Jesus Of Nazareth: The First Quest For The Historical Jesus

Once upon a time, in a far off land lived a man named Jesus. Jesus was the Son of God. His mother was named Mary, and his earthly father was Joseph. Joseph was of the line of King David, whose line of heritage was traced back all the way to Adam and Eve. Jesus had the power to heal the sick and paralyzed, give sight to the blind, speech to the mute, and life to the dead. This may very well sound like a fairy tale, but all of this was as true and real as you and me. Jesus was the living proof of God, and was literally God on earth. Jesus was perfect in every way, and was without sin; yet the Pharisees did not like what Jesus was preaching and accused him of blasphemy. This of course was not true; because God is inerrant, and Jesus was the living and, the human version of God, he speaks no lies, nor commits any crimes. Because of the charges against Him, and the Roman Empire convinced that He was causing trouble, He was sentenced to a crucifixion. The crucifixion of

Jesus Christ was born around 4 BC, and believed to be the the true Son of the true God the Father. Jesus performed miracles on Earth, preached about God, and was crucified. He was then crucified by a man named POntius Pilate, for committing treason. Since Jesus was the Son of God, he had the power to stop His crucifixion, but he didn’t. He didn’t in order to save all of humanity; the Nicene Creed states Jesus saved us, “for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven” (Nicene Creed). Jesus has been worshipped since then; people pray to Him, dedicate churches to praising Him, and teach his teachings.

It is possible to write on the life of Jesus from the information gathered from the bible. I will be dividing my essay into three parts. In the first part of the paper, I will talk about the nature of the gospels, John’s views vs. the Synoptic, discuss if the authors of the gospels are eyewitnesses and how they used written sources. Also I will talk about the Q source. Then I will elaborate on the topic of how Matthew and Luke were similar. Then I will continue on by discussing how the Old Testament uses Moses, Samuel and Elijah to interpret Jesus, and finally whether or not the Sermon on the Mount happened. In the second part of my paper, I will talk about Jesus’s birth and childhood, his miracles, his resurrection, and what Jesus did to cure people, spirits and how they are interpreted to the prophet, magician and the mad man compared to Saul and Elijah. The final part of the paper I will talk about what Jesus talked about as regards to the Kingdom of God vs. the Kingdom of the Romans and what he intended by speaking of the end of the world. I will also speak of the reasons behind the Romans executing him. My sources for this paper will be the New Jerusalem Bible Readers edition as my primary source and lecture notes from Professor Trumbach.

Who is Jesus? Jesus is the son of God and the Virgin Mary, the way to peace and happiness, not only but also the one who saved us from evil and sins. The bible says that If we believe in him we shall not perish but have everlasting life. In his short time on earth he turned water into wine, healed, walked on water and more. He was sold by Judas to the Romans. He was whipped, stoned, and nailed to the cross among with two robbers who would be crucified along with him. Jesus had told everyone that he would rise again within 3 days which would have been on a Sunday, as we know is called Easter.

Two thousand years ago, the birth of Jesus, arguably the most influential man the world has ever seen, altered history forever. Christians know him as the Messiah, the son of God who came to save all of mankind, and for others, he may just be a great teacher and person of history. It is the latter that Reza Aslan attempts to shed an unbiased light on by comparing the Jesus that modern Christians believe in to the Jesus that Aslan believes would have fit into first-century Palestine: a violet revolutionary, dedicated to the eradication of the Roman government in Israel and the deposition of the rich priestly class. Aslan paints a portrayal of Jesus using knowledge of the time period, Scripture that has been taken out of context and misinterpreted, and most of all, the author’s imagination and powerful rhetoric to cover up his faulty argumentation. In his book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, Reza Aslan recreates an interesting but purely speculative image of the historical Jesus through exploring the political and social history of first-century Palestine, the life and teachings of Jesus, and the development of early Christianity.

