The Life of Jesus, Chapter 15 summary

What happens

1. Jesus returns to Galilee determined to abolish the Law and establish God’s kingdom, despite expecting to become a victim.
2. He accepts the title son of David, while followers devise genealogies and Bethlehem birth stories whose authorization remains uncertain.
3. The narrator suggests that stories about an extraordinary birth and childhood already circulate during Jesus’s life.
4. The narrator distinguishes Jesus’s divine sonship and authority to judge from any claim to be God himself.
5. Different audiences assign Jesus different identities, while disciples portray both extraordinary powers and human limitations.
6. The chapter closes by arguing that popular belief and collective enthusiasm make legends central to great religious foundations.

In this chapter

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