A Student's Guide to Understanding Jesus and the Gospels: Navigating Your Journey Through Critical Scholarship

necessary.

Chapter One:

An Introduction to the Study of the Life of Christ: Presuppositions and Sources

Professor’s Preface

As indicated by the title, the goal of this text is to guide students through a study of both the life of Jesus and the teachings of Christ. At first glance, this might appear to be an easy proposition. After all, Christ is the presumed premise of Christianity. As such, one might assume that anyone claiming to be a Christian should know something about whom they have chosen to follow.

When one begins to look beyond the superficial depths of discipleship, however, one soon discovers there is, in truth, much to learn regarding Jesus’ life, ministry, and teachings. This unearthing begins in the process known as prolegomena, i.e. things that go before. In other words, there are certain things one needs to know before embarking on an academic/scholarly expose of Jesus. As you will soon see, prolegomena in the life of Jesus includes: Presuppositions, Sources for Studying the Life of Christ, and An Introduction to Gospel Criticisms.

Presuppositions

When inquiring as to the identity of Jesus, many of us are familiar with the well-known, Liar, Lunatic, or Lord argument. This line of reasoning, known as a trilemma, was first developed by C.S. Lewis and then perfected by Josh McDowell. The original case, per C. S. Lewis, is as follows:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to (Lewis 55)

You might be interested to learn that non-believers find the logic of Liar, Lunatic, or Lord to be fundamentally flawed, due primarily to presuppositions. For example, one writer posits the following against the Liar, Lunatic, or Lord argument:

The trouble is, the Lord, Liar, Lunatic argument is fundamentally flawed. This argument presupposes that Jesus was God, or a perfect man. Were we just dealing with an ordinary man, it is quite acceptable to say that some things He said were true, and others false. For example, Martin Luther is still widely respected among Christians for his doctrine of sola fide, but most Christians accept that his views on Judaism (he was an anti-semite) were incorrect. They do not require that he be perfect, acknowledging him as just an ordinary man, capable of making mistakes and errors in thinking. The Lord, Liar, Lunatic argument is used by Christians selectively - they do not apply it to other figures they accept teachings from, but only to Jesus.

Now, those who are not Christians tend not to regard Jesus as the perfect example of humanity, or God, and as a normal man it is only to be expected hat He might make the odd mistake. That He was wrong about being God, or the Jewish Messiah, does not mean His moral teachings are necessarily wrong also (neither were they original, but that is another issue). We know people make mistakes, we know that people lie, exaggerate or grow conceited etc, but we also know that the same people can be right about other issues. Christians insist we see Jesus through their theology, and accept Him as a perfect man without giving us any reason to do so. In essence, they ask us to accept their conclusion (of either/or) before they ask the questions (Still para. #2)

Regarding the academic/scholarly study of Jesus, Robert Stein once wrote where you start determines where you finish….If one believes in the miraculous, they will read the Gospels entirely differently than someone who doesn’t (17). In every community, including the academic, different people start at different places as to who Jesus was and is. Below are the five most common presuppositions regarding Jesus:

A Fake & A Fraud. Jesus made claims He knew weren’t true. Few actually hold this position.

A Moral Teacher/Religious Leader. These individuals (many of whom are humanists), limit Jesus’ influence to that of a teacher/religious leader. This is also the position of many involved in the Quest for the Historical Jesus.¹

A Prophet of God, but Certainly Not Divine. This would be the view of many Jews as well as Islam, Hinduism, etc.

The Son of God, but not Fully Divine. See various early Christian heresies, as well as Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

God Incarnate, i.e. Fully Human and Fully Divine. This view represents orthodox Christianity as articulated in the Nicene Creed of A.D. 325. Today this includes both Catholicism and Protestantism.

Before engaging any further in this study, let me encourage you to stop and think about your own presuppositions. Who is Jesus? Why do you believe this? Have you always believed this? Where did you get your own set of presuppositions? How might your presuppositions affect your approach to this study?

Because we are studying the life and teachings of Christ in the context of a modern, rational, and scientific world, we must also concern ourselves with a second set of presuppositions. This second set concerns itself with the miraculous. It is impossible to come to grips with Jesus without also first coming to terms with the miracles recorded in the Gospels. The Jesus stories in the New Testament are replete with healings, demon possession, risings from the dead, nature miracles, etc. In essence, to deny the miracles of the Gospels means one is also denying the historicity of Christianity. As such, it is my opinion that one needs to approach the Gospels with, at a minimum, openness to the possibility of the supernatural.³ Below are two arguments against allowing for the possibility of the supernatural, as well as five evidences supporting the case for miracles:

Arguments against allowing the supernatural:

History is a closed system of cause and effect. Nature follows unalterable laws that cannot and will not be broken.

