Historical Jesus

Shows how the canonical Nativity Gospels can easily be harmonized. And how the Blessed Virgin Mary may have anointed Jesus' head in Bethany, as consent to his sacrificial death in Jerusalem. This last issue is elaborated further and stronger in my later article "The Virgin Mary anointed her Son the Christ and for burial in Bethany - Coredemptrix" https://www.academia.edu/26377098/The_Virgin_Mary_anointed_her_Son_the_Christ_and_for_burial_in_Bethany_Coredemptrix .

In the wake of the Gospels' accounts, modern scholars do not pay much attention to the role Romans played in Jesus of Nazareth's arrest, and are prone to give credit to manifestly biased sources. Besides, some misconceptions (e.g. that the military in pre-War Judaea was exclusively confined to its largest cities) prevent them from seriously weighing up the possibility that the role of the Romans in Jesus' fate was more decisive than usually recognized. In this article, we reconsider a number of issues in order to shed light on this murky topic. First, the nature and functions of the Roman military in Judaea are surveyed (for instance, Palestine before the Jewish War had a robust network of fortlets and fortresses, which Benjamin Isaac has argued largely served to facilitate communication into the hinterlands). Second, we track some traces of anti-Roman resistance in the prefects' period (6-41 CE), Third, the widely overlooked issue of the intelligence sources available to Roman governors is tackled. Fourth, the extent of the problems of the Passion accounts is seriously taken into account. The insights obtained are then applied to the Gospels' story, thereby rendering it likely that Pilate had some degree of "intelligence" regarding Jesus and his followers before their encounter in Jerusalem that led to the collective execution at Golgotha.

Je suis convaincu que la bible a son origine en Dieu (2 Tim.3:16). Bien que les sceptiques croient que les narrations bibliques ne sont pas supportées par des évidences historiques. Mais, dans le cadre de cette réflexion, nous allons présenter des preuves externes qui supportent l'évidence des narrations bibliques. Il faut dire, en passant, que Dieu pour transmettre sa parole n'a pas utilisé une sorte de langage mystérieux auquel l'esprit humain ne peut accéder. Loin de là ! Il utilise en revanche le langage humain, c'est-à-dire les différents genres littéraires normalement utilisés par les humains, pour se révéler à nous. Cela dit, quand nous lisons les textes historiques, les épîtres (les lettres), il faut les étudier dans leur genre spécifique. Pour ainsi dire, Dieu entre dans l'histoire pour révéler son plan à l'humanité. Il a utilisé environ quarante auteurs d'origines géographiques différentes pour rédiger, dans des genres différents, son message pour le monde. Par le fait qu'il utilise les humains et leur histoire pour mettre sur papier son plan (Bible), il est possible de trouver des évidences archéologiques et historiques venant supporter ce qui est écrit dans la Bible. Cependant, ce que je suis en train de soutenir ne semble pas être évident pour certains. C'est ainsi que nous trouvons des gens qui tentent de prouver le contraire eu égard à la tendance des sceptiques évoquée au début, et sur laquelle je vais donner plus de détails. Cette tendance soutenant que les évidences historiques ne peuvent pas étayer les faits bibliques, a ses racines dans le temps passé lointain et a été formellement systématisée dans les années 70-80 par un courant de pensée en histoire appelé le " Minimalisme ". L'un des exemples pris par les tenants de cette dernière pour asseoir leur perspective était l'existence du " Roi David " comme personnage mythique. Par ailleurs, il faut dire que cette nouvelle tendance avait permis le développement de ce que l'on appelle une archéologie biblique qui allait avoir comme objet d'investiguer sur les lieux et sur les personnages bibliques rapportés dans la Bible. Ainsi, ce débat prenait chair sérieusement jusqu'à ce que, pour le cas de l'histoire du roi David, le chercheur archéologue, Avraham Biran de " Hebrew Union College " soit intéressé lui-même à investiguer sur l'existence historique du Roi David. En 1993, il avait découvert une inscription araméenne datée du neuvième siècle avant Jésus-Christ à Tel Dan, dans le nord d'Israël, qui contenait une déclaration écrite par l'ennemi d'Israël dans laquelle on fait référence à la maison du Roi David. Il y avait d'autres découvertes qui ont affirmé l'existence historique du Roi David, comme l'excavation sur la frontière d'Israël et Philistine à Khirbet Qeiyafa qui a bel et bien prouvé la dynastie du personnage. Ainsi, le travail archéologique de Biran avait clos ce débat (Joseph M. HOLDEN, Norman GEISLER, 2013; K.A. Kitchen, 2003). JESUS DE NAZARETH: DU MYSTICISME À L'ÉVIDENCE HISTORIQUE

