Four Intriguing Topics in the Study of the Historical Jesus

[00:00:01] Four Intriguing Topics in the Study of the Historical Jesus by Marco Marina the previous two posts explain why scholars have such difficulty using the Gospels as historical sources. As explained by early Christianity scholar Marco Marina, this primer was meant to set the stage for the eight lectures given by a range of internationally known historical Jesus scholarship at our New Insights into the New Testament Conference at the end of September. [00:00:32] Marco also provided overviews of what the lectures will be about and why he thought the topics were important. [00:00:39] Here's what he said about the first four, to be continued in the next post. [00:00:43] The first four were the lectures given by Mark Goodacre of Duke University, Helen Bond of the University of Edinburgh, Dale Allison of Princeton Theological Seminary Emeritus, and Joel Marcus, Duke Divinity School emeritus. [00:01:02] Dr. Mark Goodacre wrote the Missing Pieces in the Quest for the Historical Jesus. [00:01:09] I think it was Martin Hengel who once estimated that nearly 80% of early Christian literature has been lost to history. [00:01:17] That observation resonates strongly with anyone working in the field of antiquity. [00:01:21] Much of what we would love to know about the past has simply disappeared. [00:01:26] As historians, we operate with fragments, occasional texts, scattered references, partial archaeological remains while being fully aware that the vast majority of evidence has perished. [00:01:38] It's within this broader context that Dr. Mark Goodacre will deliver his lecture on the missing pieces in the Quest for the historical Jesus. [00:01:47] His talk asks us to reflect not only on what we have, but also on what we do not and cannot recover. [00:01:55] In other words, Dr. Goodacre's talk will focus on these silences in the record and why it matters for how we approach the historical Jesus. [00:02:03] Instead of assuming that the surviving gospel provide an adequate or a representative sample of his activity, Dr. Goodacre invites us to take seriously the gaps, the stories untold, the teachings forgotten, and the memories erased by time. [00:02:20] Personally, I find this a fascinating dimension of the Jesus quest, and it's one that isn't always foregrounded. [00:02:27] What can missing evidence tell us, even in hypothetical form, about the figure we are studying? [00:02:33] How might an awareness of these absences shape the questions that we ask and the confidence we place in our answers? [00:02:40] This isn't a call for speculation for its own sake, but a reminder of humility. [00:02:46] Our reconstructions rest on slender and selective base of sources. [00:02:51] I'm eager to hear Dr. Goodacre develop this theme, as I suspect he will not only sharpen our historical awareness, but also encourage us to see the pursuit for the historical Jesus in a new, more self critical light. [00:03:06] Dr. Helen Bond the Last Hours of Jesus what really Happened? [00:03:12] Have you ever paused to consider the sources behind the story of Jesus Passion. [00:03:17] Is it really possible that events unfolded exactly as the Gospels describe them? [00:03:23] Most scholars would answer with a cautious no. [00:03:27] The Passion narratives are among the most theologically charged sections of the New Testament, shaped not only by memory but also by the needs of early Christian communities to present Jesus death in meaningful scriptural and redemptive terms. [00:03:42] In this lecture, Dr. Helen Bond, who's an esteemed historian and the author of a highly respected biography of Pontius Pilate, invites us to look again at Jesus final hours, not through the lens of later theological reflection, but with the investigative skepticism of the historian. [00:04:00] Her presentation will grapple with a number of contested issues that continue to stir debate. [00:04:05] How likely is it that Jesus was subjected to a formal Jewish trial before the Sanhedrin? [00:04:11] What do we really know about the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate? And was a trial even necessary under his authority? [00:04:20] Why does the Barabbas episode appear in all four gospels? And what function might it have served? And what about Jesus burial? Was he truly placed in a rich man's tomb, as the Gospels claim? [00:04:32] What excites me most about Dr. Bond's contribution is that it cuts through the layers of popular imagination. [00:04:40] Many Christians picture the Passion primarily through the eyes of devotional tradition or cultural portrayals such as Mel Gibson's the Passion of the Christ. [00:04:48] Bond promises instead a sober, historically grounded investigation into what might really have happened. [00:04:57] Personally, I'm