If it does not happen in our world today, then it could not have happened in the world of the first century.

Evidences for the miraculous in the Gospels:

Occurred in public

Acknowledged by Jesus’ opponents

Performed consistently over an extended period of time

Performed under a variety of circumstances

The character of the eyewitnesses

Sources for Studying the Life of Christ

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines ‘epistemology’ as the study or a theory of the nature and grounds of knowledge especially with reference to its limits and validity. This branch of philosophy is significant to the purpose of this guide because our exploration into the life of Christ requires us to ask, how do we know what we know about Jesus? Academically, the availability of historical source materials both defines and limits what we can know about Christ. As such, it is important to know the sources available, and the particular presuppositions associated with these sources.

We will begin this survey with a cursory look at six non-Christian sources. These sources are as follows:

Flavius Josephus—Josephus was a Jewish historian who wrote toward the end of the first century, i.e. A.D. 93. His two most significant works were the Jewish War and the Antiquities of the Jews. In Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus wrote the following regarding Jesus:

Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call Him a man, for He was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to Him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned Him to the cross, those that loved Him at the first did not forsake Him; for He appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning Him. And the tribe of Christians so named from Him are not extinct to this day (18.3.3)⁴

Historically, this quote has numerous problems. Many scholars question the validity of the above information and view it as a Christian addition to Josephus’ history. There are three reasons for this belief:

Origin, an early church father, states that Josephus was not a believer.

A later Josephus text (Ant. 20.9.1.) speaks of Jesus who was called the Christ.

The quote appears out of context from what else we know about Josephus.

Is the quote historically reliable? It is difficult to tell. As such, one can use the material as a source in the study of Christ in one of the following four ways:

Accept it, in its entirety, as historically reliable.

View it as a tongue in cheek reference to the reality that there was a Jesus who had a historical impact on the first century.

Reject it as an after the fact Christian insertion.

Assume that Josephus wrote either a negative or neutral statement about Jesus. This statement was then amended, at a later date, by Christians in an effort to present Christ in a more favorable historical light.

Tacitus—This is the Roman historian (A.D. 115) who tells us it was Nero who ordered the burning of Rome and to blame this act of arson on the Christians. Below is a quote from Tacitus regarding Jesus:

But not all the relief that could come from man, not all the bounties that the prince could bestow, nor all the atonements which could be presented to the gods, availed to relieve Nero from the infamy of being believed to have ordered the conflagration. Hence, to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guild, and punished with the most exquisite tortures, the personal commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of that name, was put to death as a criminal by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea, in the reign of Tiberius: but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also…. (15.44)

Pliny the Younger—this individual was the Governor of Bithnyia, A.D. 112, and corresponded with the emperor, Trajan. Pliny the Younger wrote the following regarding Christianity:

They affirmed, however, the whole of their guilt, or their error, was that they were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft, or adultery, never to falsify their word, not to deny a trust when they would be called on to deliver it up…. (10.96)

Seutonius—Seutonius was a Roman historian, A.D. 120. Via the following quote, we can contextually see the manner in which this second century historian viewed Christianity: …punishment by Nero was inflicted to the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition (25.4)⁵

Lucian of Samosata—Lucian was a second century Roman satirist. He wrote the following regarding Christ and Christianity:

The man who was crucified in Palestine because he introduced this new cult into the world…Furthermore, their first lawgiver persuaded them that they are all brothers one of another after they have transgressed once for all by denying the Greek gods and by worshiping that crucified sophist himself and living under his laws (12.13)

Babylonian Talmud (A.D. 4-6th centuries). This is a collection of Jewish rabbinical writings that were compiled between A.D. 70-500. In this collection, the most significant reference to Jesus says On the eve of the Passover Yeshu was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald … cried, ‘He is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy’ (281). In addition, the Babylonian Talmud also tells us Jesus had disciples.

Before embarking on an academic study of the life of Christ, most students are unaware of the existence of the above sources. This information surprises many. In truth, what is actually surprising, especially given the impact and historical significance of Christianity on the Greco-Roman world, is that so few of these sources exist. Nonetheless, enough material from outside of the church is available for us to reach the following five historical conclusions:

Jesus was historical.

Jesus lived in Palestine in the first century.

The Jewish leadership was involved in his death.

Jesus was crucified by the Romans.

Jesus was associated with wonders/sorcery. As noted in the information regarding materials, this association is significant as even hostile source stipulate to this reality.

