The Quest of the Historical Jesus: Current Issues and Prospects

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The first part of this lecture deals with the hermeneutical challenge posed by philosophy of enlightenment and historical-critical interpretation of the New Testament. The view of Jesus as a human being in contrast to a divine figure called into question the Christian doctrine about the two natures of Christ. Moreover, the differences between the Gospels were taken as evidence that not all of them– perhaps even none of them – would provide a historically accurate portrait of Jesus’ activity. The quest of the historical Jesus thus originated at a time when critical reason was established as the benchmark of the interpretation of biblical texts. This rational, critical view of Jesus and the Gospels raised the question of the most reliable sources about Jesus. To answer this question, Jesus scholars in the 19^th century developed the so-called Two-Source-Theory according to which the Gospel of Mark is the oldest Gospel, supplemented by a second source which was not preserved by itself. However, today it is widely acknowledged that the quest of the historical Jesus cannot be restricted to the New Testament Gospels or even to the Synoptic Gospels. Instead, the New Testament Gospels have to be integrated into a wider spectrum of early Christian texts about Jesus and used together with other remains – Jewish writings, archaeological and numismatic testimonies, as well as other early Christian texts – as sources for the historical Jesus. Moreover, the problem of the incompatibility of the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith raised by historical-critical Jesus research cannot be answered just by referring to the available sources. If Jesus was a first century Jew who addressed his fellow Jews with the call to conversion because of God’s dawning kingdom; who healed the sick and disputed with the Pharisees and scribes and was eventually crucified by the Romans – how could he become the Messiah of Israel and the Son of God who was believed as resurrected from the dead and venerated as exalted Lord? This problem has concerned theologians and Jesus scholars since the raise of critical theology. Scholars have answered this question in different ways. David Friedrich Strauss argued that the historical contours of the Jesus figure would vanish in the mist of the interpretations of the Gospel writers who used mythological ideas, mainly from the Old Testament, to interpret Jesus’ activity on earth. Other scholars maintained that despite the interpretation of Jesus’ activity and his passion from the perspective of Christian faith it would be possible and even necessary to reconstruct the historical traces of Jesus in the pre-Easter period.

Against this background, the second part of the lecture deals with the so-called “third quest the historical Jesus” which was developed in the seventies and eighties of the 20^th century. In the beginnings of this new debate about the historical Jesus, there was the expectation that a comprehensive and careful analysis of the available material would lead to a historical plausible, consistent historical portrait of Jesus. It has to be noted, however, that interpretation of historical data is always determined by the available evidence and the viewpoint of the interpreter. Moreover, any interpretation of historical data is not only dependent on the remains of the past preserved in the present, but also on the cultural and social situation of the interpreter. Thus, it comes as no surprise that the Jesus books of the so-called “third quest” provide not one unified portrait, but different images of Jesus.

The third part of the lecture is devoted to the Galilee as the historical context of Jesus. Research on the Galilee of Jesus in the last decades has demonstrated that it was a Jewish territory with trade connections to the surrounding areas. This will be demonstrated by references to archaeological findings such as synagogues in the Galilee and the coins of Herod Antipas. Moreover, some places, especially Sepphoris, Magdala, and Capernaum, will be considered in some more detail as places of the Galilee in the time of Jesus.

The fourth part of the paper is concentrated on Jesus as a Galilean Jew. In this section several of Jesus’ teaching such as the foundation of a circle of followers, the critical attitude towards Sabbath observance and his self-perception as God’s representative on earth will be considered in more detail. Against this background, the Jesus stories of the New Testament Gospels can be characterized as “transparent Jesus stories” which make the activity and fate of Jesus accessible and meaningful for the situation of Christian communities in the last decades of the first century CE.

The final part of the lecture comes back to the relationship of the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith. The study of Judaism in the Hellenistic-Roman period in general and the detailed descriptions of the Galilee as the context of Jesus’ activity in particular have resulted in a much clearer picture of Jesus within Judaism of his time, but also of the Jewish traditions that were used to interpret Jesus’ proclamation of the dawning kingdom of God and his self-perception. Accordingly, the development from the earthly Jesus to the Christ of faith can be explained in a more precise way. In terms of “Christological titles” this development can be described as leading from Jesus’ self-designation as “Son of Man” to designations such as “Messiah” (Christ), “Son of God”, “Son of David”, “Lord” or “Prophet” which were used by his followers to express the faith in Jesus as the resurrected One who was exalted at the right hand of God. Christian theology also interpreted Jesus’ death as an atonement for the sins of the human beings or even the creation of the world as God’s action through Jesus Christ. It is evident that these and other views go far beyond what can be said about the historical Jesus. However, historical Jesus research provides a basis not for all contents of Christian faith, but for its historical origin as well as for essential aspects of its shape and its ethos. From a hermeneutical and epistemological perspective, the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith should therefore not be played off against each other neither should they be regarded as two separate, unrelated perspectives on Jesus. Instead, the quest of the historical Jesus should be regarded as a hermeneutical enterprise which is of substantial importance for Christian theology and faith. Historical Jesus research does not lead us to a unified, unambiguous portrait of Jesus behind the earliest texts. However, it provides historical-critical portrayals of Jesus which serve as a historical orientation of Christianity under the respective cultural circumstances.

Intervenant(s)

Jens Schröter

Professor, Faculty of Theology, Humboldt University, Berlin

Voir aussi

Thomas Römer, chaire Milieux bibliques