Annette Merz

Who is Annette Merz?

Annette Merz is a German theologian and biblical scholar, on the faculty of the University of Utrecht. Merz has conducted vigorous research into the Historicity of Jesus and is best known for her 1996 book with Gerd Theissen, The Historical Jesus, a widely used textbook translated into 6 languages. In the book, Metz and Theissen "assert that the Christian sources portray both positive and negative assessments of temple sacrifice and that Jesus, near the end of his life, deliberately created a rite to displace such sacrificies" 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 2007, she and several other scholars published Kompendium der Gleichnisse Jesu, a major volume on the Parables of Jesus. In 2012 she is due to publish Kompendium der frühchristlichen Wundererzählungen, another extensive volume which documents the Miracles of Jesus.