The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown (27 page)

¹³¹
For a detailed discussion of Jewish high priests appointed by Herod the Great and his successors, see Schürer,
History of the Jewish People
, 2:229–36.

Part Two

P
ART 1 SOUGHT to lay a proper foundation for this comprehensive introduction to the NT by discussing the nature and scope of Scripture (chap. 1) and surveying the political and religious background of the NT (chap. 2). Part 2 provides discussions of Jesus and the Gospels (chap. 3) as well as treatments of the history, literature, and theology of each of the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, in canonical order (chaps. 4–7). Unlike part 3, which proceeds in chronological rather than canonical order to correlate Paul's letters more closely with the book of Acts, the treatment of the Gospels follows a canonical order to avoid prejudging one's solution to the Synoptic Problem, that is, the presumed order of writing and interdependency of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

The relationship of the Gospels to one another, especially that between Matthew, Mark, and Luke, as well as Jesus, the main character in these four Gospels, are the subject of the introductory chapter for part 2. The chapters on the individual Gospels consider each of these Gospels in their own right, discussing the standard introductory matters for each as well as their literary plan, outline, theological themes, and contribution to the canon. While most likely written subsequent to Paul's earlier letters, it is appropriate to treat the Gospels first due to their placement first in the NT canon and due to their foundational nature as presentations of Jesus as the Messiah, Savior, and Lord.

CHAPTER 3

CORE KNOWLEDGE

Basic Knowledge:
Students should be able to identify key references to Jesus in Jewish and Roman extrabiblical materials and to describe and critique contemporary challenges to the NT portrayal of Jesus. They should also know major data in Jesus' life, including the date of his birth, the length of his ministry, and the date of the Crucifixion.

Intermediate Knowledge:
In addition to mastery of the core content identified in Basic Knowledge above, students should be able to discuss the philosophical foundations of the modern study of the Gospels and to define and evaluate the major criteria of authenticity applied to Jesus material in the Gospels. They should also be familiar with the major views on the relationship between the Synoptic Gospels.

Advanced Knowledge:
In addition to mastery of the core content identified in Basic Knowledge above and beyond the Intermediate Knowledge noted above, students should be able to cite additional extrabiblical references to Jesus and to assess the value of the non-canonical “lost Gospels.” They should be able to chronicle the four major “Quests for the Historical Jesus.” They should also be able to provide a thorough description of the various synoptic theories and illustrate these options with examples from synoptic parallels.

INTRODUCTION

F
OR THE CHRISTIAN, no study can be more important than that of Jesus and the Gospels. Jesus of Nazareth is the focus of the Christian faith. It is no accident that the earliest Christian councils were convened and creeds were written to address questions surrounding Jesus' nature and identity. The early church recognized that an understanding of Jesus' identity is essential to genuine Christianity and a prerequisite for experiencing salvation and enjoying a relationship with God.

While the OT predicted the coming of Jesus, and later portions of the NT frequently refer to Jesus, the most thorough descriptions of Jesus' life and teachings are in the four canonical Gospels, properly titled “The Gospel According to Matthew,” and so forth. These early titles capture the important fact that while there are four canonical Gospels, there is only one gospel of Jesus Christ, and, accordingly, the canonical Gospels, properly understood, are not four separate, independent presentations of Jesus Christ, but four complementary perspectives or versions of the one gospel of Jesus Christ.

The study of the Gospels is enjoyable, even exciting, but it is no small task. The quest to understand who Jesus really was and to gauge his significance involves a lot of hard work. Those who study the Gospels need to be prepared to respond to the claim that Jesus never even existed or that other ancient descriptions of Jesus' life are more accurate than the NT documents. They must carefully evaluate contemporary portraits of Jesus. They must also grapple with questions related to such matters as the historical reliability of the Gospels, the sources used by the Gospel writers, and the relationship of the Gospels to one another. The purpose of this section is to prepare you for the lifelong study of the four Gospels by tackling these issues and addressing these challenges.

