It would be difficult to address the topic of a historical Jesus without first providing a very brief synopsis of the history of scholarship often called the quests, which are the quests to identify the real Jesus of history. Darrell Bock explains that the first quest was represented by the rationalism of the Enlightenment, which undermined the supernatural and asserted that Jesus was just a moral teacher, which ultimately led to radical skepticism.[1] The existential approach of Rudolph Bultmann’s demythologization, according to Gary Habermas, built upon the views of the first quest and resulted in a distinction between the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith, thus rendering the quest unnecessary.[2] Certain scholars, such as Ernst Käsemann, pushed back against Bultmann with limited success in a second quest.[3] However, more recently, a third quest originated based on recent archaeological studies and new methodologies. Ultimately, all of the quests attempted in some way to uncover the real, historical Jesus.
The means of studying and evaluating Jesus from historical sources often align with the means of studying and evaluating history in general. Historical criticism, as a broad discipline, points back to the Renaissance in an attempt to study the veracity of ancient texts. A historical-critical approach includes source criticism, form criticism, and redaction criticism, which have all been applied as methods for the study and evaluation of the Gospels, and accordingly, the historical Jesus. Evaluating the preservation of tradition is another means of studying history, which, according to Bock, often involves applying criteria of authenticity such as dissimilarity, multiple attestations, coherence, divergent patterns, and Aramaic linguistic features.[4] The criteria for authenticity can be used in an attempt to evaluate whether a text originated from Jesus, but, as exemplified by Christopher Hansen, it can also be applied to extrabiblical texts to assist in determining whether Jesus did, in fact, exist as a historical person.[5] According to Bock, historical criticism, under the long shadow of Ernst Troeltsch’s classical historicism, relativized history to the point of extreme skepticism.[6] However, skepticism is not required to consider the historical merits of a text or the reality of Jesus. For example, N. T. Wright attempts to bring together history and theology through an approach he designates as “critical realism.”[7] Although some have criticized Wright for overemphasizing history, he does attempt to see the people in the Gospels, including Jesus, as historical figures, while recognizing the divine aspect of Scripture. Ultimately, the discussion revolves around epistemology: How does one know whether the recording of history is authentic and reliable?
Although the means of evaluating the historical sources has a long and storied history, a significant number of historical points of reference regarding Jesus’s life are available for examination. Bock identifies several Roman sources including Suetonius, Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, and, indirectly, Thallus and Peregrinus.[8] Habermas identifies several non-Christian sources including ancient historians such as Josephus, government officials such as Emperor Trajan and Emperor Hadrian, Jewish sources such as the Talmud and Toledoth Jesu, and Gentile sources such as Lucian and Mara Bar-Serapion.[9] Ancient Christian sources include Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Barnabas, Justin Martyr, and, of course, the New Testament manuscripts.[10] Specific historical reference points worth noting include Josephus’s reference to the execution of Jesus’s brother, James (Ant. 20.200), and his reference to both Pilate and a wise man named Jesus condemned to a cross (Ant. 18.63-64). Bock also notes that in Tacitus’s final work, Annals, the ancient author discusses a great fire that broke out in Rome in AD 64 that Nero accused the Christians of setting.[11] Habermas identifies another historical reference in a letter written by Pliny the Younger, the governor of Bithynia, which references Christians who were gathering to sing hymns to Christ, a man who was like a god.[12] Several other specific sources could be cited, but to be clear, although extrabiblical evidence is important, it does not undermine the veracity of Scriptures as a valid source for the historical reality of Jesus.
An important final point worth noting is that many scholars do not believe in the validity of the historical reference points due to their lack of independence, a criterion of authenticity. For example, Hansen contends that the references by Josephus and other sources such as Thallus, Mara bar Serapion, and Suetonius are “dependent on Christian tradition.”[13] In other words, the authors were simply using Christian information in the statements they made, which does not corroborate the existence of Jesus but simply repeats what other Christians believed. Interestingly, Hansen explains that most skeptics who reject the historicity of Jesus utilize an argument from silence by asserting that if a real, historical Jesus existed, then much would have been written about him in antiquity.[14] From a modern perspective, the accusation seems reasonable, but the question remains as to whether one should expect a plethora of information to be written about Jesus in the first couple of centuries. Chloë Duckworth and Andrew Wilson suggest that proletarian individuals were simply not topics of ancient historians.[15] Hansen also notes that not only were Jewish people not generally written about, but the writers who skeptics claim should have written about Christ also do not reference Christians, who obviously were a historical reality.[16] Accordingly, Justin Meggitt remarks, “To deny his [Jesus’] existence based on the absence of such evidence, even if that were the case, has problematic implications; you may as well deny the existence of pretty much everyone in the ancient world.”[17] In sum, the fact that the modern world has access to a significant number of historical reference points to Jesus is quite remarkable even if the independence is not completely and perfectly attested, especially in light of the fact that one would not expect any ancient historians to reference a poor, Jewish criminal executed by the Roman government.
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[1] Darrell L. Bock, Studying the Historical Jesus: A Guide to Sources and Methods (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012), 143–144.
[2] Gary R. Habermas, The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ (Joplin, Mo: College Press, 1996), 20–21.
[3] Ibid., 22–23.
[4] Bock, Studying the Historical Jesus, 199–201.
[5] Christopher M Hansen, “Jesus’ Historicity and Sources: The Misuse of Extrabiblical Sources for Jesus and a Suggestion,” Journal of Biblical Theology 4, no. 3 (July 2021): 143–144.
[6] Bock, Studying the Historical Jesus, 160–161.
[7] Jonathan T. Pennington, Reading the Gospels Wisely: A Narrative and Theological Introduction (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012), 87–89.
[8] Bock, Studying the Historical Jesus, 47–52.
[9] Habermas, The Historical Jesus, 187–208.
[10] Ibid., 229–238.
[11] Bock, Studying the Historical Jesus, 49.
[12] Habermas, The Historical Jesus, 197–198.
[13] Hansen, “Jesus’ Historicity and Sources,” 146.
[14] Ibid., 141–142.
[15] Chloë N. Duckworth and Andrew Wilson, eds., Recycling and Reuse in the Roman Economy (Oxford: Oxford University, 2020), 100–101.
[16] Hansen, “Jesus’ Historicity and Sources,” 151–152.
[17] Justin J Meggitt, “‘More Ingenious than Learned’?: Examining the Quest for the Non-Historical Jesus,” New Testament Studies 65, no. 4 (October 2019): 459.
Bibliography
- Bock, Darrell L. Studying the Historical Jesus: A Guide to Sources and Methods. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012.
- Duckworth, Chloë N., and Andrew Wilson, eds. Recycling and Reuse in the Roman Economy. Oxford: Oxford University, 2020.
- Habermas, Gary R. The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ. Joplin, Mo: College Press, 1996.
- Hansen, Christopher M. “Jesus’ Historicity and Sources: The Misuse of Extrabiblical Sources for Jesus and a Suggestion.” Journal of Biblical Theology 4, no. 3 (July 2021): 139–161.
- Meggitt, Justin J. “‘More Ingenious than Learned’?: Examining the Quest for the Non-Historical Jesus.” New Testament Studies 65, no. 4 (October 2019): 443–460.
- Pennington, Jonathan T. Reading the Gospels Wisely: A Narrative and Theological Introduction. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012.