The search for the Jesus of history

The traditional teaching of Christian churches is that Jesus from Nazareth was both fully human and fully divine. Christian worship and confession has centered on the divine Jesus. The celebration of Holy Communion emphasizes the spiritual presence in the bread and wine. Most Christians think of Jesus as the divine son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity. In a recent conversation a gentleman said to me that there is no evidence that a person named Jesus actually lived. It is a commonly held point-of-view. I asked if he was familiar with modern critical studies of Jesus and the Bible. He confessed that he was not.

A revolution is taking place in the Christian family of believers. The evolving, emerging believer is asking more questions about the Jesus of history. This is becoming a significant concern of the people in the pews of Christian churches of the 21st century. They want to know more about the Jesus of history. Sadly the typical minister of a Christian church is not sharing with his/her congregation the information about the historical Jesus that is now readily available.

For the first 18 centuries after the death of Jesus, people did not read the Bible with the eyes of literary or historical criticism. They read the Bible as history. That changed in the 19th century with a few German scholars, but little note was taken until Albert Schweitzer took a hard look at the Matthew, Mark, and Luke gospels.

He found discrepancies, inconsistencies, gaps, and disconnectedness. In 1904 Schweitzer published the results of his studies. They were translated into English in 1910 under the title of “The Quest of the Historical Jesus.” His key conclusion was that a historical Jesus could not be found in the gospels in the New Testament.

Some Christian scholars and leaders protested his conclusion, and others simply ignored his work.

The practical result was that the search for the Jesus of history was abandoned. The search did not return for about 50 years. Times changed and a new generation of scholars began looking for the historical Jesus; but they devised a different approach. They attempted to construct a Jesus of history through his words and deeds. They attempted to find the historical Jesus through his message. In retrospect, the second quest for the historical Jesus was doomed from the beginning. Ironically, rather than challenging the conclusion of Schweitzer, it affirmed Schweitzer’s conclusion. They did not find a plausible historical Jesus.

The first quest for the historical Jesus tried to find the Jesus of history through the study of the Bible material. He was not to be found. The second quest for the historical Jesus attempted to find the Jesus of history through reconstruction from actions and words. He was not to be found. In the words of one scholar, the search for the historical Jesus was a dead-end street.

Finding the roots of the third quest for the historical Jesus is difficult. No one name can be cited as the leader of the third quest. The 1980s produced a variety of studies of first century northern Palestine. Scholarly articles appeared in journals and books were written about the Galilee of Jesus’ times. The result has been that we now know a great deal about the politics, economics, religion, culture and social structures of first century Galilee. The area was economically impoverished; the people were hostile toward the temple rulers in Jerusalem; people despised Roman rule. Galilee was the base for the Zealots, a movement that advocated violent overthrow of Roman rule.

With new information, a different Jesus emerged. The stories Jesus told now made sense. His relationship with the Judaism of the first century became clearer. His economic and social conflicts became understandable. Jesus was seen not just as a religious leader, but as a political leader who advocated for the poor. Scholars did not go looking for the historical Jesus. The historical Jesus simply began to appear. The entry Jesus made into Jerusalem took on a different meaning. The incident that he instigated in the Jerusalem Temple was open to new understanding and interpretation.

The third quest for the historical Jesus is continuing. However, among most Christian scholars there now is little doubt that Jesus grew up in rural Galilee, became a local rabbi of note and a political activist, and recruited disciples. He made a trip to Jerusalem, caused disturbances and was crucified by Roman soldiers because he was seen as an insurrectionist.

There is nothing about the quest for the historical Jesus that takes away from Christian belief that Jesus had a miraculous entry into earthly life, that he died for the sins of the world, and that he rose from the dead. People can choose what they want to believe about these things. However, in the light of the third quest for the historical Jesus, it becomes exceedingly difficult to be a follower of Jesus and to be indifferent to the needs of the poor and to remain uninvolved with the politics of this world.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.

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