1. NT 101C-03: A Survey of the New Testament
“We become just by doing things that are just, temperate by doing things that are temperate, and courageous by doing things that are courageous!”
NT 101C-03: A Survey of the New Testament
Chapter 12
The Modern Search
for Jesus (pp )

2. Summary
of Solutions to
the
Synoptic Problem

3. 12 – The Modern Search for Jesus
Jesus, the Center of History
“Regardless of what anyone may personally think or believe about him, Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in the history of Western culture for almost twenty centuries. If it were possible, with some sort of supermagnet, to pull up out of that history every scrap of metal bearing at least a trace of his name, how much would be left? It is from his birth that most of the human race dates its calendars, it is by his name that millions curse an din his name that millions pray.”
– Jaroslav Pelikan, Jesus through Centuries (NY: Harper & Row), p. 1
12 – The Modern Search for Jesus
Search for the Real Jesus (German phenomenon)
What do we know for sure about Jesus? (old quest)
“It simply meant that the events in question were being considered from different angles and were emphasizing different things.”

4. 12 – The Modern Search for Jesus
Eusebian Canons – “every literary unit of the Gospels (totaling about 1,165) had been analyzed or its uniqueness or, in other cases, agreement with one or more of the other Gospels.”
“The resulting picture was the true story of Jesus of Nazareth, guaranteed by God, who had protected the Gospel writers from saying anything that was untrue. The writers themselves, in one way or another, had direct contact with the events they were describing. Matthew and John were disciples of Jesus; Mark was recording the remembrances of Peter; and Luke had interviewed many people who had been eyewitnesses an servants of Christ from the beginning (Lk 1:1-4).” (Elwell & Yarbrough, p.168)
12 – The Modern Search for Jesus

5. 12 – The Modern Search for Jesus
18th Century Enlightenment – rationalistic spirit
David F. Strauss, Life of Jesus Critically Examined (1835)
Ernest Renan, Life of Jesus (1863)
Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of Historical Jesus (1906) – convincingly showed that none of the historical Jesus studies found the real Jesus.
Rudolf Bultmann, Jesus and the Word (1926) & Theology of the New Testament (2 vols., 1951, 1955) - demythologizing
12 – The Modern Search for Jesus
New Quest for the Historical Jesus-post Bultmann
Ernst Käsemann-accused Bultmann of espousing a modern gnosticism, an intellectual system of faith devoid of any historical basis and in danger of losing Jesus entirely. (1953)
Günther Bornkamm-Jesus of Nazareth (1956)
James Robinson-A New Quest of the Historical Jesus (1959)

6. 12 – The Modern Search for Jesus
New Wave or Third Quest for the Historical Jesus
bewildering variety of reconstructed Jesus—a political change agent, a street corner Greek preacher, a zealot, a magician, a moralistic prophet, a confused Galilean peasant, a Marxist atheist, or an outright fraud.
Some attempts to see Jesus in a more favorable light
“So where does this leave us? In all probability, right where we began. The attempt to find a “real” Jesus by using basically secular methods result only in an unconvincing portrait of a Jesus who looks very much like the assumption of the one who painted the picture.” (Elwell & Yarbrough, p. 171)
John Reumenn-attempted to organize 20 categories but just scratched the surface of the varied views.
Adolf von Harnack-focused on what Jesus really said.
12 – The Modern Search for Jesus

7. 12 – The Modern Search for Jesus
Jesus Seminar (North American Attempt) -
M. J. Borg and J. D. Crossan among other 70 scholars
“82% of the words ascribed to Jesus were not actually spoken by him.”
CRITERIA USED TO FIND JESUS’ REAL WORDS
Multiple Source Attestation
Palestinian Environment
Aramaic Language
Dissimilarity
Embarrassment
Consensus of Scholars
Multiple Forms of Statement
There are actually more than 20 criteria to identify the authentic words of Jesus.
New Testament studies to a near standstill and in the process virtually lost Jesus and his words for more than one generation.
12 – The Modern Search for Jesus

8. 12 – The Modern Search for Jesus
Positive Contributions of Historical Criticism
“When historical research is conducted without presuppositions that rule out God’s involvement, it can bring greater understanding of the Bible.”
“Scholars who are sympathetic to the long-held view that the Gospels were written within a context of faith and can be understood only in that way. This is not credulity but only to observe that everyone approaches a subject from a certain point of view…”
“The story of Jesus as it is depicted in the Gospels should be analyzed on the assumption that the material is reliable and can be trusted-innocent until proven guilty, as it were.
“The Jesus of history and the Christ of faith are in fact the same person, just as the Gospels say, and the one who lived on earth is the one who lives today and meets us in the pages of the New Testament. As we read them.”
12 – The Modern Search for Jesus

9. Growth of
the
Gospels
from
Jesus to
Writing
Each
Account