CT and the Historical Jesus

Last updated on: April 13, 2010 at 12:09 am by Scot McKnight

CT and the Historical Jesus 2010-04-13T00:09:08-05:00 Scot McKnight

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Some of you may have seen our piece in Christianity Today called “The Jesus We’ll Never Know.” The essence of my article is that “historical Jesus” studies, the official Historical Jesus enterprise, has a major goal: finding what the real Jesus was really like. By that I mean the HJ enterprise wants to get behind the Creeds and behind the Gospels to discover what the human Jesus was like — and in doing this the HJ enterprise is about creating a new Jesus, a Jesus who differs from the Gospels and the Creeds because it will shear away any faith accretions and any legendary embellishments and any theological overlays.

The fundamental point I am making is that the HJ enterprise, by definition, creates a 5th Gospel. And there is no “consensus” 5th Gospel. Each HJ scholar comes to his or her (few women have entered into this discussion) own conclusions, no two scholars completely agree, and to a person tends to “believe in” the Jesus that is created.

The “Historical Jesus” (of the HJ enterprise) fashions a Jesus by examining the data (Gospels and ancient texts and archaeology etc), subjecting the data to rigorous historical methods, finding what genuinely survives, and the putting together what is left into a portrait of what the real Jesus was like.

I consider this “putting together” very important. Historians don’t just “find” things; they both find and put together into a portrait in order to make sense of what they find. ‘

In the article I contend the HJ enterprise is all but over; at the least, interest has waned to a pittance of what it was. Very few scholars are attending HJ sessions; very few books are now being produced (in contrast to an avalanche of books in the 80s and 90s); one could say the HJ is at a dead-end. I also contend that historical methods, because of what they assume about what can be demonstrated, can’t get us to the orthodox faith about Jesus’ death or his person or the significance of what he did and who he was.

To this article, CT solicited responses from Tom Wright, Craig Keener and, only in the online edition, Darrell Bock. These three are my friends and I value what they have to say. So, I’ll enter into brief conversation here with what each says:

Tom Wright opens with a statement that I think misunderstands me: “I am,” he says of himself, “to give up the lifetime habit of studying Jesus historically.” Well, no, not exactly. Yes, we have to use our historical tools; yes, we are invited and we can choose, if we want, to examine Jesus in historical context (the Jewish Jesus). But there is a difference between historical study of Jesus and the Historical Jesus enterprise. The former seeks to understand Jesus in context; the latter seeks to reconstruct a Jesus that differs from the Gospels and the Creeds. Yes, I totally agree with Tom about the various kinds of historical Jesus studies; some, to be sure, are orthodox. And I drink deeply from his well and from that of BF Meyer. But, when he says “not all historical Jesus scholarship is skeptical” I shall take a humble “ahem” and say, well, very little is not. And I totally agree that we have to do historical work to understand the Four Gospels. I wish Tom would acknowledge the intent of the HJ enterprise. On my shelves are hundreds of books on the historical Jesus: I can count on less than two hands those who are not, in essence, creating a fifth gospel. It’s rare; Tom is one such person and so too is BF Meyer.

I disagree with Tom that the Bultmann pronouncement left a vacuum: Joachim Jeremias stepped in and gave us plenty of gold. (But, disappointingly, he fell well short of finding an orthodox or even Gospel-esque Jesus.) Yes, we’ve got to do history; but doing history is different than joining the HJ enterprise, which is the burden of my article. And I agree with Tom’s last three points in his “Clearing away the Smoke Screens” section, even if I’d phrase things slightly differently.

So, again: Yes to Historical Work. But Nein for the orthodox when it comes to the value of the HJ enterprise for our faith.

Craig Keener reiterates the value of history for study of Jesus. I think I should have emphasizes that I believe in historical work more; my own work proves that. But I want to say again that I’m distinguishing between the HJ enterprise (think Borg who drops the eschatological Son of Man, etc, and then has a de-eschatologized Jesus that is as popular as any HJ enterprise book one can find today) and doing historical work in an apologetic vein, which both Wright and Keener are emphasizing.