REFERENCES TO JESUS OUTSIDE THE GOSPELS

Non-Christians sometimes challenge the Christian faith by claiming that Jesus never existed. They often incorrectly assert that no ancient texts outside of the NT even refer to Jesus. Even if no texts outside of the NT mentioned Jesus, this would not be reasonable grounds for denying his existence. The NT should not be regarded as a single source since it is actually composed of 27 books by at least eight different authors. The NT thus provides multiple independent attestations to Jesus' existence, life, teachings, miracles, death, and resurrection. Other early Christian writings by the apostolic and early church fathers offer further evidence regarding Jesus' existence.
¹
In addition, several non-Christian extrabiblical
texts, both Jewish and pagan, mention Jesus of Nazareth and offer brief descriptions of him. This section surveys those non-Christian extrabiblical references.
²

References to Jesus in Jewish Texts

Three extensive Jewish sources from the first century have been preserved: (1) the writings of Josephus (c. AD 35–100); (2) the writings of Philo (c. 20 BC–c. AD 50); and (3) the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS). Neither Philo nor the Dead Sea Scrolls explicitly mention Jesus of Nazareth. The absence of a reference to Jesus in Philo is expected since he wrote from Alexandria, Egypt, and rarely mentioned contemporary events in Palestine.
³
The lack of a reference to Jesus in the Dead Sea Scrolls is likewise expected since references to historical figures in them are generally obscure references to important figures during the Second Temple period and since the Dead Sea Scrolls are Jewish pre-Christian documents that show no trace of influence from Christian sources.
⁴

Matters are different with the Jewish historian Josephus. Two references to Jesus of Nazareth appear in one of Josephus's works called
Jewish Antiquities
. Josephus briefly referred to Jesus in a discussion of the identity of his brother James (
Ant.
20.9.1 §§200–203):

He [Ananus the high priest] seated the judges of the Sanhedrin Council and after he led to them the brother of Jesus who was called Messiah, the man whose name was James, and certain others, and accused them of having transgressed the Law, he handed them over to be stoned.
⁵

The passage attests to the existence of Jesus of Nazareth as a historical person and to his relationship to James. It also confirms that some of Jesus' contemporaries recognized him as the Messiah.
⁶
The statement that some recognized Jesus as the Messiah is consistent with Josephus's grammar elsewhere. The reference does not imply that Josephus regarded Jesus as the Messiah and thus is not precluded by Josephus's Jewish faith. Elsewhere, for example, Josephus mentioned that Antiochus was called “god” by the Greeks (
Ant.
12.3.2 §125), but this does not imply that Josephus accepted that claim.

J. Meier has pointed out that it is highly unlikely that this passage is a Christian interpolation. First, the NT and early Christian texts refer to James using the titles “brother of the Lord” and “brother of the Savior” rather than “brother of Jesus.” Second, this account of James's death is significantly different from early Christian accounts that appear in the works of Hegesippus (c. 110–180) and Eusebius (c. 260–c. 340). Third, one would have expected a Christian scribe to offer a more extensive description of James and Jesus. However, these are mentioned briefly and only in order to confirm the illegal behavior of Ananus. Consequently, few scholars seriously doubt the authenticity of this passage.
⁷

Josephus has a more extensive reference to Jesus in a passage known as the
Testimonium Flavianum
(
Ant.
18.3.3 §§63–64). Greek manuscripts of this text read:

About this time, Jesus came. He was a wise man, if it is really proper to call him a man, because he was a person who did incredible works, a teacher of those people who gladly welcomed the truth. He won over many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was the Messiah. And when Pilate condemned him to the cross based on evidence from the men of high standing from among us, the ones who loved him at the beginning did not abandon their love for him, because on the third day he appeared to them alive. And these and a thousand other wonderful things had been told about him by the divine prophets. And the tribe which is called “the Christians” has not died out even to this very day.
⁸

The authenticity of portions of this passage is doubtful for several reasons. First, no Christian document in the first three centuries of the church cites this passage, even though it would have been helpful to them in some of their debates with non-Christians to appeal to Josephus's “Christian” faith. Second, Origen (c. 185–c. 254) claimed that Josephus did not regard Jesus as the Messiah.
⁹
Third, according to Josephus's own testimony in
Jewish War
(3.8.8–9 §§392–408), he regarded Vespasian as the Messiah of Judah.
¹⁰

