RLG203 UNIT 2: The Historical Jesus and the Jesus of the Gospels

Difference between religious studies and theological perspective

- They ask different questions
- Human dimension of religion, complex reflection of human thought
- Theological perspective will be more about faith, or relating to God

LECTURE NOTES

What do we know about the social, religious, and historical circumstances in which Jesus was
born and raised? How do we know?
- Archeology
- Written remains, texts
- Jewish Historians, Theological texts from Jesus’s earliest followers
- The Roman Empire spread over Europe, Mediterranean
-

What do the different “portraits” of Jesus in the gospels tell us about how his life was
understood?
- We don’t get a picture of Jesus
- Gospel: good news, a message, gospel writers are called Evangelists, someone who
brings good news, or a good message
- 4 gospels that ended up in the New Testament in Greek

Social context in which Jesus lived (short video notes)

- Lived in Palestine, Baptised, became a preacher, publicly executed
- Born a subject of the Roman empire, Cesar Augustus, born in village of Nazareth
- Removed from urban life, especially Roman influence
- Jesus was proximate to a sophisticated urban environment
- Humble carpenter, where did this man get this wisdom? He can’t just be carpenter’s son
- Artisan class, lower class, likely went to Sepphoris to earn his living
- Trilingual
- Left Nazareth to become a preacher, he was faithful to Judaism of his time, he was
Jewish
- At this period there was only one temple, one temple for one God

Lecture
- The Romans were master road builders, Appian way
- Went to Jerusalem for Passover, a ritual meal that was eaten in celebration in Exodus of
Moses, the Passover would be celebrated at the Antonia fortress, celebrating freedom
from slavery
CHAPTER 3 READING: JESUS AND THE NEW TESTAMENT

THE SETTING

Pharisee Party
- Means separated ones
- Lead the charge of Jews to live particularly holy lives, resist Hellenization (adopting of
anything Greek and diminishing their own culture)
- Emerged 110 BCE, respected by Jewish Hasmonean rulers
- Were persecuted and marginalized by Alexander Jannaeus
- Most popular group of religious leaders among the common people
- Comprised all three parts of the Tanakh (Torah, Prophets, Writings)
- Messiah: an anointed king who would re-establish a righteous monarchy
- Supported written Law of Moses and the oral law
- Opposed the roman occupation

Sadducees Party
- Form of protest party
- Sadducees took their name from King David’s high priest Zadok
- Objected to the Hasmonean innovation
- Included members from Jewish upper class, the priestly class, and the nobility
- Tried collaborating with Romans to ensure Jew freedom
- Considered the most theologically conservative Jews of the day
- Rejected last judgement, resurrection of the dead

Essenes Party
- 4000 numbered
- Refused to engage the larger society, and create their own community at Qumran
- Apocalyptic group that was celibate
- War Scroll, sons of light are Essenes
- Lived in the desert
- Believed that God-given royal messiah would lead the charge against the Romans and
re-establish a holy kingdom

Zealots Party
- Sought national independence by armed conflict against the Romans
- Freedom fighters or foolish insurrectionists

THE GOSPEL OF JESUS

Gospel
- Such texts lauded the Roman emperor, who was imagined as a semi-deity who ensured
peace and justice in the world
 - Christian thought that Jesus was the true savior, they applied this term to the story of
Jesus

THE MINISTRY OF JESUS

- Jesus was raised in Nazareth a small town in the territory of Galilee in northern Palestine
- Jesus got baptised and went into the wilderness for forty days of intense prayer, and
after his own public ministry
- Became an itinerant preacher, 12 apostles were chosen
- Jesus was a miracle worker, a healer, associated his healing with God
- He was an exorcist and cast out many demons
- Was popular in Galilee for his healings and teachings
- Jesus flaunted Pharisees understanding of the oral Law, and contradicted general
interpretations of the Law of washing and Sabbath
- Made enemies among religious and political leaders
- Called “son of David”
- He spoke with Gods authority in striking, confusing, even scandalous ways, forgave sins,
proclaimed himself higher than the law
- People saw him as divine authority, convinced he’s a messiah
- A revolutionary, a seditionist
- Believed that the resurrected Jesus was the saviour of the world
- Apocalyptic messenger of God (Mark)

Gospels of Jesus

- The first three Gospels Matthew, mark, and Luke are relatively similar to each other they
are called synoptic gospels meaning same eye sharing the same viewpoint (38)
- Ancient writers enjoyed broad latitude to write narrative that they believed told the
truth in ways that allowed for symbolism, typology, and so on to express that truth
- Many secular historians use the Gospels as historical references for the life of Jesus of
Nazareth (39)
- They could possibly reject the resurrection of Jesus and miracles, but they rely on
narratives of Jesus’s ministry (39)
- Conclusion: the gospel writers all intended to represent the real Jesus, even as they
believed that they had narrative license in crafting their portrayal (47)
- Each Gospel represents a very intentionally different framing of Jesus and his message
(48)

