The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach about Jesus's Final Days in Jerusalem

Top Jesus scholars Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan join together to reveal a radical and little-known Jesus. As both authors reacted to and responded to questions about Mel Gibson's blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ," they discovered that many Christians are unclear on the details of events during the week leading up to Jesus's crucifixion.

Using the gospel of Mark as their guide, Borg and Crossan present a day-by-day account of Jesus's final week of life. They begin their story on Palm Sunday with two triumphal entries into Jerusalem. The first entry, that of Roman governor Pontius Pilate leading Roman soldiers into the city, symbolized military strength. The second heralded a new kind of moral hero who was praised by the people as he rode in on a humble donkey. The Jesus introduced by Borg and Crossan is this new moral hero, a more dangerous Jesus than the one enshrined in the church's traditional teachings.

"The Last Week" depicts Jesus giving up his life to protest power without justice and to condemn the rich who lack concern for the poor. In this vein, at the end of the week Jesus marches up Calvary, offering himself as a model for others to do the same when they are confronted by similar issues. Informed, challenged, and inspired, we not only meet the historical Jesus, but meet a new Jesus who engages us and invites us to follow him.

“"These controversial Jesus Seminar scholars provide lots to ponder."”

--The Kansas City Star "[...] Borg and Crossan show one of the most careful and insightful readings of the Bible I've ever come across."--Brian McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christian "It is difficult to overestimate the importance of this volume[...]"--Barbara Brown Taylor, author of Leaving Church and Preaching Life "A readable and attractive reinterpretation of Jesus' death and resurrection. . . ."--Houston Chronicle "If there is...one book for the redemption of Holy Week, this is it. A must read."--Peter J. Gomes, Harvard University "Borg and Crossan brilliantly chronicle the tension that forced everyone to pledge allegiance -- either to Rome or to Jesus."--Los Angeles Times

Marcus J. Borg is Canon Theologian at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Oregon. He was Hundere Chair of Religion and Culture at Oregon State University until his retirement in 2007. Borg is the author of nineteen books, including the bestselling "The Heart of Christianity", "Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time", "Reading the Bible Again for the First Time", and the novel "Putting Away Childish Things". He was an active member of the Jesus Seminar when it focused on the historical Jesus, and he has been chair of the Historical Jesus section of the Society of Biblical Literature.

'Although the story of the Barshinskeys, which became our story too, stretched over many summers and winters, that golden time of 1902 was when our strange involved relationship began, when our youthful longing for the exotic took a solid and restless hold upon us...' It is at this enchanted moment that The Summer of the Barshinskeys begins.A beautifully told, compelling story that moves from a small Kentish village to London, and from war-torn St Petersburg to a Quaker relief unit in the Volga provinces.It is the unforgettable story of two families, one English, the other Russian, who form a lifetime pattern of frienship, passion, hatred, and love.

Bestselling authors and Jesus experts John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg come together to explore the last seven days of Jesus's life. Using the best of biblical and historical scholarship, they rediscover a new way of understanding the Passion Week and its monumental events. True to form, they turn the traditional understaning of Passion Week on its head to reveal its true significance in history and for faith. Jesus's kingdom message was revolutionary in that it questioned people's basic loyalties at a time when those loyalties were jealously guarded by the Roman Empire. Jesus knowingly entered his last week knowing he'd be directly challenging the Romans. For example, the first day of the last week of Jesus's life (Palm Sunday), there were two triumphal entrance parades that occurred. One was a peasant rabbi with a revolutionary message, the second an imperial Roman army escorting the Roman governor to Jerusalem to oversee the holiday festivities. This initiated a week of growing tension in which people were asked to chose which way they would follow - the current Roman empire, or Jesus's revolutionary way of love, forgiveness, and grace. These brilliant authors reveal the moving story of someone who dared to face imperial wrath to bring a new way of life.

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