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Christian History

The Quest for the Historical Jesus: Part Four

by Christian Chiakulas in Christian History

This five part series is written by Christian Chiakulas. Part one is here, part two is here, part three is here, part four is here, and part five is here.

The term “Kingdom of God” and its related form in the Gospel of Matthew, “Kingdom of Heaven,” are at the very center of Jesus’s entire message. New Testament scholar John Reumann wrote: “Ask any hundred New Testament scholars around the world, Protestant, Catholic, or non-Christian, what the central message of Jesus was, and the vast majority of them – perhaps every single expert – would agree that his message centered in the kingdom of God.”

There are differing interpretations of what exactly this Kingdom looks like, but far more controversial is the method of the Kingdom – how and when it will arrive. This is where scholars are divided: at the eschatological views of Jesus.

Eschatology is theology regarding the end of the world. The traditional Christian view is that the world as we know it will end with the second coming of Jesus as told in Revelation. But Revelation was written many years after Jesus’s death. What were his own views?

The traditional model is commonly called “apocalyptic” or “imminent” eschatology. It was codified by Albert Schweitzer and remained the dominant view throughout the 20th century. The dissenting view is called “realized” or “participatory” eschatology, and was first developed by C.H. Dodd; it has found support mostly among more liberal scholars.

Before we discuss… [Read more…] about The Quest for the Historical Jesus: Part Four

The Quest for the Historical Jesus: Part Three

by Christian Chiakulas in Christian History

This five part series is written by Christian Chiakulas. Part one is here, part two is here, part three is here, part four is here, and part five is here.

Now that we’ve created a decent sketch of the life of the Historical Jesus, it’s time to examine the social and political background of 1st-century Palestine in order to make better sense of the words and deeds we find in the Gospels.

Although Matthew and Luke say that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, it’s far more likely that he was born in the city of Nazareth in the region of Galilee. The Christmas stories, aside from contradicting each other too much to both be true, are both historically unfeasible. They were intended as metaphorical or parabolic narratives expressing convictions about Jesus as the Messiah. Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan provide more details about this understanding in their book The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Birth.

Jesus’s ministry was primarily based in Galilee, the Gospels say he grew up in Nazareth, and he is known historically as “Jesus of Nazareth.” Occam’s Razor applies here: Jesus was almost certainly born in Nazareth, a tiny village in the north of modern-day Israel.

Jesus is said to have been a tekton, which is sometimes mistranslated as “carpenter,” implying artisanal craftsmanship. In actuality, it describes basic manual labor, perhaps in construction, and was a lower occupation than farmer. Tektons were people… [Read more…] about The Quest for the Historical Jesus: Part Three

The Quest for the Historical Jesus: Part Two

by Christian Chiakulas in Christian History

This five part series is written by Christian Chiakulas. Part one is here, part two is here, part three is here, part four is here, and part five is here.

In my previous post, I said that the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth is perhaps the most sure thing we can know about him, based on the double contemporary attestation from non-Christian sources within one hundred years of Jesus’s death.

Historians use a technique called reconstruction to flesh out their sketches of the Historical Jesus. They start with the most basic and indisputable facts, and then add and subtract from the evidence based on what those facts say.

Based on our non-Christian independent sources (Josephus and Tacitus), we can identify the following facts about the Jesus:

Jesus was crucified under Roman procurator Pontius Pilate.
Jesus was known as a miracle worker and gathered followers.
Shortly after his death, some of Jesus’s followers claimed that he had risen from the dead and continued his ministry in some form.

From there, we can consider our primary sources, the Gospels. Remember that when viewed simply as documents primarily concerned with exalting Jesus (and expressing the authors’ already-held convictions), we can’t take their claims at face-value. Everything must be measured against our more concrete knowledge about Jesus, as well as the background of 1st-century Palestine.

Mark, Matthew, and Luke are called the synoptics because they share many similarities. Mark was written… [Read more…] about The Quest for the Historical Jesus: Part Two

The Quest for the Historical Jesus: Part One

by Christian Chiakulas in Christian History

This five part series is written by Christian Chiakulas. Part one is here, part two is here, part three is here, part four is here, and part five is here.

Jesus Christ is a figure of religion and mythology. Miraculous deeds, divine attributes, and arcane sayings are attributed to him, and his billions of followers across the world hold countless views about who he was, what he said, what he meant, and how exactly he was related to God.