especially eager to hear her assessment of the burial tradition. [00:05:02] The figure of Joseph of Arimathea has long been a flashpoint of scholarly disagreement. Witness the serious debates between Craig Evans and Bart Ehrman, and I'm curious to learn whether Bond sees his role as historically plausible or as a later Narrative Construction. [00:05:21] Dr. Dale C. Allison Did Jesus really do miracles? [00:05:27] I must admit this is the lecture I'm most excited about. Ever since the days of Heinrich Paulus in the early 19th century, scholars have wrestled with the miracle stories in the Gospels. [00:05:39] The German scholar himself famously tried to explain them away as misunderstood natural phenomena. [00:05:46] Since then, critical scholarship has offered a wide range of approaches. Some have dismissed the stories as legendary creations. Others have interpreted them as symbolic narratives crafted to communicate theological truth, while still others have suggested that misremembered or misinterpreted events might stand behind at least some accounts. [00:06:07] Few scholars are better equipped to navigate this complex terrain than Dr. Dale C. Allison. [00:06:13] Among his many publications, his work on the Resurrection narrative, the Biggest Miracle in the New Testament, really remains, in my view, one of the most insightful analyses available, drawing insights from different areas such as anthropology, psychology, and history. [00:06:29] His lecture on Jesus Miracles, therefore promises to bring some of that same depth of learning and balance of judgment to an issue central to the study of the historical Jesus. [00:06:41] As a Catholic with a strong respect for methodological naturalism and the necessity of critical scholarship, I find myself particularly eager for this discussion. How should we as historians handle reports of supernatural events? [00:06:55] Is it enough simply to dismiss them as beyond the reach of historical investigation? Or can we still learn something from them about Jesus, about his followers, and about the cultural world in which these stories circulated? [00:07:09] I'm hoping Alison's lecture will push us beyond the easy answers. [00:07:13] It's one thing to protect ourselves with the shield of methodological naturalism, but another to ignore what these stories meant to the earliest communities. For me, this talk promises to be the intellectual highlight of the conference. [00:07:28] Dr. Joel Marcus, Jesus and the Law it was exactly 40 years ago that EP Sanders published his groundbreaking study, Jesus and Judaism. [00:07:40] That work decisively shifted the conversation, emphasizing that Jesus must be understood within the framework of first century Judaism rather than against it. [00:07:50] Since then, scholars have continued to wrestle with one of the most difficult and consequential questions in the study of the historical Jesus. [00:07:57] What was his relationship to the Jewish tradition and the Mosaic Law? [00:08:03] The answer has far reaching implications, not only for how we reconstruct Jesus himself, but also for how we understand the emergence of early Christianity from its Jewish matrix. [00:08:15] Joel Marcus, a widely respected scholar and the author of the most important critical biography of John the Baptist, will take up this challenge in his lecture seeking to clarify how Jesus related to the Torah and how his eschatological outlook shaped that relationship. [00:08:32] Marcus points out that our main sources, the Synoptic Gospels, are not neutral transmitters of tradition. [00:08:39] They were composed by authors who themselves stood at the intersection of competing views. There's the anti Torah stance associated with Paul and the more conservative impulses of early Jewish Christian communities who resisted that radical movement. [00:08:55] This makes it difficult to pin down the historical Jesus. Yet Marcus will likely argue that Jesus, like all the Jewish teachers of his time, interpreted the law creatively. [00:09:05] What excites me most about this lecture is how it promises to situate Jesus within the broad diversity of Second Temple Judaism. [00:09:13] Jewish teachers at the time offered a wide spectrum of interpretations of the Torah. [00:09:19] Where does Jesus belong on that spectrum? How do his teachings and actions compare with those of his contemporaries? [00:09:26] And how did his eschatological expectations influence his understanding of the Law's authority and application? [00:09:34] These are questions I'm eager to hear Dr. Marcus address. [00:09:38] His nuanced approach will no doubt help us to see Jesus not simply as an opponent of Judaism, but nor as a traditionalist rabbi, but as a creative interpreter whose particular vision of God's imminent kingdom reshaped how the law itself was understood.