their name 'Essene,' retaining their other names, 'People of the Way' and 'the elect.' This then may explain why this large Jewish Essene tradition in the time of Jesus, the one that held all things in common and shared what they had, is not mentioned anywhere in the New Testament by name. Ed suggests that this book would be ideal for a three month Jesus class in a local church, or even a whole year study. It could attract those interested in finding out more about Jesus. The book is provocative and unconventional. It provides some depth of study for those with inquiring minds. Reading and studying the book is a way of meeting the Jesus of history and of faith. It is a way of catching a glimpse of the reality of God present in that life. Exercise and expand your mind, learn some church history, understand something about theology, and grow in your faith. Add this book to your church library and to your own personal library.