In a time when it is fashionable to depict Jesus in noneschatological terms—a Cynic preacher, perhaps—Marius Reiser demonstrates that the theme of judgment lies close to the heart of Jesus' proclamation. The significance of this book is made clear in a new introduction, "The Question in Contemporary Scholarship," in which Reiser engages the current American discussion of the historical Jesus. Reiser shows that, for Jesus, the certainty of the coming judgment is the presupposition of the ultimate coming of the reign of God. Judgment and salvation are two sides of the same coin. This book thereby offers a corrective to a one-sided emphasis on Jesus' message of salvation—to say nothing of the picture of a noneschatological Jesus. Jesus and Judgment offers an overview of the concept of judgment in early Jewish literature and in the preaching of John the Baptizer. It then concentrates on the teachings of Jesus, both sayings and parables. Included are excursuses on important related motifs like the "divine passive" and "conversion."

"The vast and important topic of judgment in the New Testament is competently treated with respect to the early strata of the Synoptic tradition."

"Reiser makes many observations which exegetes will admire and consider. His argument in general is plausible, his style lucid, and his taste for fundamental questions promises work of great interest."

Bruce Chilton