Fortunately, the scant availability of non-Christian sources does not limit our knowledge of Jesus. As you no doubt have already anticipated, Christian sources are also available and also informative. At first glance, one might assume this material to come exclusively from the Gospels. In truth, there is a plethora of information regarding Jesus, deriving from Christian sources, which are beyond the scope of the biblical evangelists. These seven Christian sources are:

Apocryphal Gospels—These are stories about Jesus that are somewhat similar to the canonical gospels. Most scholars believe the early Christian community created these gospels late in the first century or sometime in the second. In some sporadic situations, Christians used these gospels as if they were canonical. By and large, the church forgot about these texts once they failed to make it into the final Christian Canon.

The Apocryphal Gospels include more than one hundred writings about Jesus. Some examples are: the Lost Letter of St. Paul, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Truth, and the Acts of Pilate. Below are sample highlights from two such gospels:

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas: Sample stories:

Jesus made 12 sparrows from clay on Sabbath. Got in trouble by his dad for doing so. Said to them, be gone. They flew away.

Also a Jewish boy fell down dead who played in a puddle of water Jesus made.

Gospel of Thomas: This gospel was found as part of the Gnostic library discovered at Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945. It contains 114 sayings of Jesus, but not narratives. Scholars believe it

1945, Nag Hammadi Egypt (Gnostic Library)

114 sayings, no narratives. Some almost verbatim from Gospels.

Present form dates from approximately A.D. 150.

Hypothetical Manuscripts, i.e. Q.⁶

Quotations in the Church Fathers.

Agrapha.Agrapha is a term first coined by J. G. Korner in 1776. It is a reference to the sayings of Jesus not found in the canonical gospels. Agraphas may, or may not, come from such sources as the Church Fathers and the Apocryphal Gospels.

Variants in the various Greek manuscripts of the Gospels.⁷

Biblical Sources outside of the Gospels.

Paul’s references to Jesus in his various letters are probably the earliest known references to Christ’s life and ministry. Because Paul’s references endeavor to interpret Jesus, they do not really tell us much regarding what Jesus did or what Jesus taught.

Examples: (not exhaustive)

Jesus’ birth: Rom 1:3, Gal 4:4, I Jn 1:1-3, 4:1-3

Jesus’ character: 2 Cor 10:1, 2 Cor 5:4, Heb 4:15, Heb 2:18, Phil 2:6-8

Special events:

Lord’s Supper 1 Cor 11:23

Transfiguration 2 Pet 1:16-18

Gethsemane Heb 5:7

Crucifixion: Rom 15:3, 1 Cor 11:23, Acts 1:15-20, Acts 3:14, 1 Thess 2:14-15, 1 Pet 2:21-23, 1 Cor 15.

The Gospel (Please understand this is a very brief introduction to the Gospels. Much more will be covered regarding the Gospels, and the information related to the Gospels, in future chapters)

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

Note: It is the presupposition of this author that the Gospels are historical. I hold this view for the following four reasons:

Because of early Christianity’s care for the faithful tradition of the Lord’s works and words.

The writers were in a good position to know the facts about Jesus

Through the 4 gospels, even with the differences among them, a fundamental picture of Jesus emerges:

His humility before God

His divine authority

His dedication to His Father’s purpose

His knowledge of the heart’s of men

His concern for the needy and poor

His conviction that God’s hour of salvation had come.

His death and resurrection

Because of the reliability of the Bible as a whole.

All told, this survey shows the availability, at a minimum, of thirteen different sources for studying the life and ministry of Christ. While it is important to be aware of the availability of these sources, this guide will focus almost exclusively on the Gospels themselves. In that we will be using Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as our primary source material, it is important for us to first possess a firm understanding of these unique and inspired texts. As such, we will endeavor in the following chapter, Gospel Criticisms Part One, to explore the nature of the Gospels and the manner in which various individuals have studied these narratives over the past two thousand years.

¹ Cf. Chapter Four:, The Quest for the Historical Jesus.

³ I am confident the majority of believers already do this. We need to recognize, however, that not everyone who studies Jesus and/or the Gospels starts with the same set of presuppositions. This reality will become abundantly clear further in the text as we review the various Gospel criticisms and the Quest for the Historical Jesus.

⁴ Note the following regarding Josephus: "Josephus was born around A.D. 37 and became a Pharisee. He then joined the zealots who rebelled against Roman rule between 66 and A.D. 74, becoming a leader of their forces in Galilee, and living through the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. He was captured by the Romans, and would have been executed, but he went over to them. Josephus became the Roman emperor’s adviser on Jewish affairs, and died in about A.D. 98. ‘Josephus’ was his Jewish