There is ample evidence that anti-Christian polemicists asserted that Jesus' true father was neither God nor Joseph, but a Roman soldier named Pantera. This was long dismissed as ahistorical, but for the past century, some interlocutors have argued that there may be credibility to the polemic, with some going so far as to identify Pantera with a certain Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera, a Roman archer. The present article addresses various misconceptions of Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera by those both asserting his parentage of Jesus and those arguing against it. The article concludes that the possibility that the soldier under question was Jesus' father is remote.

The twelfth century was a period of significant development and change in the religious and secular world of Western Europe. One area of transition occurred in depictions of Christ’s crucifixion. In both writing and art, the triumphant living Christ of the early Middle ages, was transformed into the dying, suffering, and yet majestic savior of the twelfth century.  This essay examines images and written sources from the fourth to the twelfth centuries, and seeks to determine how the twelfth century renaissance and reformation—based on the discovery of the individual— influenced this evolution.

Some scholars in recent years have dismissed the Trial of Jesus story in the Gospels as a literary creation devoid of historical content. This paper cautiously argues against taking such a negative approach. The basis for this conclusion is a new archaeological study that was made on the overall layout of the Palace of Herod the Great, which later became the seat of the Roman governor when in residence in Jerusalem: the praetorium. The archaeological remains fit very well John's description of Jesus' temporary incarceration and the trial in front of Pontius Pilate, and with the two topographical features, the "lithostrotos" and "gabbatha" (John 19:13).

The books of 1 and 2 Samuel offer a three-fold thematic scheme that supports the central claim of the Pentateuch, the claim found in Deuteronomy 6:4 and known to the Jews as “the Shema,” a verse that declares the God of Israel is one, true and living God, a theme that undergirds all of the historical books as well. Thus, the foundational theme of 1 and 2 Samuel is the central claim of the Pentateuch, a theme shared by all books of the Holy Scriptures. The secondary, structural theme of the book of 1 Samuel supports the primary theme of the historical books by offering the testimony that God has called out David to establish the Davidic lineage to bring about Israel’s redemption as supporting evidence that YHWH is the true and living God. The secondary, structural theme of the book of 2 Samuel supports the primary theme of the historical books by offering the testimony that God has justified David in his role as king. The third, imperative theme of the books of 1 and 2 Samuel states that Israel loved the Lord their God with all of their strength by accepting the one whom God called and justified as their king and redeemer. The application of this third theme for today’s reader is to believe that God has called and justification the Lord Jesus Christ as King of Kings in the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven. The New Testament believer should trust in Jesus as the fulfillment of prophecies concerning the Messiah coming from the Davidic lineage who will reign eternally over all nations. As believers, we have been called to be a part of the Kingdom of Heaven, and we are justified as members of this Kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ.

The topic of the Jubilee is a significant one, both in size and importance.  In the present paper, I seek to trace its emergence and evolution in the course of Scripture, from Ararat to Sinai, Jericho to Judah, Naboth’s vineyard to Jeremiah’s field, and Nazareth to the new heavens and earth.  The Jubliee is, in a nutshell, a declarative act of restoration.  It is an eschatological peak in Israel’s calendar, and, although it is typically viewed as a priestly abstraction, it actually turns out to be reflected in the ebb and flow of Israel’s history.

