Bruce Chilton is a scholar of early Christianity

Early Christianity

Early Christianity is generally considered as Christianity before 325. The New Testament's Book of Acts and Epistle to the Galatians records that the first Christian community was centered in Jerusalem and its leaders included James, Peter and John....

 and Judaism

Judaism

Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

, now Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Religion at Bard College

Bard College

Bard College, founded in 1860 as "St. Stephen's College", is a small four-year liberal arts college located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.-Location:...

, and formerly Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament

New Testament

The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

 at Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

. He holds a degree in New Testament from Cambridge University (St. John's College

St John's College, Cambridge

St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's alumni include nine Nobel Prize winners, six Prime Ministers, three archbishops, at least two princes, and three Saints....

). He has previously held academic positions at the Universities of Cambridge, Sheffield, and Münster.

He wrote the first critical commentary on the Aramaic version of Isaiah

Isaiah

Isaiah ; Greek: ', Ēsaïās ; "Yahu is salvation") was a prophet in the 8th-century BC Kingdom of Judah.Jews and Christians consider the Book of Isaiah a part of their Biblical canon; he is the first listed of the neviim akharonim, the later prophets. Many of the New Testament teachings of Jesus...

 (The Isaiah Targum, 1987), as well as academic studies that analyze Jesus in his Judaic context (A Galilean Rabbi and His Bible, 1984; The Temple of Jesus, 1992; Pure Kingdom, 1996), and explain the Bible critically (Redeeming Time: The Wisdom of Ancient Jewish and Christian Festal Calendars, 2002; The Cambridge Companion to the Bible, 2007).

He founded two academic periodicals, Journal for the Study of the New Testament

Journal for the Study of the New Testament

The Journal for the Study of the New Testament is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers five times a year in the field of Biblical Studies. The journal's editor is Simon Gathercole...

 and The Bulletin for Biblical Research.
He has also been active in the ministry of the Anglican Church, and is Rector

Rector

The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...

 of the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Barrytown, New York

Barrytown, New York

Barrytown is a hamlet within the town of Red Hook in Dutchess County, New York, United States. It is within the Hudson River Historic District, a National Historic Landmark, and comprises four of the Hudson River Valley estates: Edgewater, Messina, Rokeby, and Sylvania...

.

His popular books have been widely reviewed. Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate Biography showed Jesus' development through the environments that proved formative influences on him. Those environments, illuminated by archaeology and by historical sources, include: (1) rural Jewish Galilee

Galilee

Galilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee , Lower Galilee , and Western Galilee , extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the...

, (2) the movement of John the Baptist

John the Baptist

John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...

, (3) the towns Jesus encountered as a rabbi, (4) the political strategy of Herod Antipas

Herod Antipas

Herod Antipater , known by the nickname Antipas, was a 1st-century AD ruler of Galilee and Perea, who bore the title of tetrarch...

, and (5) deep controversy concerning the Temple in Jerusalem

Temple in Jerusalem

The Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple , refers to one of a series of structures which were historically located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, the current site of the Dome of the Rock. Historically, these successive temples stood at this location and functioned as the centre of...

.

Popular books

• Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate Biography, Doubleday, 2000. ISBN 978-0385-49793-0
• Rabbi Paul: An Intellectual Biography, Doubleday, 2004. ISBN 978-0385-50862-9
• Mary Magdalene: A Biography, Doubleday, 2005. ISBN 978-0385-51318-0
• Abraham's Curse: The Roots of Violence in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Doubleday, 2008. ISBN 978-0385-52027-0

Academic books

• The Isaiah Targum: Introduction, Translation, Apparatus and Notes, Michael Glazier, 1987. ISBN 978-0894-53480-5
• A Galilean Rabbi and His Bible: Jesus' Use of the Interpreted Scripture of His Time, Michael Glazier, 1984. ISBN 978-0894-53374-7
• The Temple of Jesus: His Sacrificial Program within a Cultural History of Sacrifice, 1992. reprint: Global Scholarly Publications, 2001. ISBN 978-1586-84137-9
• The Brother of Jesus: James the Just and His Mission, Westminster John Knox Press, 2001. ISBN 978-0664-22299-4
• Judaism in the New Testament: Practices and Beliefs, Routledge, 1995. ISBN 978-0415-11844-6
• Pure Kingdom: Jesus Vision of God, SPCK Publishing, 1997. ISBN 978-0281-05060-4
• Redeeming Time: The Wisdom of Ancient Jewish and Christian Festal Calendars, 2002.
• Altruism in World Religions, Georgetown Univ. Press, 2005. ISBN 978-1589-01065-9
• The Cambridge Companion to the Bible, 2007. ISBN 978-0521-86997-3
• Religious Tolerance in World Religions. Co-ed. with Jacob Neusner, Templeton Foundation Press. 2008, ISBN 978-1599-47136-5