this general thrust, of a very Jewish Jesus who was nevertheless opposed to some high-profile features of first-century Judaism, seems to me the most viable one if we are to do justice, not just to the evidence of the synoptic gospels (they, after all, are easy game for any critic who wants to avoid their implications) but more particularly to the

Jesus’ announcement of the kingdom was, in short, the articulation of a new variant upon Israel’s basic worldview. The different elements of his announcement, which we study one by one in this Part of the book, should not therefore be conceived either as separate stages or as discrete themes within his work.