John P. Meier

American scholar and priest (1942–2022)

John Paul Meier (August 8, 1942 – October 18, 2022) was an American biblical scholar and Catholic priest. He was author of the series A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus (5 v.), six other books, and more than 70 articles for peer reviewed or solicited journals or books. Meier was widely regarded as one of the leading scholars of the historical Jesus and early Christianity during his life. His book Antioch and Rome: New Testament Cradles of Catholic Christianity (which he co authored with fellow Catholic scholar Raymond E. Brown) is considered by many scholars a seminal work about early Christianity, while his multi volume work A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus is hailed as Meier's magnum opus. Before the appointment to Notre Dame in 1999, he taught at St. Joseph Seminary, Dunwoodie, for 12 years and was professor of New Testament at the Catholic University of America for 14 years. His funeral took place at the chapel of St. Joseph's Seminary and College and was presided by Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan. His personal research library and papers were donated to St. Joseph's Seminary and College.

Antioch and Rome is a co work of Meier and his fellow Catholic scholar Raymond E. Brown analyses the history and development of early Christianity in the cities of Antioch and Rome, using a vast array of both Christian and Pagan sources.

John P. Meier's series A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus begins by invoking the methods of modern historical research to "recover, recapture, or reconstruct" the "historical Jesus." Meier suggests that such research might admit agreement of Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and agnostic scholars as to "who Jesus of Nazareth was and what he intended" (v. 1, 1991, p. 1).

Volume 1 (1991) differentiates the historical Jesus from the Christ of faith. It analyzes sources, including the New Testament and non canonical works. The latter include the agrapha, the apocryphal gospels (such as the Gospel of Thomas), Josephus, Philo, Justus of Tiberias and other Jewish and second century Roman works. For deciding what comes from Jesus as distinct from early Christian tradition it proposes these primary criteria (pp. 168–77):
1. The criterion of embarrassment: Why invent what would invite difficulty for the early church? 2. The criterion of discontinuity: Why reject as words or deeds of Jesus what cannot be derived from the Judaism of Jesus' time or the early church? 3. The criterion of multiple attestation: Is it more plausible to deny words, sayings, or deeds attributed to Jesus in more than one independent literary source (e. g., Mark, Q, Paul, and John) or literary genre (e. g., parable, miracle story, or prophecy)? 4. The criterion of coherence: Given the claims to historicity from any of the above criteria, are different sayings or deeds evidently inconsistent? 5. The criterion of rejection and execution: If Jesus' ministry came to a violent, public end, what of Jesus' words or deeds could have alienated people, especially powerful people? The criteria are to be used in concert for mutual correction. Still, any claim is only to the probable, not the certain. The rest of Volume 1 discusses the origins of Jesus as to formative years, "external" influences (language, education, and socioeconomic status), and "internal" influences (family ties and marital and lay status). The volume concludes with a survey of Jesus' life chronology. On the question of references to Jesus in the Talmud, Meier considers the thesis of Joseph Klausner (1925) that some very few rabbinic sources, none earlier than about the late 2nd or early 3rd century, contain traces of the historical Jesus. He presents further considerations and arguments, including those of Johann Maier (1978) who maintains that the Yeshu texts are later medieval corruptions, and writes that:
While not accepting the full, radical approach of Maier, I think we can agree with him on one basic point: in the earliest rabbinic sources, there is no clear or even probable reference to Jesus of Nazareth. Furthermore, when we do finally find such references in later rabbinic literature, they are most probably reactions to Christian claims, oral or written. On the other hand, Meier accepts the partial authenticity of the Testimonium Flavianum by Josephus in the Antiquities of the Jews, eliminating what he thinks are Christians interpolations in it; he also accepts the authenticity of the reference of Josephus to James the Just and Tacitus's reference to Jesus in the Annals.

Volume 3 (2001) places Jesus in the context of his followers, the crowds, and his competitors (including Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Samaritans, scribes, and Zealots) in first century Palestine.

Volume 4 (2009) deals with the ministry of the historical Jesus in relation to Mosaic Law, such subjects as divorce, oaths, and observance of the Sabbath and purity rules, and the various love commandments in the Gospels.

Volume 5 (2016) challenges scholarly consensus about the parables and argues instead that only four parables (those of the Mustard Seed, the Evil Tenants, the Talents, and the Great Supper) can be attributed to the historical Jesus with fair certitude.

According to his profile on the University of Notre Dame website, Meier was working on a sixth volume at the time he died. This volume would have addressed the titles used by and of the historical Jesus. The volume was left unfinished: its status and whether it will still be published after Meier's death is currently unclear. Antioch and Rome was reviewed in 1984 and 1985. A Marginal Jew vol. 1 was reviewed by Larry W. Hurtado in 1993. A Marginal Jew vol. 3 was reviewed by William Loader in 2002. In his book Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week, Pope Benedict XVI describes Meier's work as "a model of historical critical exegesis, in which the significance and the limits of the method emerge clearly".