Nevertheless, although portions of the
Testimonium Flavianum
are likely Christian interpolations, strong evidence suggests that at least some elements of this statement are authentic.
¹¹
First, the brevity of the reference to Jesus later in
Jewish War
(2.9.1 §§200–203)
suggests that Josephus had already introduced Jesus of Nazareth earlier in his narrative. The
Testimonium Flavianum
is the only previous reference preserved in Greek manuscripts.
¹²
Second, the Arabic version of the
Testimonium Flavianum
in Agapius's
History
lacks the distinctively Christian elements:

At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus. And his conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who have become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive; accordingly he was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders.
¹³

Many scholars believe that the Arabic version reflects the state of the text before Christian scribes added their interpolations. Third, the passage is saturated with vocabulary that is common in Josephus's writings and is generally consistent with his style.
¹⁴
Fourth, the passage contains statements that contradict the Gospels and thus are unlikely to have been composed by a Christian scribe. Such contradictory statements include the claim that Jesus had large numbers of Gentile followers during his public ministry. These statements are unlikely claims interpolated in the text by a Christian scribe familiar with the Gospels. They are much more likely claims by a first-century Jew who wanted to exonerate the Jews and blame the Romans for Jesus' death and who assumed that Jesus had large numbers of Gentile followers during his public ministry simply because large numbers of Christians were Gentiles at the time of the writer.
¹⁵

J. Meier summarized the significance of the
Testimonium Flavianum
:

Independent of the Four Gospels, yet confirming their basic presentation, a Jew writing in the year 93–94 tells us that during the rule of Pontius Pilate (the larger context of “during this time”)—therefore between A.D. 26 and 36—there appeared on the religious scene of Palestine a man named Jesus. He had the reputation for wisdom that displayed itself in miracle working and teaching. He won a large following, but (or therefore?) the Jewish
leaders accused him before Pilate. Pilate had him crucified, but his ardent followers refused to abandon their devotion to him, despite his shameful death. Named Christians after this Jesus (who is called Christ), they continued in existence down to Josephus' day. The neutral, or ambiguous, or perhaps somewhat dismissive tone of the
Testimonium
is probably the reason why early Christian writers (especially the apologists of the 2nd century) passed over it in silence, why Origen complained that Josephus did not believe that Jesus was the Christ, and why some interpolator(s) in the late 3rd century added Christian interpolations.
¹⁶

The testimony of Josephus constitutes the most important early testimony about Jesus of Nazareth outside of the Bible.

The Babylonian Talmud is a collection of rabbinic teachings that was finalized in the sixth century. The Talmud refers to Jesus of Nazareth several times. However, most of these references are of little historical value since they are relatively late, reflect secondhand knowledge of the Gospels, and are products of Jewish polemic with Christians. Other rabbinic literature—such as the Mishnah, Tosefta, Midrash, and the Jerusalem Talmud—may also be reactions to Christian claims and thus refer to Jesus.
¹⁷

The Talmud challenges the Christian claim that Jesus was conceived by a virgin by arguing that Mary “who was the descendant of princes and governors, played the harlot with carpenters.”
¹⁸
A chronologically confused account claims that Jesus fled to Egypt to escape King Janneus's slaughter of the rabbis in 87 BC. In Egypt Jesus was excommunicated and condemned for worshipping an idol.
¹⁹
The Talmud names five disciples of Jesus and claims that “Jesus the Nazarene practiced magic and led Israel astray.”
²⁰
Although two of the names are similar to Matthew and Thaddeus, the resemblance may only be coincidental since the names of the disciples in the Talmud serve as a basis for wordplays and do not appear to be serious attempts to record the actual names of Jesus' followers. The charge that Jesus practiced magic is significant since it parallels the accusation from Jesus' opponents in the Gospels that Jesus performed exorcisms through the power of Satan (see Mark 3:22). Rabbinic literature claims that Jesus taught heresy,
²¹
and it especially objected to Jesus' claims to be God, the Son of God, the Son of Man, the new Moses, and the Servant of the Lord.
²²