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A Marginal Jew, Rethinking the Historical Jesus: Volume 4, Law and Love. John P. Meier. Yale University Press. 2009. ISBN: 9780300140965.

A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Volume 4 focuses on Jesus' relationship to Mosaic law and on major legal and moral topics such as divorce, oaths, the Sabbath, purity rules, and the love commandments. Meier presents Jesus as a first-century Palestinian Jew deeply engaged in debates about Torah observance rather than as someone simply abolishing the Law. The work is framed as a historical study of the halakic Jesus, meaning Jesus in relation to Jewish legal interpretation and practice. Jesus worked from within the Law rather than outside it, and his teaching shows both continuity with Judaism and striking originality.

John P. Meier was an American Catholic priest and biblical scholar, born in New York City in 1942 and died in 2022 at age 80. He taught New Testament and theology at St. Joseph's Seminary, the Catholic University of America, and later the University of Notre Dame, where he became professor emeritus. He was widely regarded as one of the leading historical Jesus scholars of his generation.

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Coram Deo — before the face of God. This blog reflects on Scripture, world events, science, music, psychology, and the human mind — always through the lens of Christian faith. All of life is lived before the face of God.