1. What Do We Know About Jesus of Nazareth?
11/15/17
Professor Tate

2. Vocabulary Criteria for determining authenticity: Older the better
Mikvah
Minimalists
Maximalists
First quest for the historical Jesus
Second quest for the historical Jesus
Criteria for determining authenticity:
Older the better
Multiple attestation
Dissimilarity
Coherence
Embarrassment
Jesus in his Jewish context
The cross

3. Archaeological Evidence
Jewish ritual bath (mikvah)

4. Archaeological Evidence
Synagogues

5. Archaeological Evidence
Houses
(Pictured: a reconstruction of a typical 1st century Galilean home)

6. Archaeological Evidence
No burial shroud
No ossuary to hold Jesus’ bones (but the bones of others who had been crucified at around the same time)
No holy grail
Nothing from the Dead Sea Scrolls (but they can tell us something about Jewish apocalypticism in Jesus’ day)

7. Pagan Literary Evidence
“Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their center and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, but of hatred against mankind.” (Tacitus, Roman historian, died 117 C.E.)

8. Pagan Literary Evidence
“[Claudius] expelled the Jews from Rome, because of the riots they were causing at the instigation of Christus.” (Seutonius, 120 C.E., in his biography of the emperor Claudius referring to events in 49 C.E.)

9. Jewish Literary Evidence
“At this time, there appeared Jesus, a wise man [if indeed one ought to call him a man]. For he was a doer of amazing deeds, the teacher of persons who receive truth with pleasure. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. [He was the messiah.] And when Pilate condemned him to the cross, the leading men among us having accused him, those who loved him from the first did not cease to do so. [For he appeared to them on the third day alive again, the divine prophets having spoken these things and a myriad of other marvels concerning him.] And to the present the tribe of Christians, named after this person, has not disappeared.” (Josephus, Roman-Jewish historian, died 100 C.E.)

10. Quests for the Historical Jesus
Maximalists
The gospels contain reliable historical information, and the burden of proof is on those who wish to refute it
Minimalists
The gospels are theological interpretations more than histories, and the burden of proof is on those who wish to prove their historical data correct

11. The Historical Jesus vs. the Christ of Faith

12. Quests for the Historical Jesus
First Quest (ca )
Motivated by Enlightenment ideals of objectivity and scientific accuracy
Accepted the gospels’ basic framework of Jesus’ life, but concluded he was a failed revolutionary; the messiah model was imposed by his followers

13. The Jefferson Bible
“In extracting the pure principles which he taught, we should have to strip off the artificial vestments in which they have been muffled by priests, who have travestied them into various forms, as instruments of riches and power to themselves…We must reduce our volume to the simple evangelists, and even from them, the very words only of Jesus.”—From an 1813 letter to John Adams

14. Quests for the Historical Jesus
The Second Quest (ca )
Figured that traditions about Jesus must be rooted in history somehow
Devised a set of rules for figuring out what is authentic

15. Criteria for Determining Authenticity
The older the better
Multiple attestation
Dissimilarity
Coherence
Embarrassment
Jesus in his Jewish context
The Cross

16. What We Know: Jesus was Jewish
He lived in the first century C.E. in Palestine
He was an apocalyptic thinker who taught about the Kingdom of God
He was baptized by John
He was a healer
He was critical of the Temple/the Jewish establishment
He associated with society’s outcasts
He had a core group of 12 disciples
He was crucified under the Roman government