Historical Jesus
This paper is an analysis and a reconstruction of Jesus the man, to meditate on the human life of Jesus Christ. History shows he was a real person and this essay will examine the important aspects of the historical Jesus of Nazareth as the disciples knew him and understood him. So fundamentally looking at Jesus as an actual person who lived his life in Palestine, stating the historical situation and the different religious groups of the time. This essay will also underline the beliefs of Jesus, the person he claimed to be and the reason behind his actions and thoughts. Providing a historical core of facts and the important events of his life up until his scandalous death will produce a portrait of Jesus in the Jewish society of his time.
The land that Jesus carried out his mission was called Palestine, which is now part of the modern state of Israel. Rome was a city state then, ruling large tracts of land around the Mediterranean Sea, including Palestine. The Herod family that ruled Palestine during Jesus' lifetime was from Idumea, a southern province in Palestine. At the time of the birth of Jesus Palestine was ruled by the Roman vassal king Herod the Great, who in fact attempted to kill Jesus when he knew of his existence (Aulen, G.1973).
To write about Jesus’ life and the historical events that took place in his time can prove to be a difficult as the gospels that were composed were more of as collection of writings that occurred independently from one another rather than a simple chronological biography of Jesus. In this sense, it would be impossible to produce a biography of Jesus; nevertheless this does not prevent the possibility of reconstructing, through historical facts, the outlines of the persona...
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...to a cross. He was crucified between two robbers, and died (Knox, J. 1967).
Even just looking at the historical facts and events of Jesus’ life we can see the importance of this figure and the aftermath of his existence. However, the historical Jesus cannot simply and fully identify the nature of Jesus. Jesus Christ needs to be looked upon with faith to understand his true nature of his ways and the purpose of what he carried out in his life.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Comblin, J. (1976) Jesus of Nazareth. New York: Orbis Books
Knox, J. (1967). The humanity and divinity of Christ. London: Cambridge University Press.
Braaten, C. (1964).The historical Jesus and the Kerygmatic Christ. New York: Abdigon Press.
Barclay, W. (1962). Jesus as they saw him. U.S.A: Eerdmans publishing co.
Aulen, G.(1973). Jesus in the contemporary historical research. U.S.A.: Fortress Press.
Jesus as being a poor Jew in the mist of Rome. Help me the understand and paints a picture how
The Meaning of Jesus begins with Borg speaking about how we know about Jesus. Borg explains that the gospels have two natures. First, they are a developing tradition and second, the gospels are a mixture of history “remembered” and history “metaphorized”. Borg believes that some of the material is from Jesus and some is from the Christian community. The material from the Christian community should be considered metaphors, so this material is history metaphorized. Borg also states that there are two ways to refer to Jesus: pre and post-Easter Jesus; human and divine. The importance of pre-Easter Jesus is that, according
Vermes, Geza. Jesus the Jew: A Historian's Reading of the Gospels. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1973.
Christianity and Judaism are major world religions which, though they worship the same God, have marked differences which have caused two thousand years of strife and animosity between the two religions. In his book We Jews and Jesus, Samuel Sandmel likens the link between Judaism and Christianity to a type of parent-child relationship, saying, “Early Christianity was a Judaism; within a century after the death of Jesus it was a separate religion. It was critical of its parent, and hostile to it, and elicited from its parent reciprocal criticism and hostility.”1 Opposing views of Jesus Christ caused the initial rift between Judaism and Christianity and is the primary source of the tension between the two religions which has continued for the last two millennia. Therefore, in order to understand how Judaism and Christianity relate to one another, it is essential to understand the way Jesus is perceived in each religion. The way that Christians view Jesus is quite well known, but Judaism’s view of him is much lesser known, so it is important to explore Judaism’s perceptions of Jesus, beginning with New Testament times, and to examine the ways in which these feelings and opinions have changed over time.
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are the origin of nearly everything the Christian Church teaches about Jesus. The Gospels, in turn, serve as the scale or test of truth and authenticity of everything the church teaches about Jesus. It is said that the Gospels are the link between Jesus of Nazareth and the people of every age throughout history who have claimed to be his followers. Although the Gospels teach us about Jesus’ life they may not provide concrete evidence that what they speak of is true there are several other sources.
