The tensions between humanity and divinity

Bart Ehrman is one of America’s premier Bible scholars. He teaches religion at the

University of North Carolina. He and I have common roots, being graduates of Wheaton College and having studied under some of the same professors.

On his intellectual journey, Bart abandoned his Christian identity and describes himself as an agnostic historian. He has written more than 20 books on topics related to the Bible and Christian faith.

I have read several of his books and hold his scholarship in high regard. I continue to identify myself as a devout Evangelical Christian with some opinions that differ from mainstream Evangelicals.

I have just finished reading his latest book, “How Jesus Became God.” I consider the book his very finest contribution to the present discussions about the identity of Jesus, an itinerant, largely self-educated, teacher from a poor and insignificant village in northern Palestine.

He addresses only one issue. How did this man become accepted by millions of people as God in human flesh?

Ehrman repeats several times that his work is that of a historian. He makes a very honest effort to be no more than a reporter of the facts that he has discovered about Jesus from Nazareth.

Among critical scholars, no one doubts that Jesus lived. He was a man of history. However, the details of his life are very difficult to pursue because we have so little source material.

Ehrman sorts through the competing reports about the life and teachings of Jesus. Realistically, we are left with the first three Gospels found in the New Testament: Matthew, Mark and Luke. Under analysis, they, too, leave us with problems of historicity.

Jesus spoke and taught in Aramaic. His audiences were uneducated, illiterate peasants. Their language was Aramaic.

It is doubtful that any of Jesus’ disciples could read or write. The first written records of the events and teachings of Jesus were written in Greek over two generations after the death of Jesus. They were written by educated men.

How did information move from illiterate Aramaic-speaking peasants in Galilee, to educated authors in Judea, writing in Greek?

Working with admittedly meager sources, historians can say emphatically that THERE IS NO RECORD OF JESUS EVER CLAIMING ANY LEVEL OF DIVINITY FOR HIMSELF. The John Gospel has such statements. However, the John Gospel was written much later, and no modern scholar gives any credence of historicity to John’s writings.

Any claim of divinity for Jesus cannot be traced to Jesus himself. Where else can the historian look?

Ehrman continues his discourse.

Paul is the earliest Christian writer. Paul never shows interest in reporting Jesus as history. Rather, Paul is interested in presenting a theological Jesus, who brings salvation to the world.

Paul reports his encounter with Jesus on the Damascus road. The incident probably took place about five years after the death of Jesus.

Out of his experience, Paul assigns divine status to Jesus. He had met and experienced the resurrected Jesus. For Paul the empty tomb was real.

However, no matter how real the resurrected body of Jesus might be, the truest nature of Jesus resurrected body was “spiritual.” Paul’s writings are without question the earliest written witness to some sort of divine status for Jesus, and it is related to a resurrection from the dead.

The reports of the resurrection of Jesus as reported in the Matthew, Mark and Luke gospels are not helpful to historians. The three reports are shot through with contradictions and discrepancies.

There is the unifying empty tomb that is embraced by Paul. However, the reported post-resurrection body of Jesus was of some different nature than the one put into the grave. There is no doubt that the belief that Jesus was raised from the dead developed quickly after his death, and some sort of divine status was assigned to Jesus because of the reported resurrection.

Arguments about the nature of Jesus’ resurrection roared through the Christian communities. Was it merely the spirit of Jesus that came from the grave? Or was it some sort of “immortal” body that could at times be touched and seen?

The discussion about the nature of the resurrected Jesus would continue for centuries, but some sort of divine status for Jesus was firmly established.

Ehrman reports the details of the arguments about Jesus’ resurrection and assignment of divinity. It is a long story that takes place over three centuries.

The story takes us from mere divinity of Jesus all the way to equality with almighty God, existence from the beginning of all things, and creator of all things. In the process, Jesus became God for the true believer.

All of this came to a head when the Roman Emperor Constantine became a Christian. He renounced any claim he might have to divinity and embraced the full divinity of Jesus. For Constantine, Jesus was not only divine; Jesus was God, the only God.

In 325 CE, Constantine called a council of Christian bishops to settle the issues related to Jesus’ truest identity. The Council met in Nicaea. The bishops produced the Nicene Creed, which remains to this day the classic standard understanding of the identity of Jesus for most Christians. Jesus was God in the fullest sense.

Bart Ehrman’s work is monumental. I suspect “How Jesus Became God” will become a classic.

Is a Christian a follower of the Jesus of history, or a follower of the resurrected Jesus, who was truly God? Or can a devout person embrace both? Ehrman leaves that question to readers.

“How Jesus Became God” is a must read for serious Christians.

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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