In terms of its theological and cultic significance, the Jubilee is grounded in three important principles:  the perfection of God’s plans, the purity of God’s person, and the sovereignty of God over the earth.  The Jubilee cycle is first initiated in the late 15th cent. BC in the aftermath of Jericho’s fall, once the land of Canaan has been divided among the Israelites.  While the land of Israel is a microcosm of God’s new Creation, it is nevertheless part of a fallen world.  As such, it is subject to the normal process of decay, decline, and pollution, and must be ‘rebooted’ (in Yom Kippur style) every seven weeks of years in order to bring the land of Israel back into line with its divine blueprint.  Aside from such reboots, Israel would go the way of the world, as is depicted in Nebuchadnezzar’s colossus.  The land would become progressively polluted, disordered, and removed from Yahweh’s Edenic ideal, until it reached a point of total de-creation and returned to dust.  Grounded in the day of Atonement, the Jubilee provides an antidote to such entropic decline.  But, of course, a reboot can never advance Israel beyond her initial condition.  The notion of a Jubilee ‘cycle’ therefore seems inherently frustrated, plagued by a kind of Qoheleth-like futility.

In the NT, Jesus cranks the notion of a Jubilee up a notch.  For Jesus, the Jubilee is not merely a reset of Israel’s initial conditions;  it is a reversion of all Creation to its initial (Edenic) condition.  As such, Jesus’ Jubilee is inextricably bound up with the defeat of Satan and the release of Israel and the nations from Satan’s dominion.  It is set against the backdrop of a chaotic wilderness, a worldwide day of atonement, and a cosmic showdown with the world’s powers and principalities, all of which notions are latent in ‘the Nazarean pericope’ (Luke 4.16-21), and are inherently connected with the person of Melchizedek and the conclusion of the Jubilee cycle in Second Temple literature.

Seven years, and a bibliography of over 100 pages: that is what Detlev Koepke invested in researching the gospel of Thomas.
Over 600 carefully worded pages disclose in great detail his intricate study and findings on Jesus in the gospel of Thomas as well as in the New Testament, and Q.
Mary Magdalene, John the Baptist and James are discussed in a separate chapter each, and we are presented with a full translation from Coptic, and a commentary on the gospel of Thomas.

The second half of this book focuses on the New Testament and history of Christianity: its historical background, Josephus, Paul, the Roman Empire and Christian persecution are some of the highlights.
Detlev Koepke passed away in 2015, leaving behind a truly majestic piece of work on the gospel of Thomas, its relation to Christianity, and the historical Jesus. A most complete work on the combination of these topics.

Detlev Koepke was fluent in 4 languages, and learned ancient Greek and Coptic specifically for and during his research. Most of his research was conducted utilising Harvard Divinity School library as well as his own extensive personal library: "no stone has been left unturned".

2021 edition, republished with permission from his son, David Koepke

______________________
+++Version Management+++
Includes Discussion content (92 pages) - see https://www.academia.edu/57161277/Publication_List_and_Discussion_Content_access

The study of Jesus in the Qur'an might profitably begin with the fact that there he is called not the expected Arabic Yasu' but rather the unaccountable 'Isa. From there the reader of the Qur'an may wonder to what extent the writer of the materials on Jesus was familiar with the canonical Gospel accounts that had circulated widely and extensively in the Middle East during the six centuries preceding the emergence of Islam. The Qur'anic portrait of Jesus is full of mysteries, lacunae, and intriguing questions.

This essay examines Howard Thurman's interpretation of the historical Jesus and the religion of Jesus in his 1949 book Jesus and the Disinherited (jatd). Thurman interprets Jesus within his first century CE socio-historical context and from the perspective of disinherited African Americans. He articulates the significance of the religion of Jesus, versus religion about Jesus, for the disinherited and how it can ensure their survival. Since jatd addresses race/racism and class/classism but not the intersection of race, gender, and class, I place jatd in conversation with black feminist Audre Lorde's Sister Outsider, womanist theologian Delores Williams' Sisters in the Wilderness, and Angela Sim's Lynched, who focus on the survival of black women (Lorde and Williams) and the resilience of black people living in a culture of fear. Keywords Howard Thurman-religion of Jesus-womanist interpretation-survival