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

- When the Sabbath was over, they went (16:1) and very early on the first day of the
week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb (16:2)
- Mark portrays Jesus as an urgent, apocalyptic messenger of God (42)
 - There is in Mark a regular theme known as the messianic secret. Messianic secret, when
evil spirits acknowledge Jesus’s identity, he silences them and when his disciples realize
he is the Messiah, he tells them to keep it to themselves (43)
- “Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously
they proclaimed it” (43)
- Jesus’s messianic ministry is one of self-offering something he demands of his disciples
as well (44)
- Endurance through all trials to the end marks this Gospel (44)
- Mark depicts Jesus as particularly apocalyptic towards the end of his preaching ministry
(44)
- Mark’s original Gospel ending describes three women disciples who go to the tomb
early Sunday morning: Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome (44)
- There they find the tomb empty and a young man inside who tells them that Jesus has
been raised, he orders them to tell the disciples to go up to Galilee in order to meet the
risen Lord, so they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had
seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid (16:8) (44)
- Later Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene (16:9), then appeared to the eleven sitting
at the table (16:14)
- After he spoke to them he was taken up into heaven and sat at the right hand of God
(16:19)
- earliest and shortest of the "synoptic" gospels; written just after 70 CE for a
- Greek-speaking, Jewish-Christian community outside of Judea/Galilee
- Jesus as ..
- subversive sage
- wonderworker (1/3 of Mark!)
- suffering servant
- keeper of a Messianic secret

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

- Jesus is the personification of Israel and a new Moses in Matthew (44)
- In Matthews Gospel, Jesus’s family dwells in a house in Bethlehem, King David’s City (44)
- After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning Mary Magdalene and the
other Mary to see the tomb and suddenly there was an earthquake for an angel of the
Lord descending from heaven came and rolled back the stone and sat on it (28:1)
- So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples (28:8)
- Most "Jewish" of the synoptic gospels; written after Mark (around 85-90 CE) for a
Galilean-Jewish community
- Jesus as ..
- an heir of Abraham and King David
- a second Moses
- an opponent of the scribes and Pharisees
- the messiah and king of the Jews

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

 - Luke portrays Jesus as a universal savior (45)
- Like Matthew he also provides a genealogy of Jesus, though this time Luke takes us back
to Adam and Eve
- Mary’s praise encapsulates on one the great themes of Luke’s Gospel: God’s salvation is
marked by a reversal of fortunes (45)
- One sees this emphasis on poverty and its reversal in the kingdom of God in Jesus’s
great sermon in Luke, the counterpart to Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount (45)
- In Matthew “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven…Blessed
are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (46)
- In Luke, “blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God, Blessed are you
who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will
laugh” (46)
- Matthew focuses on interior transformation, Luke focuses on those who are literally
poor, hungry, and suffering (46)
- Even as Mark and Matthew provide many parables of Jesus, Luke gives us far more, and
we often see in them a different slant (46)
- In Luke’s parables, God regularly takes up the cause of the poor, and the kingdom of
God is about elevating such people (46)
- The wealthy and powerful depends on their alignment with the poor (46)
- the women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and
how his body was laid (23:55)
- On the sabbath they rested according to the commandment (23:56) On the first day of
the week they came to the tomb taking the spices that they had prepared (24:1)
- Two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them (24:4)
- Most "Gentile" and "literary" of the synoptic gospels (Luke's Greek is excellent); written
after Mark (around 85-90 CE) for a non-Jewish community around the Aegean Sea;
"Luke" also wrote the Acts of the Apostles
- Jesus as ...
- a scholar (like Luke!)
- a universal messiah (not just for Jews)
- a merciful and compassionate forgiver

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN

- Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene come to the
tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb (20:1)
- Mark begins his Gospel with the public ministry of Jesus (46)
- Matthew and Luke begin their gospels with Jesus’s conception by the Virgin Mary
through the power of the Holy Spirit (46)
- John begins his gospel with the creation of the world (46)
- John identities Jesus as something like the Old Testament figure of Wisdom, who exists
with God before creation and through whom God creates all things (46)
- Discipleship is twofold in John’s Gospel; it represents a decision to believe in Jesus and
embrace his way of self-offering love (47)
 - Latest of the four canonical gospels and not one of the synoptics; written 90-100 CE for
a community in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey)
- Jesus as ...
- the cosmic messiah and "logos" Word) of God
- a mysterious divine figure; the light of the world
- himself the Passover meal as the Word made Flesh