Christianity has long faced attacks on the historical authenticity of Jesus, His claims, works and resurrection. This skepticism took a new turn when the Jesus Seminar took it upon themselves to study the authenticity of the Gospels and the historical accuracy of their contents. The article in Time magazine, Gospel Truth? by David Van Biema explores the arguments of the Seminar and the counter-arguments brought forth by Christians who defend the historical authenticity of the Gospels. My reading of the arguments put forward by the Seminar, have not found their conclusions consistent with the evidence found in the Bible, historical records or personal experience.

The quest for the knowledge on the historical Jesus started as a protest against the traditional dogma of Christianity, but when the neutral historians joined the movement, all they saw was Jesus without features. Even when these scholars decided that other biblical figures such as John the evangelist, John the Baptist, Paul, and others were at home in a symbolic and richly storied world. Jesus himself

Philip Yancey’s The Jesus I Never Knew is a book that presents the life of Christ in a chronological manner. Yancey is successful in relating the life of Jesus and the events thereof to personal experiences and draws supporting evidence from historical events and other works of literature. Throughout the book, he draws parallel comparisons of these events and teachings with the mission of Jesus. Yancey, at times, comes across as a critic of Jesus and questions his own beliefs and ideas about Jesus. As Yancey states, “I have found that the doubts that afflict me from many sources-from science, from comparative religion, from an innate defect of skepticism, from aversion to the church-take on a new

There are many aspects of Jesus’ birth and life that lay hidden within the folds of time, most of these tend to bring about theories that to some degree cannot be proven or disproven. This vagueness around the life of Jesus is offset by the works of the gospels in the

Most of what is known about Jesus’s life comes from the Gospels. However, historians and religious scholars do not agree about how much of the Gospels is literally true. The Gospels were all written between 40 and 60 years after the death of Jesus. Although there is non-Biblical evidence to show that Jesus was a historical figure, there is limited evidence outside the Gospels documenting the events of his life.

Several years ago, I too “lost the historical Jesus as a credible human being” (p. 8) after reading Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code. Although I have recovered from that momentary crisis, I have developed a “hermeneutic of suspicion” (p. 18) in that I do not appraise value to events in the bible as factual, but I find truths within the texts. I appreciate Borg’s separation of the pre- and post-Easter Jesus while exploring a sense of the historical Jesus (p. 7). However, both are unclear at best due to the formation of the sacred texts. The oral traditions circulating prior to the written forms cannot be reclaimed, at least not entirely. As oral traditions were collected, the written forms artistically combined these traditions to create the Christian

Jesus Christ is one of the most recognizable figures in the modern world. And the legacies of few people have sparked as many wars, built as many nations, and changed as many individual’s lives, as Jesus of Nazareth. Understandably, scholars and spiritualists alike have striven to answer one central question, “who was this Jesus?” To some, He is known as the Son of God, who overcame death and sin, offering salvation through His resurrection for all who place their faith in him. To others, He was merely a carpenter from the small town of Nazareth, living in the early years of the Common Era. And trying to figure out much else about Jesus is one of the most

Now that we have external reasons to believe Jesus existed we can look internally at his life. The best and clearest sources of Jesus' life come from the gospels, however theories and beliefs have risen to try and "debunk" the gospels of being credible. One such theory is the idea that the gospels were originally anonymous and only a century or so later given names to show credibility. First off I would like to quote Pitre and say "thus scenarios is completely incredible." (19) To first disprove this

Jesus of Nazareth is the face and name to Christian religion world-wide. Historians are continuously trying to piece together the life of Jesus. Who is He? How did he come to be? It is hard to reconstruct the historical life of Jesus when there is very little data from the time period.

Christianity is the religion based on the life, death and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, also known as the Christ or Messiah. Jesus was a Jewish teacher and prophet who lived in Palestine in the first century CE. He revealed himself to be the Son of God in fulfillment of Hebrew scripture, and taught that the Kingdom of God was imminent, bringing with it forgiveness and new life for all who believed. His claim to be the Messiah roused opposition from religious and political authorities and he was imprisoned and crucified. His followers believe that after his death, Jesus was resurrected before being taken up to heaven.