Post on 18-Dec-2015
Chapter 12
The Continuing Quest for the Historical Jesus
Key Topics/Themes
• Formidable challenge of distinguishing Jesus of history from Christ of faith
• Criteria for recovering authentic words and deeds of Jesus
• Scholarly differences regarding Jesus’ self-identity and essential teachings
Introduction
• Paul as first interpreter of historical Jesus
• Jesus as divine in the Nicene Creed
• Distinguishing the goals of theologians and historians in examining who Jesus was
Early Historical References to Jesus
• Tacitus
• Suetonius
• Flavius Josephus
• Pliny the Younger
• Limited usefulness of these for recovering the life of Jesus
Survey of the Historical Search for the “Real” Jesus
• Samuel Reimarus
• David Friedrich Strauss
• H. J. Holtzmann
• Johannes Weiss
• Albert Schweitzer
• Rudolph Bultmann
Survey of the Search (cont’d.)
• Ernst Käsemann
• Joachim Jeremias
• C. H. Dodd
Criteria for Testing the Authenticity of Jesus’ Words and
Deeds• Orality
• Form
• Dissimilarity
• Multiple attestation
• Coherence
• The embarrassment factor
Jesus: A Nonapocalyptic Wisdom Teacher
• The work of the Jesus Seminar– Goal: screen all early Christian literature
for historically reliable data– Applied criteria for authenticity to all
relevant sources– Work published in extensively annotated
volumes
• Criticisms of the Jesus Seminar’s work
An Apocalyptic Jesus
• Fits better with first-century Jewish milieu of Jesus
• Numerous scholarly proponents of an apocalyptic Jesus
Some General Agreements About the Historical Jesus
• Born during reign of Herod the Great• Son of Mary• From family of carpenters/artisans• Baptized by John the Baptist• Proclaimed that kingdom of God is near• Taught that God’s kingdom would
reverse generally accepted social values
General Agreements (cont’d.)
• Lived as itinerant preacher and healer
• Attracted followers from lower segments of Galilean society
• Seen by some followers as Messiah who would bring freedom from Rome
• Crucified by Pontius Pilate, Roman governor of Judea
Jesus’ Teaching About the Kingdom
• Background of concept of kingdom of God– “Kingdom” denotes activity of God’s ruling,
not a place– Followers of Jesus must seek kingdom
above all else
• Kingdom portrayed as future event in some of Jesus’ teachings
Kingdom (cont’d.)
• Kingdom portrayed as unexpected event
• Kingdom portrayed as a hidden power that grows slowly
• Kingdom portrayed as present reality in some of Jesus’ teachings
• Kingdom as physically present yet unnoticed
Wisdom and the Kingdom of God
• Gospel of John’s deemphasis on kingdom of God
• Emphasis on Jesus as exponent of divine Wisdom
• Jesus the eternal Word
• Parallels with Proverbs and Wisdom of Solomon
Wisdom (cont’d.)
• Wisdom as revealer of the kingdom of God in wisdom literature
• Gospel of John: Jesus’ wisdom teachings define his kingship
• Jesus’ followers share in his kingship
Summary
• Great scholarly disagreement about Jesus’ identity and teachings
• Attempts to reconcile apocalyptic and wisdom images of Jesus
• Disagreements about Jesus’ kingdom teachings
Summary (cont’d.)
• Scholarly doubts about whether Jesus taught about himself
• Scholarly doubts about whether Jesus called himself Messiah or Son of God
• Many scholars: these titles bestowed on Jesus posthumously
• Canonical Gospels focus on Resurrection in their interpretations of Jesus