Thinking about the portraits of Jesus

- the church concluded that all are true, even as they are different
- many scholars believe that mark’s gospel was written in Rome where the church
suffered great persecution and martyrdom and to be a Christian was difficult and
dangerous. Looking at Jesus through Mark’s lens reveals Jesus’s message and ministry as
an engagement against powers of evil, both social and supernatural (47)
- Mark reveals a messiah who is stronger than these powers (47)
- Matthews Gospel, clearly written for a converted Jewish community, is it portrait of
Jesus in the great continuity of God’s providential salvation through Israel’s history (47)
- Luke’s Gospel moves discipleship toward a search for God’s presence among the poor
and like the prophets of old, a focus on those most in need (47)
- It is a gospel in which lowliness and humility become the context for God’s hidden glory
to be encountered, and in which the kingdom of God is a place where full flourishing of
all must be paramount (47)
Here Jesus demands a daunting examination of one’s values, priorities, and decisions
(47)
- Taking the side of the weak and identifying with them is what the kingdom requires (47)
- John’s Gospel is a message of decisiveness, it is all or nothing, if all means offering
oneself unreservedly (47)
- One who does that may now know profound intimacy with God through Jesus (47)

Q = GERMAN FOR QUELLE "SOURCE"

- hypothetical "sayings source"
- nothing on life or death of Jesus; just what he preached explanation for material present
in Matthew and Luke but absent in Mark
- the synoptic problem concerns the literary relationship between the first three
“synoptic” gospels of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. (Stephen Carlson
website)
- researched proposed the most prevalent solution which is two-source hypothesis or
Mark-Q theory, also can be interpreted as the source from Mark, which hold that Mark
was the first gospel, and both Matthew and Luke independently augmented Mark with a
lost, sayings collection called Q, its most controversial part (Stephen Carlson website)
- the two-source hypothesis could potentially describe the similarities, and link between
the three synoptic gospels

PBS Video on Gospels

 - There were no stories from the actual time of Jesus, they were written later on
- We can look at the story by the way they kept the history alive by the way that they told
the story
- Rome’s empire spread across the Mediterranean to North Africa, it encompasses Egypt
Palestine Judea
The gospel according to Mark
- The oldest in the New Testament it was written after the failure of the first revolt for a
community that was struggling to reconcile its expectations of Jesus with the loss of the
temple (White)
- Mark’s audience reads Greek, and not Aramaic, Mark always has to explain the Aramaic
phrases that Jesus uses (White)
- Mark has written to a Jewish Christian audience living somewhere outside the homeland
(White)
- They’ve been forced to use the coins that depicted the terrible defeat (White)
- (Pagels) A story of a country teacher coming from nowhere and having incredible
power, healing people, speaking bold
- Mark was the first to write the story of the life of Jesus, he took early written sources
and created a new narrative (pbs)
- In Mark what sets Jesus apart is that a peculiar kind of miracle worker, in one time he
has to try twice to get the miracle right and in other cases he can’t perform a miracle at
all (pbs)
- The point of Marks gospel is to say he’s not just a miracle worked he’s more (white)
- The Jesus ion Marks gospels reveals and conceals his identity, the scholars call it the
messianic secret (pbs)
- The messianic secret depicts that true messiah cannot be recognized in his miracle, his
secret is that he is the messiah that came to suffer, the suffering and death of jesus
reveals the secret
- Since the distraction of the temple, Marks community has come to see the death of
Jesus in a new light, Mark is challenging the prewar image of Jesus as an apocalyptic
figure (pbs)
- Mark coming out of the experience of the first great war with Rome after destruction of
the temple, Mark sees Jesus like many of the Christians that Mark knew all about, as
gods persecuted one, it’s a tarrying imagine because that’s what their experience was
(Crossan)
- Mark tells us that Jesus died being mocked in agony, Mark is writing for the experience
of people in the 70CE that are dying like that, and who need the consolation that Jesus
has died that way before, feeling abandoned by God (Crossan)
- In Marks original gospel Jesus dies and his body is placed in a tomb, when the tomb is
discovered, the body is gone (pbs)
- Mark ends with an absent Jesus because that’s what his community experience, an
absent Jesus, Mark creates an empty tomb as his way of ending the story (Crossan)

