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Early Historical References to Jesus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