Jesus of Nazareth is a figure of history, a real man who lived and died in the first century Middle East, but whose biographical details often seem frustratingly elusive, obscured by the sensational aspects of his religious persona.

Extricating the man from the myth is a more complicated task than many Christians might imagine. “We have four good biographies of Jesus,” they might say. “Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Put them together, and we know a great deal about Jesus.”

Yes and no. Scholars and theologians have long realized that there is much about Jesus that the Gospels don’t tell us, or at least that they aren’t conclusive about. The “First Quest for the Historical Jesus” began during the 18th century and lasted until Albert Schweitzer published The Quest of the Historical Jesus in 1906. The “Second Quest” began in the 1950s, and the current “Third Quest” began in the 1980s with the Jesus Seminar.

The reason these “quests” exist is simple: we can’t necessarily trust the Gospels, or the New Testament in general, as… [Read more…] about The Quest for the Historical Jesus: Part One

There Is No "Judeo-Christian Tradition"

by Don M. Burrows in Christian History

View image | gettyimages.com
 

Ohio Governor John Kasich, whose bid for the presidency appears to be running on fumes, announced earlier this week that the U.S. should develop a federal agency to export “Judeo-Christian values.”

No surprise there. Most Republican candidates have worked to appeal to religious conservatives, and using the buzz phrase “Judeo-Christian” is a tried and true way to do it. But in point of fact, there really is no “Judeo-Christian tradition.” Said tradition is nothing but a Cold War invention that elides thousands of years of history in the service of identity politics.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not suggesting there are no shared values between Christians and Jews. There are. But there are shared values between Christians and people of all religions, between Jews and people of all religions, and between both Christians and Jews and those of no religion. The “Judeo-Christian” religion has only ever existed as a way for some religious people to define themselves against all others.

Lots of people throw around the phrase “Judeo-Christian,” and many do so with good intentions: as a way to acknowledge the shared texts and origins of the two faiths. But nobody spoke of a “Judeo-Christian tradition” until quite recently. Indeed, the word does not even show up in the Oxford English Dictionary until 1899.

If you know any amount of Christian history, or have merely read the New Testament, you know that anti-Jewish animosity has been an unfortunate part… [Read more…] about There Is No "Judeo-Christian Tradition"

Putting Words in Paul’s Mouth: “Women: Shut Up!”

by in Christian History, Christian Issues

1 Corinthians 14.34−35 reads:
Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.

Here Paul writes in unambiguous terms a dictum applicable not just to a single church, but to “the churches,” repeating his injunction twice: women should remain silent, they aren’t allowed to speak, and then, in case you’re still looking for a way around this rule, he reminds us that “it is disgraceful” for women to speak in church. Paul couldn’t have been any clearer on the issue. Reading the text at face value, there’s simply no room for interpreting away his command.

Despite this clarity, few Christians actually follow Paul’s command. It’s often explained away as a cultural artifact, perhaps addressing a specific situation involving a group of unruly wives in Corinth. But an across-the-board prohibition against women speaking that’s applicable to the modern church? Surely not!

However, there are some significant textual issues behind these verses that cast doubt on whether Paul actually penned them.

First, it isn’t at all clear where these two verses actually belong in the text. Depending on which manuscript tradition you study, these verse appear either after v. 33 or after v. 40. There’s roughly equal manuscript support for each reading, so it’s not so much a… [Read more…] about Putting Words in Paul’s Mouth: “Women: Shut Up!”

What the Bible Is

by Chuck Queen in Christian History, Christian Issues

The written documents that constitute our Bible are snapshots of an evolving, developing, dynamic faith frozen in time.

The faith exhibited in these written sources thrived in an oral culture that did not depend on written materials. Writing materials were expensive and few could actually read and write. So the stuff of faith – stories, poetry, wisdom sayings, etc. – were passed down orally. This oral tradition was flexible, fluid, and easily adaptable to different situations and historical contexts.

This process meant that faith was constantly on the move – changing, growing, branching out into new forms, and always finding fresh expressions in different settings.

Consider one example: The various ways the Jesus saying, “The first shall be last, and the last shall be first,” is interpreted and employed with other Jesus sayings in the Gospels.