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke

 - Matthew and Luke used Mark as the core, they depend on Mark, they can be
understood together (Fredriksen)
- Scholars observed that some Matthews and Luke’s sayings are identical, you would only
have Jesus speaking identical things in Greek, there must have been something other
than Mark that was written in Greek, and they called that Quella, Q
- Q was composed before the war, it would of resented Jesus as an apocalyptic figure,
Mark felt compelled to change (pbs)
- Q was probably composed in Palestine, scholars do not agree on location of Mark, Matt,
Luke or John, they were separated not only by geography but also by time (pbs)
- Writing decades apart, they composed their Gospels for tiny communities that were
developing their own ideas of Jesus independently of each other (pbs)
- 15 years after Mark, Matthew wrote his gospel for a community caught up in the
transformation of Judaism after the fall of the temple (pbs)
- Matthews gospel is clearly written for a Jewish Christian audience living within the
immediate proximity of the homeland, most Jewish of all Gospels (white)
- Matthews community lived in villages in the upper Galilee, or lower Syria, after the war
many who have been forced out of Jerusalem settled in those villages (pbs)
- New leadership was evolving here with the Pharisees, with the rabbis who gave fresh
interpretation to the to the ancient Jewish tradition, Matthews community felt threated
my those changes (pbs)
- The gospel of Matthew is concerned with the position of these early Christian churches
within Israel, for Matthew Jesus is this man from Israel, he is the son of Ibrahim
(Koester)
- The Jesus of Matthew singles out the Pharisees for a bitter attack (pbs)
- The Pharisees weren’t that prominent a group in the time of Jesus, Matthew tell this
story because it is prominent in life of Matthews community after the war the pharisees
are becoming their opponent, and were watching two Jewish groups Matthews
Christian Jewish group and pharisaic groups in tension of what would be of Judaism
(white)
- In Matthew we see a debate created by two Jewish groups and tensions creates which
would create a fracture between Judaism and Christianity (pbs)
- Matthews different account on the death of Jesus is different from Mark because, his
followers and the pharisees were competing for the hearts and minds of the Jewish
villagers over the future direction of Judaism (pbs)
- Matthew concludes his gospel, he’s talking about something that happened in the year
30 but he brings it to year 85, so what’s the last climactic statement of Jesus where do I
locate it? That’s when he looked at Marks conclusion and changed it (Crossan)
The gospel of Luke

- Luke’s gospel takes the separation from Judaism one step further, Luke was certainly a
Gentile writing for Gentile audience (pbs)
- Tradition claims that the author of Luke was a traveling companion of the Apostle Paul
and probably lived in one of the cities where Paul founded a Christian community (pbs)
 - Luke wrote the story which began with John the Baptist ends with the arrival Paul in
Rome
- The style of Luke’s Gospel is highest in the literary quality of anything in the New
Testament, anyone in the Greco-Roman world was much more comfortable with it and
reading it (white)
- Luke is telling the story for a Greco-Roman audience with a political agenda is what
happens to the Luke’s treatment of the Jewish tradition, Luke is much more antagonistic
towards Judaism (white)
- When Luke describes Paul gong to the synagogues, he shows the Jews in a hostile light
(pbs)
- Luke is reflecting the development of the Christian movement more away from the
Jewish groups, developing more towards the roman political and social arena (pbs)
- When the gospel gets to Rome that’s the end (Crossan)

The Gospel of John

- Written 70 years after the death of Jesus, it’s a story of a community where the
relationship between Christian and Jews has become more virulent, to the point of
break down (pbs)
- In the worth Gospel Jesus is a very serene figure who can at length about matter divine,
different from synoptic gospels
- Johns gospel is different, by the year 200 John gospel was called the spiritual gospel, it
told the story of Jesus in a symbolic way (white)
- Compare mark and john, the agony in the garden, there is no garden in mark, and no
agony in john, marks is writing to a persecuted community who knows what it like to
die, John, Jesus is not on the ground with John, Jesus tells them to let my disciples go
(Crossan)
- Jesus dies on a different day in Johns gospel compared to the other Gospels (pbs)
- Jesus eats a Passover meal before he dies, in john the last meal was eaten before the
Passover (white)
- In the johns gospel Jesus is crucified, Jesus is being hanged on the cross while the lambs
are being slaughtered for Passover (white)
- Jesus doesn’t eat the Passover meal, Jesus is the Passover meal (white)
- Judaism was evolving, the synagogue was becoming the place of worship, they saw
Torah as the Word of God, but Johns community saw Jesus as the world of God an for
this conviction they would be forced out of the synagogue (pbs)
- Mark talks about the crowd being against Jesus, Matthew talks about all people, and
John it is the Jews who are against Jesus (Crossan)
- The conflict between Jews and Christians that John described in his story of Jesus was
still a local experience, but soon it would be a conflict between Jews and Romans over
Roman rule in Jerusalem (pbs)