Jerald F. Dirks

In this his latest book, Dr. Dirks begins by exploring the linguistic meaning and historical evolution of the messiah concept. In tracing the messiah concept among the Israelites, Dr. Dirks makes use of numerous Biblical passages and ancient Jewish writings to illustrate the earliest messiah concept and how that concept evolved into the three-messiah and two-messiah concepts that were so prevalent following the Babylonian captivity of the Israelites of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Dr. Dirks then turns the readers' attention to the myriad of messiah figures that emerged in Palestine between 4 BCE and 135 CE. In closing, making use of extensive New Testament passages, he presents a provocative and daring thesis that there were two messiah figures named Jesus who operated during the same time in first-century CE Palestine and who were simultaneously tried by Pontius Pilate. One presented as a king messiah for which he was crucified, and one presented as a prophet messiah and was freed. It is posited that the identities and biographies of these two messiah figures were inadvertently fused by the New Testament gospel writers, thus accounting for some of the seeming inconsistencies in how Jesus is presented in the canonical gospels.

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