Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate Biography

by Bruce Chilton

An original and radical reexamination of Jesus’ life in a Jewish context told with novelistic detail by

one of the world’s foremost religious scholars (Doubleday, 2000; a Peekamoose Book).

Wapner's roles:

• Proposal development and writing • Collaboration in the development of the text

• Editing

From the Acknowledgments:

“Putting my scholarship into this story has involved departing from the conventions of the

academy, but that is necessary if Jesus is to be a life in our thinking as well as an image. The

departure has been part of my own thinking for some time, but it would never have come to text

without the active suggestion and prodding and quiet, wise insistence of my personal editor,

Kenneth Wapner. He has been to me both rabbi and meturgeman, and if this book is as accessible

as we intend, that is his contribution more than anyone’s.”

• Foreign sales in multiple territories.

• Film rights optioned.

• A Publisher’s Weekly religion bestseller.

"Open this book and see Jesus as you’ve never seen him . . . This is one heck of a good read. And

it left me feeling better than ever about the Jesus we try to serve and follow."

–National Catholic Reporter

"Engaging and lively . . . Chilton has done an admirable job of taking us into Jesus’ world and

witnessing the life of one of history’s most important figures."

–Charlotte Observer

"Bruce Chilton, an Anglican priest and religion professor, has written a readable and compelling

profile of Jesus and the culture and times in which he lived. Rabbi Jesus is a scholarly pursuit

that . . . reads more like a novel. The biography flows with the fluidity of an adventure tale, rich in

characters, texture, and detail."

–Herald-Sun (Durham, N.C.)