The story of historical Jesus is not an easy story to tell. There is very little evidence for historians to go by and no sources that are from the actual time of Jesus. Years after his death there were attempts to document what Jesus had said and done during his life and the preaching’s he taught (Fisher, 2008, p. 295). We know Jesus was born during the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus. Historians believe that Jesus was born and grew up in a village called Nazareth, even though the Gospel states he was born in Bethlehem (From Jesus to Christ, 1998). Nazareth was located in Galilee, which was ruled by Rome at the time (Fisher, 2008, p. 299). Sepphoris was a major city, located near Nazareth, which had great Roman and Greek culture. Recent excavations of Sepphoris tell scholars that it was a sophisticated environment. It is believed that Jesus may have had a more mainstream up bringing then being a “humble carpenter” from a low social status, or peasant, like the Bible states. Since there is so little evidence of Jesus there are conflicting theories about who Jesus actually was and how he was raised. Some historians believe that Jesus was part of the artisan class and worked in the city of Sepphoris. They also believe he was tri-lingual, speaking Aramaic, Hebrew, and Hellenistic Greek, so he could do business in the city of Sepphoris and his ministry work (From Jesus to Christ, 1998). It is also known that Jesus was Jewish and was a preacher of the Jewish texts. Historians believe that the evidence linking John and Jesus is the strongest they can find. “The ministry of John the Baptist, prophet citing Isaiah’s prophecies of the coming Kingdom of God. He was conducting baptism in the Jordan River in preparation for the Kingdom of ...
Moreland, J.P., and Wilkins, Michael, ed. Jesus Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995.
The life of Jesus is told in the four gospels of the Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They speak of His virgin birth, His ministry and miracles, His death, and His resurrection. Jesus was born into humanity through Mary but was conceived without a human father (Matthew 1:18) making Him fully man and fully God. He was called the Son of God, (1 John 5:20), the second person of the Holy Trinity. Jesus taught about the kingdom of God and how we are to love everyone, even our enemies (Merrick, 2015). Jesus was the only human to live a sinless life so He was able to fulfill His purpose on earth to provide a way for man’s relationship with God to be restored. “In Jesus’ life, one beholds not merely the lengths to which God will go to save humanity, but the nature of the wisdom, love, and the power of God who saves.” (Merrick, 2015) God provided a plan so man could be redeemed and
The book consists of three parts. The first part has five chapters of which focuses on explaining what the key questions are and why we find them difficult to answer. The second part has nine chapters explaining in detail what N.T. Wright considers Jesus’ public career and the approach he had in first century Palestine. The third part of the book, the last chapter, challenges readers to wrestle with the questions of Jesus’ life and ministry.
The gospels explain Jesus’ life and death including His identity but also his activities, works, leadership and his suffering. Jesus is seen as a manifestation of God’s relationship with humans. An important fact about Jesus is the humility and modesty associated with his birth, upbringing and death. The fact that such a person ...
God’s goodness and mercy far transcends the comprehension of the most brilliant human mind! He “who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth”(Psalm 113:6).Yet in His infinite love for us He stoops down to reveal Himself to us by a multitude of illustration, types, and shadows, so that we may learn to know him. This paper will describe what is meant by the Kingdom of God; examine the religious philosophy of the various sects of Judaism during the Second Temple period: Pharisee, Sadducees, Essenes, and Zealots, describe the religious philosophy and political philosophy of each sects, it will also describe how the Messianic expectation differ from the Messianic role that Jesus presented, and include an exegesis of the temptation of Jesus and how other sects defined the Messiah.
His book presents three main perspectives on Christology (biblical, historical, and contemporary). He attempts to combine classical views and contextual views of Christology.
Before this semester I had never taken a moment to ask myself - Who is Jesus? It is something that I have never been given the option to question. Being brought up in a strong Christian background, where I went to mass every Sunday, and then following mass, went to bible school for two hours, ingrained a specific image of Jesus into my head. This image portrayed Jesus as a white man who preformed miracles for the poor and oppressed, and also sacrificed himself on the cross for all of humanity’s’ sins. However, after taking this course, I have been able to rethink Jesus in ways that I could have never imagined. It has become evident to me that there are many different ways to see Jesus. And with each of these contrasting views, there comes both biblical and rational evidence supporting each image along with criticism disputing each image.
Jesus’ title of Messiah has been foreshadowed in the Old Testament and through Matthew’s genealogy; it is proven that he is from the blood line of David (Paul, John, II. "King."). Delving into the kingship of Jesus, we find that his mother Mary was told by the angel Gabriel of the position he would hold. "The Lord God will give to him the throne of his Father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there will be no end (Luke 1:32-33).” This is similar to the promise made to David, except that God promises Jesus an “everlasting” rule. This means that although David was promised a kingdom on Earth, Jesus was promised something beyo...
The paper will also discuss the development of the Messianic tradition within Christianity, focusing on the prophets, Jesus and how the messianic period is defined in Christian theology in order to establish if the Son of God has arrived in this world and fulfilled his promise through death and resurrection, or if the messiah and the messianic age is still yet to come as understood in Judaism. To begin, it is only right to give a brief history of Judaism in order to understand the concept of the Messiah in Judaic belief. The people of one god were established with the covenant of Abraham, who is known to be the founder of this religion. This unbroken lineage can be traced directly through the scriptures and is the basis for the most prominent world religions today. Jewish history is contained in the Torah and consists of the first five books of the Bible.