In Mark it occurs in a context where Jesus assures Peter that those who have left much to be his followers will gain much,
Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age – houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first” (Mark 10:28-31).
In the… [Read more…] about What the Bible Is

It's Time to Give the Gospel of Thomas Its Due

by Chuck Queen in Christian History

The spiritual wisdom to be found in the Gospel of Thomas just may be the kind of spiritual wisdom contemporary Christians most need.

The Gospel of Thomas is part of the collection of fifty-two texts (thirteen papyrus books – “codices”) discovered in December of 1945 by an Egyptian peasant digging for fertilizer near the modern city of Nag Hammadi. The Gospel of Thomas is a compilation of wisdom sayings attributed to Jesus, some of which parallel sayings in the Synoptic Gospels. It represents the kind of Christianity that flourished in Syria by at least the last part of the first century. It may have even been written as early as the Synoptic Gospels.[1]

In this Gospel Jesus performs no miracles or healings, there is no link to or claim that Jesus fulfills prophesy, and there is no passion or resurrection narrative. Jesus does not die for sins in the Gospel of Thomas. Salvation is found in the struggle to understand and appropriate the wisdom Jesus taught and embodied.

I find it particularly significant that in Thomas there is no announcement of an apocalyptic kingdom that will disrupt the present world order. In Thomas the kingdom of God is here and now.

Thomas, like the Synoptic Gospels, affirms that the kingdom of God was a central focus of Jesus’ teaching, but in the Synoptics the kingdom is referenced in both present and future tenses. Some of the references are simply ambiguous. In Mark 1:15 (also Matt. 4:17) Jesus announces that the kingdom is “at hand” (RSV) or… [Read more…] about It's Time to Give the Gospel of Thomas Its Due

Jesus, Executed Terrorist

by Don M. Burrows in Christian History

Today is Good Friday, the day on which Christians mark the occasion of Jesus’ crucifixion. The precise day and time varies depending on which Gospel you read, but according to the historical methodologies accepted by scholars of the ancient world, there is perhaps no event that more certainly occurred in antiquity.

It is hard to emphasize just how striking a situation early Christians were in, owing to the crucifixion of their founder. The cross today is almost universally recognized as a symbol for Christianity, but that was certainly not the case in the first century, nor even in the first few centuries after Jesus died.

Scholars have long seen the crucifixion of Jesus as highly probable historically, because crucifixion was such a public, shameful, and politically charged method of execution. This is not, as the “criterion of embarrassment” sees it, something that a group of people would make up. As a scholar of ancient Rome, I have to agree: I cannot imagine a scenario more fraught with problems than one in which your chief figurehead had been crucified, and it seems clear from much of Christian literature, from the Gospels themselves onward, that Christians were very concerned about the image this portrayed and significantly invested in making Jesus appear not at all worthy of any such execution.

Whether one thinks he was, in fact, worthy of execution – from the standpoint of the Romans, of course – typically has more to do with one’s politics and theology.… [Read more…] about Jesus, Executed Terrorist

The Political Punch Behind Christianity’s Favorite Prayer

by Don M. Burrows in Christian History

I love the Lord’s Prayer.

The translation of it now universally recited in the English-speaking world holds a poetic, lilting quality that makes its recitation a cathartic ritual even if one holds sincere doubts about its specific words.

But what exactly are those words?

Many Christians, if not most, have experienced the embarrassment of rehearsing aloud – and it always feels super loud, right? – the wrong choice of “debts” or “trespasses” when the service at a new church turns to the Lord’s Prayer, as it so often does. It always feels as though – even if you managed to discreetly escape the Visitor’s Sticker they wanted to put on your lapel – you have just declared in no uncertain terms that you are an outsider.

Yet despite this common experience, few perhaps realize that this confusion between debts and trespasses reflects an inconsistency in the New Testament itself. It’s Luke – and Luke alone – who records that Jesus instructed us to pray to God to “forgive us our sins,” or ἁμαρτίαι (hamartiai), the word we translate as “trespasses.” Yet he does not use the same word for what we are to do for others. That word remains “debtors” (ὀφείλοντι, opheilonti) in much the same way Matthew records that we are to forgive the “debts” (ὀφειλέταις, opheiletais) owed to us.

So why do so many churches use “trespasses” in both cases? Clearly it’s more poetic for them to be in parallel, even if they never appear that way in the New Testament, and… [Read more…] about The Political Punch Behind Christianity’s Favorite Prayer