Christian Chiakulas

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.

A sketch of the Historical Jesus is called a “reconstruction,” but ironically, from a Christian perspective, it appears that much more has been stripped away than added.

That reaction isn’t wrong. We’ve lost an entire gospel (John), many sayings and miracles, the Christmas stories, and thousands of years of theology and exegesis, all in pursuit of the Historical Jesus, the real man who lived 2,000 years ago and founded one of the world’s great religions.

Some Christians might wonder: what is the point of all this? If so much of the traditional Christian story is ahistorical, what’s the point of even being a Christian? If it’s impossible to definitively know exactly what Jesus said and did, why should anyone follow him?

These questions are very personal to me. My Christian faith was destroyed when I first learned about the Historical Jesus. The stories I had so earnestly believed were like beams holding up the walls of Christianity: without them, the edifice collapsed.

So what’s left to found a religion on? When you take away all that, is it still worth being a Christian?

Of course! First of all, just because something isn’t historical doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Maybe Jesus wasn’t actually born in Bethlehem, but that doesn’t make the meaning of Christmas any less profound. Maybe Jesus was wrong to… [Read more…] about The Quest for the Historical Jesus: Part Five

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

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

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

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