O presente artigo tem como objetivo analisar brevemente os documentários televisivos cujo tema central seja a questão do Jesus Histórico. Para isso, foi escolhido previamente um filme dentre os muitos existentes ("A Vida Desconhecida de Jesus", produzido pelo canal Discovery Channel), a fim de se fazer um estudo de caso. Nos dias de hoje, tais películas são transmitidas em diversas mídias, o que tem facilitado cada vez mais o acesso da população ao tal gênero cinematográfico. Dessa forma, essa análise será realizada com foco sobretudo no discurso proposto pelo filme e como a produção se utiliza de diversas ferramentas-tanto audiovisuais quanto acadêmicas-visando o convencimento do espectador acerca de determinado ponto de vista. Tal estudo faz parte da pesquisa de Mestrado da autora.

Convocation Address at Bethel University, August 29, 2016 about recent troubles in Minnesota, particularly the shooting of Philando Castille, and our responsibility as followers of the Gospel. There is an audio link also available. After you click the link, it's the first one in the queue; fast-forward to 15:00:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/2016-2017-chapel-college-arts/id1148681753?mt=10

This article explores the use of mainstream history, gendered history, and cultural history, to inform creative fiction-and religious thinking when retelling a New Testament narrativethe Nativity, the Birth of Jesus. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament were written by men, living and working within male-dominated belief systems and societies. Inevitably women occasionally featured in the Bible stories, albeit, rarely playing significant roles. Usually these women's roles were only briefly mentioned. It is impossible to obtain fuller accounts of the actions of these women in the Bible, and others, within documents of the era, even if drawing on non-canonical or apocryphal documents. These are also written by men, valued and archived by men, within male-dominant societies. But academic research into the historical roles of women, and men, in Biblical times, can inform creative fiction to tell the hitherto untold story. Mary's pregnancy and birth, Elizabeth's recognition of the act of God, the role of the inn-keeper's wife and the local midwife, shepherdesses, Anna the Temple prophet, and a female Magus-all these have an actual Biblical, or a possible speculative role within the Nativity that could be creatively imagined and told in an historically and culturally informed way. This article hopes that researched creative rewriting can shed fresh light on a key narrative within Western culture, even in a faith-free post-modern rationalist era.

The message of peace and nonviolence was believed in the early church until the claim of Constantine's vision was endorsed by Eusebius and Lactantius. Scriptures and quotes from early church writers are reviewed, and thought questions challenge the reader.

While there can be a blessing in reading any part of God’s Word, the promise in Revelation 1:3 motivated me all the more toward this study project, “Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.” (NIV).  This "Revelation Haiku Project" is the summarization of a study of the New Testament book of Revelation by writing one haiku per chapter using the 5 syllable, 7 syllable, 5 syllable Japanese poetic pattern in English.

Hvad kan der videnskabeligt siges om den historiske Jesus? I kilderne uden for Det Nye Testamente finder vi kun oplysninger om hans død, messiastitel og broderen Jakob. Desuden har Jesus’ liv berøringspunkter med samtidige messiasfigurer, der kritiserer romerne eller det jødiske tempel.

Het is algemeen bekend dat Paulus onderscheid maakt tussen gelovigen uit de joden en gelovigen uit de heidenen (bv. Rom.9-11). Dit doet ook de apostel Johannes in het boek Openbaring (Openb.7).[i] Heeft dit consequenties voor de ekklesiologie? Betekent dit bijvoorbeeld dat de gemeente uit de heidenen geen joods karakter heeft? Heeft Jezus zelf dit onderscheid ook gemaakt? Waaruit blijkt of moet blijken dat het evangelie onder de volkeren een joods karakter heeft? Wordt in het OT een gemeente uit de volkeren voorzien? Heeft Jezus een gemeente onder de volkeren voorzien en gewild? En kunnen we vanuit Jezus’ woorden en werken iets zeggen over de gestalte, de vorm van deze gemeenschap. Met andere woorden, ik wil in dit artikel op zoek naar de oorspronkelijke bedoeling en gestalte van de kerk onder de heidenen, naar de wortels van de nieuwtestamentische ekklesiologie.

