This dissertation incorporates elements from three relatively recent trends in scholarship: 1) the study of gender as a socio-cultural construct, 2) the advent of social-scientific criticism in biblical studies and 3) the Third Quest for the historical Jesus, in order to provide the basis for a characterization of Jesus in light of Jewish standards of masculinity in Roman Palestine. From this synthetic approach, the study argues that Jesus' preaching of the in-breaking rule of God, i.e. the Kingdom of God (Heaven), distinguishes his life and ministry from the masculine ideology of Jews in Roman Palestine in three primary areas: 1) the relativization of the kinship or family group, 2) the inclusion of marginalized Jews and perhaps gentiles in the movement and 3) a reinterpretation of the masculine concern for honor.

This thesis emerges only after ascertaining certain primary features of Jewish masculinity in Roman Palestine and comparing the resulting model to a critically examined set of pericopae from the Jesus tradition. The pattern of continuity and discontinuity in Jesus' relationship to his own social and cultural context suggests both the need to avoid an overly facile interpretation of Jesus' historic ministry and the need for similar critical reflection regarding contemporary conceptions of masculinity.