Historical Jesus
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Template:Jesus This article presents a critical reconstruction of the Historical Jesus, as based on the four canonical gospels. Other related articles present different descriptions and perspectives of Jesus.
The existence of Jesus has been a subject of controvery among scholars for the past two centuries. Most historical reference to Jesus comes from the Gospels, which have a great margin of difference in historical dates that range from 30 years after his death to over a hundred.The description of Jesus, also called the Christ, in the Gospels focuses on the last years, especially the last week of his life. They tell of a virgin birth and a brief ministry prior to the final weeks of his life. He was in conflict with both the Roman and Jewish political authorities of the time which resulted in his crucifiction and claimed resurrection, which according to his followers, the Christians, provided an atonement for the sins of all mankind, and paved the path so that every person on earth will be resurrected.
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Childhood and family background
Two of the Gospels (Matthew and Luke), refer to Joseph as Jesus' (foster) father. Joseph does not feature in any of the four canonical gospels, except in these childhood narratives; this is generally taken to mean that he was dead by the time of Jesus' ministry.
Since the focus of each of the gospel accounts is primarily found in Jesus' later life with special emphasis on the three year period of ministry prior to the Crucifixion, it is considered likely that the childhood narratives are non-historical.
Mark 6:3 (and analogous passages in Matthew and Luke) reports that Jesus was "Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon," and also states that Jesus had sisters. The Jewish historian Josephus and the Christian historian Eusebius (who wrote in the 4th century but quoted much earlier sources now unavailable to us) refer to James the Just as Jesus' brother (See Desposyni).
Works and miracles
According to the Gospels, Jesus began his public ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing soon after he was baptized by John the Baptist. Luke's gospel records that Jesus' mother, Mary, was the sister of John's mother, Elizabeth, making the two men first cousins. Though Matthew portrays John humbly attempting to decline baptizing Jesus, the earlier gospel of Mark and the later gospel of Luke do not mention this reluctance; this would tend to indicate a difference in the writers' theological and historical perspectives. Disciples of John are contrasted with the followers of Jesus, even as late as the Book of Acts. The Mandaeans look to John as their founder to this day.
The Gospel of John mentions three separate Passovers during Jesus' ministry, so most scholars conclude that it was a period of approximately three years. However, the other Gospels only mention one, and a few scholars suggest that a ministry of more than three years is possible.
Jesus used a variety of methods in his teaching. He made extensive use of illustrations in his teaching. (Compare Matthew 13:34, 35.) The detailed nature of Jesus' spiritual teaching cannot be fully agreed upon because the Gospel accounts are fragmentary, and their objectivity is suspect. Furthermore, he made extensive use of paradox, metaphor and parable, leaving it unclear how literally he wished to be taken and precisely what he meant.
Jesus, like most holy men throughout history, is said to have performed various miracles in the course of his ministry. These mostly consist of cures and exorcisms; but some of the alleged miracles show a dominion over nature. Scholars in both Christian and secular traditions debate whether these miracles should be construed as claims of supernatural power (which would be rejected by naturalistic historians, while possibly accepted by others), or explained without recourse to supernatural occurrences. Naturalistic historians generally choose either to see the texts as allegory or to attribute the healings and exorcisms to the placebo effect.
Jesus also seems to have preached the imminent end of the current era of history; in this sense he was an apocalyptic preacher bringing a message about the imminent end of the world the Jews knew.
The Gospels present Jesus as engaging in frequent question and answer debates with other religious figures; these debates were common between religious teachers of the period. For example, the gospels report that Jesus made use of a quote from the Law of Moses to answer a question posed by the Sadducees regarding the resurrection of the dead, in which they did not believe. The Gospels agree that Jesus generally opposed stringent interpretations of Jewish law, and preached a more flexible understanding of the law. They present an inclination to following a teleological approach, in which the spirit of the law is more important than the letter, and record him as having many disagreements with the Pharisees and Sadducees. But in some places, Jesus suggests that the Pharisees were not strict enough in their observance of the law. It should be noted that the Evangelists would presumably favor accounts of Jesus which would tend to support their own theology and interpretations of the law.
A few modern scholars believe that Jesus may have been a liberal Pharisee, or an Essene (a sect with whom he shared many views). In this view Jesus was later cast as an enemy of the Pharisees because by the time Christians transcribed the Gospels, the Pharisees had become the dominant sect of Judaism, and hence the most responsible for preventing conversions of Jews. This view receives some support in the Acts of the Apostles, where the apostles were generally attacked by Sadducees but sometimes protected by Pharisees with more liberal interpretations of Jewish law (for example, see Acts 23:6-9). Evidence against this view is found in the understanding that some of the gospel materials were compiled before the destruction of the temple in 70. It was around this time in which the Pharisees came to power.