De profetieën in het boek Daniël zijn niet gemakkelijk te begrijpen en de uitleg die bijbeluitleggers geven loopt nogal uiteen. In dit artikel wil ik ingaan op de vraag hoe Jezus het boek Daniel heeft gelezen en uitgelegd.
Er is al vaak opgemerkt dat Jezus zich sterk door de profeten Daniël en Jesaja heeft laten bepalen. De Griekse uitgave van het Nieuwe Testament van Nestle-Aland maakt maar liefst melding van 45 verzen uit het boek Daniël waarop in de evangeliën een toespeling wordt gemaakt of die worden geciteerd.
De meest in het oog springende relatie met het boek Daniël is dat Jezus de titel ‘Zoon des mensen’ uit Dan.7:13-14 op zichzelf heeft toegepast. We willen in dit artikel een minder bekende, maar minstens even belangrijke passage uit het boek Daniël onder de loep nemen, namelijk Dan.9:24-27.
Dit gedeelte is namelijk van essentieel belang voor een goed verstaan van Jezus’ rede over de laatste dingen (Mat.24; Mar.13; Luc.21), maar ook voor de uitleg van het boek Openbaring.
Tegen de achtergrond van dit tekstgedeelte krijgen we er zicht op waarom Jezus zegt dat de Zoon des mensen niet één keer, maar twee keer komt. En ook hoe Jezus de tussentijd tussen zijn eerste en tweede komst heeft gezien, een belangrijk geschilpunt tussen Joden en christenen. Joden accepteren namelijk geen twee komsten van de Messias.

This paper examines several textual references to people, places, and customs of Early Roman Jerusalem in the Gospel of John in light of archaeology and literary sources for the same time period. A high degree verisimilitude is argued for and the likely source for this is seen to be eyewitness testimony (21:24).

Burge says the modern reader is like “a foreigner in their world and culture,” this book attempts to immerse us in the world of the first century.  In the same vein as Ben Witherington’s A Day in the Life of Corinth or Bruce Longenecker’s The Lost Letters of Pergamum, Burge has created a short story about a centurion named Appius and his scribe and slave Tullus. While stationed in Dura-Europos, Appius is injured in a battle with the Parthians and eventually is in a gladiator arena at Caesarea Maritima. Eventually Appius and Tertullus end up in the small village of Capernaum on the shores of Galilee where the meet Jesus of Nazareth.

In the West, the dominant way of understanding the work of Jesus has been through a ‘judicial model of salvation’. Although this model is helpful in some regards, it is a primitive and near-sighted understanding of the ministry of Jesus. Here, in this paper, I propose that a more profound, comprehensive, and accurate understanding of Jesus’s work is through a ‘healing model of salvation’. In this model, Jesus acts as the Great Physician who heals humanity of sickness and brings them into wholeness. In this paper, I will begin with a short outline of the judicial model of salvation which will be contrasted by a more comprehensive outline of a healing model of salvation as outlined in the New Testament as based upon the healing ministry of Jesus. Finally, the paper will conclude with a short reflection on the implications a healing model of salvation has for life and practice.

Voor de beantwoording van de vraag hoe Jezus met de psalmen omgaat, kunnen we twee wegen bewandelen. Eerst zullen we iets zeggen hoe de Joodse gemeenschap in de eerste eeuw met de psalmen omging. Jezus maakte hier immers deel van uit. Bij deze ingang moeten we wel het voorbehoud maken dat Jezus niet een doorsnee eerste eeuwse Jood was. Het is niet uitgesloten dat hij als Messias bepaalde gewoonten afwees of veranderde. Ten tweede willen we vanuit de plaatsen waar Jezus de psalmen aanhaalt, ingaan op zijn specifieke omgang ermee. De onderliggende gedachte bij dit thema is niet een zuiver historische interesse, maar de vraag: hoe mogen wij en kunnen wij als volgelingen van Christus met de psalmen omgaan.

This new volume of essays joins Reading Romans in Context (Zondervan, 2015), also edited by Blackwell, Goodrich and Matson. The book works its way through the Gospel of Mark by comparing a section of the gospel to a particular text from the literature of the Second Temple Period. The chapters are brief and written by experts in the study of the Gospels. But they are also written to appeal to people outside of the insular world of scholarly academics.