There’s irony here: both Wright and Keener are saying, Yes, but not all do historical work as do the skeptics (HJ enterprise scholars). Which is precisely my point: I’m speaking about those scholars, and they confirm those scholars are doing just what I’m saying: reconstructing a new (non orthodox) Jesus.

Maybe Craig is right; maybe there’s more HJ study than I’m seeing. But since about the late 90s or early 00’s, I’m seeing precious few studies that really are proposing a “new” Jesus the way they were doing in the 80s and 90s. Dunn’s Jesus book is ultimately an affirmation of the Gospels and not at all a proposal of a new Jesus. I asked Jimmy to put it altogether in a final chp, which he did, and that Jesus is not a new Jesus. I don’t consider Jimmy’s book part of the HJ enterprise. JP Meier’s multi-volumes are both historically rigorous and absent of historical imagination of a new Jesus, which is one reason why his books (beside their length!) are not fashionable and plastered all over the media.

Darrell Bock’s online piece latched on to my “uninterpreted” Jesus comment. Well, I’ve read what I said again and here’s what I think I meant, and I suspect Darrell would agree with me: I meant the canonical interpretation of Jesus as Messiah and Son of God and the Creedal Jesus who is the Second Person of the Trinity. They want to get behind “those” interpretations to the real Jesus. I can see why Darrell grabbed that word. Darrell is, of course, right in what he says that there is no uninterpreted Jesus. But, Geza Vermes, often credited with the origins of the Third Quest, said an objective historian ought to be able to find the real Jesus if he (or she) pursues such in a disinterested way using sound historical methods. That’s what I mean by “uninterpreted.”

And, once again, I agree with Darrell: by all means historical work; yes, that work will enable apologetics. But what Darrell focuses on, apologetics, is not what the HJ enterprise is about at all; it’s about getting behind the Church’s Jesus. I will simply repeat myself in a different form: apologetic work is not HJ enterprise work. It’s apologetics.

But I’d like some admission by these three, or at least some more admission, that the vast majority — nearly all of it — of historical Jesus studies have had one major intent: to get behind the creeds and Gospels to see what Jesus was really like, before the Christians began rewriting history to present a christology, a Messiah Jesus, a Son of God Jesus, etc..

The question for me is this: Whose Story will we tell? This leads to a chase question: Will it be ours, the Story we fashion on our historical methods, or will it be the Church’s Story? I’ve chosen, after a decade of working in this field and being as rigorous with methods as I could have been, to opt for the Church’s Story. It’s the gospel.

Jesus

Previous Post

April 12, 2010

Were Confederate Soldiers Terrorists?

Next Post

April 13, 2010 Telling Our Story (RJS)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Acts of the Apostles Adam Advent Anabaptism Angels Anglican Apologetics Atonement Baptism BCP Prayers Bible Biblical Studies Birds Blogging Bloglossary Bonhoeffer Books Calvinism Christianity Church Church History Coffee Colossians Commentary Recs Conversion Creation Creeds Culture Death Ecclesiastes Economics Education Embracing Grace Emergent Emerging Movement Eschatology Essays Ethics Eucharist Evangelicalism Family Fasting Fathers Fellowship of Differents Footsteps Tour Fun and Whimsical Gospel Grace Happiness Heaven Hell Holy Spirit Irenaeus James Jesus Jesus Creed Job Justification Kingdom of God Law Lectures Lent Liberalism Love and Marriage Mabanteneni Manhood Mary Miracles Missio Alliance MissioLife Missional Missional Jesus Movies and Film New Perspective Northern Seminary OneLife Origins Project Orthodox Parables Pastor's Spouse Pastoring and Leading Pastoring and Preaching Patristics Paul Paul-John Tour Pharisees Pietism Political Theology Prayer and Formation Preaching Problems for Faith Psalm 119 Psalms Public Issues Purgatory Religions Resurrection Revelation Romans Rule of JCreed Science and Faith Sermon on the Mount Sports Ten Commandments Theology Third Way Top Ten Lists Translations Uncategorized Universalism University Ministry Way Out Weekly Meanderings Wisdom Women and Ministry Work Worship Writing & Blogging Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2021 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which country has the largest number of Christians?

Select your answer to see how you score.

United States Germany Brazil Russia