According to the Bible, the theme of Jesus' preaching (and also that of John the Baptist) was: "Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near." (e.g. Matthew 4:17) Jesus trained his disciples to do the same work: "As you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.'" (Matthew 10:7) These disciples were not just to preach in public places but were also to contact people at their homes. Jesus instructed them: "Wherever you enter into a house say first, 'May this house have peace.'" (Luke 10:1-7) After Jesus' demise, these apostles preached his teachings and performed healing to both Jews and Gentiles. The Gospels disagree about whether Jesus had intended for them to preach to the Gentiles; Matthew contains the most notable arguments for the negative position.
Jesus is reported to have praised the value of celibacy, saying that some have made themselves "eunuchs" for the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 19:12). This was not uncommon at the time; although most Jews married (including those who were Pharisees), others, like the Essenes, promoted celibacy. However, he is also presented as having spoken out against divorce, which would imply at least a tacit approval of marriage.
In his role as a social reformer Jesus would have threatened the status quo. He was unpopular with many Jewish religious authorities, although the book of Acts and some of the Epistles say that numerous members of the priests and the Pharisees became followers of his teachings. According to the Gospels, his unpopularity among the leadership of the area was because he criticised it, and, moreover, because Jesus' followers held the controversial and inflammatory view that he was not only the Messiah but God Himself. Even the former claim would disturb the local leaders, who feared that a claimed Messiah would incite a revolt against Roman rule. (This view is also presented in the Gospels.)
Final days
According to the Bible, Jesus came with his followers to Jerusalem to fulfill his Messianic mission. He was involved in a public disturbance at the Temple in Jerusalem when he overturned the tables of the moneychangers there. At some later point, he was betrayed to the Jewish religious authorities of the city — either the full council (Sanhedrin) or perhaps just the High Priest — by one of his apostles, Judas Iscariot. The High Priest of the city was appointed by the government in Rome and the current holder of the post was Joseph Caiphas. The Romans ruled the city through the High Priest and Sanhedrin, so often the Jewish authorities of the city had to arrest people in order to obey Roman orders to maintain the peace. Jesus' disciples went into hiding after he was arrested.
Jesus was crucified by the Romans on the orders of Pontius Pilate, the Roman Prefect of Judea in Jerusalem. The Gospels state that he did this at the behest of the Jewish religious leaders, but it may have been simply that Pilate considered Jesus' ability to incite public disturbance as a potential Messiah to be a threat to Roman order. Pilate was known as a harsh ruler who ordered many executions for lesser reasons during his reign; he had also been in trouble twice with his Roman superiors for being too harsh in his rule. Furthermore, the plaque placed on Jesus' cross to detail his crime is quoted as IESVS NAZARENVS REX IVDAEORVM (INRI) — meaning either "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" or "Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews", indicating that Jesus was crucified for the crime of rebelling against the authority of Rome by being declared the "King of the Jews". (In the Aramaic it would have been Yeshua HaNazarei v Melech HaYehudim: Jesus the Nazarei, King of the Jews.)
All the Gospel accounts agree that Joseph of Arimathea, variously a secret disciple or sympathiser to Jesus, and possible member of the Sanhedrin, arranged with Pilate for the body to be taken down and entombed. They further claim that Jesus' mother, Mary, and other women, notably a female follower of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, were present during this process, also during the execution itself. John the Apostle is also mentioned as being present at the latter event, unlike the other disciples.
The resurrection
Main article: Resurrection of Jesus
According to the Christian Gospels and the book of Acts, Jesus' disciples encountered him again on the third day after his death, raised to life. No one was a witness of the actual resurrection event, though all four Gospels report that women who went to anoint the body found the tomb empty. After the resurrection, the Gospels give various accounts of Jesus meeting various people in various places over a period of forty days before "ascending into heaven".
This belief is the basis of Christianity, and so has been frequently challenged. Furthermore, the varying accounts of the Gospel writers have led some critics to dispute the resurrection event itself. For example, the resurrection narrative in Mark (thought to be the oldest Gospel - see Markan priority) is taken by some to be a late addition (see Mark 16). Also, various details in the resurrection narratives are difficult, though not impossible, to reconcile from Gospel to Gospel. Finally, the Gospels indicate that the disciples were unable to recognize Jesus at first after the resurrection. Some Christians consider this a validation of authenticity because they say a manufactured report would have the disciples recognise him immediately. There have been a number of theories disputing the historicity of the resurrection, which are discussed in the article Resurrection of Jesus.