Intellectual history abounds with writers who were celebrated figures in their own time but who are scarcely remembered today; whereas others emerge from obscurity to become canonical figures in their disciplines. Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694–1768) does not quite fit either model: he was a respected scholar in his own lifetime and, as other contributors to this issue demonstrate, he was certainly not forgotten. But his posthumous reputation, whether as innovator or infidel, has often been narrowly conceived, focused as it was on (literally) fragments of his work.1 In this article I shall attempt to do three things: (1) contextualise the renewed interest in Reimarus for eighteenth-century intellectual history; (2) foreground the robust natural theology he promoted in his lifetime; and (3) show the continuities between that positive programme, and some of Reimarus’s more famous writings attacking Christianity.

The question “What really happened?” is the Rock of Gibraltar of historical
studies generally and historical Jesus studies specifically. Waves upon waves
of scholars using various methodologies have insisted, persuasively even, that
answering that question is ultimately impossible. Nevertheless, as the waves of
Jesus scholarship pass, the question of historicity stands today, as it has in every
generation since the Enlightenment, as the primary generating force behind any
and every quest for the historical Jesus. It may indeed be naïve to think we can
answer the question of historicity in a final sense and without subjectivity; it is
equally naïve to think that either of these realities will stop us from trying to
answer it at all.
Against this broader background of scholarly approaches to the historical
Jesus, this article will join recent voices in advocating the “Jesus-memory approach”
to the historical Jesus. This method stands in contrast to the dominant
“criteria approach” to the historical Jesus, which employs criteria of authenticity
to sanitize Gospel traditions as authentic before connecting them to the
historical Jesus.The particular contribution of this article, however, is to make
explicit the indebtedness of the criteria approach to form criticism, and thus
why the Jesus-memory approach is a better means of postulating the actual past
of Jesus. For, foundationally, arguments about the Gospels and historicity are
actually about the nature and development of the Jesus tradition, and thus its
possible connections to the actual past. In this regard, this article will break
into two main sections. The first half will argue that the criteria approach has
accepted an inadequate form-critical conception of the development of the
Jesus tradition. The second half will then present the Jesus-memory approach,
which differs from the criteria approach both in its conception of the Jesus
tradition and its determination of the historian’s task in search of the historical
Jesus.

Das jüdische Interesse an Jesus von Nazaret
Rabbiner Walter Homolka beschreibt in seinem Buch die wichtigsten jüdischen Perspektiven auf Jesus. Trotz der christlichen Unterdrückung, die Juden im Namen Jesu jahrhundertelang erfuhren, setzten sie sich seit jeher mit Jesus auseinander. Homolka diskutiert das wachsende jüdische Interesse am Nazarener seit der Aufklärung und wie Juden Jesus heute sehen, im religiösen sowie kulturellen Kontext. Das Buch zeigt: Im Zentrum der Beschäftigung mit dem Juden Jesus steht das Ringen des Judentums um Authentizität und Augenhöhe. Jesu Verankerung im Judentum bietet eine Herausforderung für Christen heute und die Chance auf fruchtbaren jüdisch-christlichen Dialog.

This article is not so much interested in historical events and the validity of natural laws beyond the text. However, the form and strategy of the text itself is taken seriously and highlighted through the application of narratival and hermeneutical methods. My thesis is: the problem of the nature miracle stories cannot and should not be ‘solved’, because it is a constitutive dimension of this kind of text. Miracle stories are constructed upon a challenge, a tension, or even a paradoxon. They recount an event as having taken place in the past – in other words, they refer to and count on history – while breaking through the known, normal reality. In terms of narratology we can describe this tension as one between the factual narrative and the fictive content. In other words, the miracle stories belong to the “historiography genre” and to the “fantasy genre” at the same time.  The nature miracle stories are told precisely to evoke and provoke this tension. This tension is not only noted by the modern reader, but was already present for the ancient reader (e.g. against the background of debates on historiography) and can even be described on the textual level, namely by a character´s speech in the narrated world (e.g. “We have seen paradoxa today,” Luke 5:26).