Annette Brigitte Merz (born 1 December 1965,

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

) is a German

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

and biblical scholar, on the faculty of the

University of Utrecht Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

. Merz has conducted vigorous research into the

historicity of Jesus The question of the historicity of Jesus is part of the study of the historical Jesus as undertaken in the quest for the historical Jesus and the scholarly reconstructions of the life of Jesus. Virtually all scholars of antiquity accept that Je ...

and is best known for her 1996 book with

Gerd Theissen Gerd Theißen (or Theissen; born 24 April 1943) is a German Protestant theologian and New Testament scholar. He is Professor of New Testament Theology at the University of Heidelberg. Early life and education Theissen obtained his doctorate in th ...

, '' The Historical Jesus'', a widely used textbook translated into six languages. In the book, Merz and Theissen "assert that the Christian sources portray both positive and negative assessments of temple sacrifice and that

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

, near the end of his life, deliberately created a rite to displace such sacrifices" and argue that "significant sayings of Jesus indicate a critical attitude towards the temple cult." They also argue that "God's kingdom is the establishment of his ethical will, the kingdom is to be understood dynamically as rule. But the "kingdom of God" is not an end in itself", and also examine "five of the most important differences” between Jesus and John. In the 16th and final chapter they examine the historical Jesus and the beginnings of

Christology In Christianity, Christology (from the Ancient Greek, Greek grc, Χριστός, Khristós, label=none and grc, wiktionary:-λογία, -λογία, wiktionary:-logia, -logia, label=none), translated literally from Greek as "the study of Chr ...

. In 2007, she and several other scholars published '' Kompendium der Gleichnisse Jesu'', a major volume on the

parables of Jesus The parables of Jesus are found in the Synoptic Gospels and some of the non-canonical gospels. They form approximately one third of his recorded teachings. Christians place great emphasis on these parables, which they generally regard as the word ...

. In 2012 she was due to publish '' Kompendium der frühchristlichen Wundererzählungen'', another extensive volume which documents the

miracles of Jesus The miracles of Jesus are miraculous deeds attributed to Jesus in Christian and Islamic texts. The majority are faith healings, exorcisms, resurrections, and control over nature. In the Synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew, and Luke), Jesus refuse ...

. Since 2014 Merz has served as Professor of New Testament at the Protestant Theological University, Groningen and Research Associate Professor (30%) at the University of Tilburg, Tilburg School of Catholic Theology.http://www.annettemerz.com/home/

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Merz, Annette 1965 births 20th-century German Protestant theologians Women Christian theologians 21st-century German Protestant theologians Critics of the Christ myth theory German biblical scholars Living people Writers from Frankfurt Academic staff of Utrecht University