Chapter 11

Question 0

First quest for the historical Jesus

Answer 0

19th century movement which sought to interpret the life and miracles of Jesus from a rationalistic perspective

Question 1

Rationalism

Answer 1

The philosophical perspective which claims that reason is the sole test of truth

Question 2

Herman Samuel Reimarus

Answer 2

German professor whose essay on the intention of Jesus and his disciples is often viewed as launching the rationalistic first quest for the historical Jesus

Question 3

Albert Schweitzer

Answer 3

German theologian musician philosopher and physician whose magisterial quest for the historical Jesus criticized the first quest for the historical Jesus for merely reimaging Jesus as a 19th-century rationalist

Question 4

No quest

Answer 4

20th-century period Associated specifically especially with Rudolph Bultmann and marked by extreme skepticism concerning what can be known about the historical Jesus

Question 5

Ernst Troeltsch

Answer 5

Set out highly influential philosophical principles which effectively ruled out supernatural intervention in human events

Question 6

D. F. Strauss

Answer 6

German scholar who claim that gospel events were not merely rationalistic events misconstrued by eyewitnesses as the first quest assumed but rather myths which had developed over the course of time in the early churches

Question 7

William Wrede

Answer 7

Sought to demonstrate that the Gospels were not biographies or history but rather theologically motivated fictions

Question 8

Johannes Weiss

Answer 8

Seeking to place Jesus and his first century context Weiss identified Jesus as an apocalyptic Prophet expecting the imminent end of the world

Question 9

History of religions school

Answer 9

A 19th-century German school of thought which sought to study religion in terms of its evolutionary development from simple polytheistic religions to complex monotheism

Question 10

Martin Kahler

Answer 10

Rejected the historical Jesus quest as misguided claiming that the only Jesus we can know is the Christ of faith

Question 11

Jesus of history versus Christ of faith

Answer 11

A distinction sometimes drawn between the historical figure of Jesus and the presently raining Lord of the church worshiped by believers today

Question 12

New (second) quest

Answer 12

A resurgence in historical Jesus research initiated by students of Rudolph Bultmann in the 1950s it’s origin is usually traced to a 1953 lecture by Ernest Kasemann

Question 13

Third quest

Answer 13

A name given to the resurgence in the study of the historical Jesus from the 1980s onward characterized by variety of new methodologies and cross disciplinary research

Question 14

Jesus seminar

Answer 14

A controversial group established by Robert Funk and John Dominic Crossan which met in the 1980s and 1990s and voted on the sayings of Jesus finding very little of historical value in the Gospels

Question 15

Criteria of authenticity

Answer 15

Various criteria such as dissimilarity coherence and multiple attestation developed by Jesus scholars to test the authenticity of the words and actions of Jesus

Question 16

Cynic-like philosopher

Answer 16

A poet peasant whose clever sayings and parables challenged the social and religious conventions of his day

Question 17

John Dominic Crossan

Answer 17

Cofounder of the Jesus seminar and most influential advocate of Jesus as a cynic-like Jewish peasant

Question 18

Cynics

Answer 18

Countercultural Hellenistic philosophers who rejected the norms of their society and sought to live a simple unencumbered life

Question 19

Charismatic

Answer 19

Someone considered to be filled with or to act in the power of the Spirit of God

Question 20

Marcus Borg

Answer 20

Influential member of the Jesus seminar and key advocate of the view that Jesus was a spirit person or Jewish mystic

Question 21

Social revolutionary

Answer 21

A revolution transforming the community life from the bottom up

Question 22

Eschatological prophet

Answer 22

Prophet referring to the end times God’s final time of salvation

Question 23

E. P. Sanders

Answer 23

Key advocate of the view that Jesus was an eschatological prophet in close community with the Judaism of his day

Question 24

Covenantal no ism

Answer 24

Perspective advocated by E. P. Sanders that first century Judaism was guided not by a works salvation but by a covenant relationship with God establish the grace and maintained by Torah observance

Question 25

John P Meier

Answer 25

Prolific author of multivolume work a marginal Jew which methodically examines the Jesus tradition for historicity. Meier views Jesus primarily as an eschatological prophet

Question 26

N. T. Wright

Answer 26

Innovative and influential Jesus scholar who views Jesus as an Eschatological prophet restoring God’s people by leading them out of spiritual exile into a new Exodus deliverance