Lesson 1 Flashcards
Explain how Gospel critics can offer important insights into Gospel studies? Give an example
a. Not synonymous with everything is bad about critics.
b. Press us to understand the gospels better in order to counter their criticism.
c. Sometimes they are correct.
d. EXAMPLE:
- How does understanding Gospel criticism help pastors better minister to people in their churches?
a. Well intended Christians have legitimate questions about the varasity of the Bible in general and the Gospels specifically.
b. The world is bombarding us with criticisms of the Gospels and this helps us reassure our congregation of truthfulness of the Gospels.
c. Nothing new under the sun. Understanding historical criticism allows us to respond to current criticism.
- What are the differences between liberal and radical approaches to the Jesus quest?
- The liberal approach will not admit what the text says.
i. Liberal- Connection to disciples. General link between Gospel and History. Did not understand the gospels. Historical is loosely connected to Jesus and his message. - The radical approach admits what the text is saying but says the text is wrong.
ii. Radical- I don’t need any connection between history and Jesus. The message of Jesus is what matters not the historical fact. Separate history from message.
- Who are the significant theologians of the Old Quest and what did they contribute?
A. Herman Reimarus (1694 -1768) – Concerning the aims of Jesus and his Disciples (1778)
1. Introduction:
2. Beginning of the Jesus Quest
3. Wrote book – concerning Jesus and his disciples
4. Diest
5. Core Beliefs
a. Jesus was simply trying to establish a political kingdom.
b. Jesus failed in his attempt to establish a political kingdom
c. My God, My God, why did you forsake me = Jesus acknowledge his failure
d. Christianity established by fraud of the disciples
6. Evaluation
e. First person to separate Jesus from the early church
f. Separated the Jesus of history from the Jesus of faith
g. First to suggest the disciples stole the body
h. Is the stealing of the body by the disciples a good explanation of the resurrection?
B. Heinrich Paulus (1761-1851)
1. Intro:
2. German professor
3. Enlightenment thinker – Reason is the way
4. Regarded himself as a Christian
5. Saw himself as a protector of the faith
6. Given the enlightenment, we must get rid of the “crazy” parts of Christianity or Christianity will die.
7. Two main tenets:
a. Miracles in the Gospels are subject to a natural explanation.
b. Jesus was simply an ethical teacher
c. Disciples were “uneducated”
d. They think they saw a miracle but were confused
e. i.e. Walking on water = was at night during storm and Jesus walked on the sandbar.
f. Swoom theory = raising from dead = Jesus was not really dead but they thought he as dead.
8. Importance: Precursor of Ritchlian Liberalism
9. For Paulis, Christianity is about being morally good. Jesus was just a moral person
C. David Strauss (1808-1874)- The Life of Jesus Critically Examined (1835)
1. Views
a. Biblical stories are myths (3rd Way)
i. True that did not actually happen
ii. Vehicles or stories that are religiously true but not historically true.
b. Gospels were not written by disciples
i. Written by some anonymous author later in history not associated with Jesus.
c. Resurrection belief the result of hallucination
2. Significance
3. Beginning of the distinction between liberal and radical
4. Liberal- Connection to disciples. General link between Gospel and History. Did not understand the gospels. Historical is loosely connected to Jesus and his message.
5. Radical- I don’t need any connection between history and Jesus. The message of Jesus is what matters not the historical fact. Separate history from message.
6. Rejects both supernaturalistic and naturalistic explanations.
7. Would say that the Gospels are true but means that did not really happen but that the message is true.
D. F.C. Baur (1860-1972)
1. Head of the German Tubingen school
2. Straus disciple.
3. Synthesis Theory
a. Two forms of early Christianity.
i. Jewish Christianity
ii. Paulean Christianity
iii. Blended
b. Each document is “Party Document” that promotes one of the Christian positions above
c. Different NT books can be placed in each category.
d. Two groups became a “synthesis” in the second century
4. Significance
a. Promotes the idea that each of the NT documents had a particular agenda
b. First person to suggest that Paul was the real founder of Christianity and not Jesus
i. Christianity today is Paul Christianity and not Jesus.
c. Redaction Criticism = you cannot trust the NT documents because they are bias and promoting an agenda.
E. William Wrede (1859-1906) – The Messianic Secret (1901)
1. Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah during his lifetime
a. However, the early church later came to believe Jesus was the Messiah due to their resurrection “experience.”
b. Problem: How does the church explain why Jesus himself never publicly claimed to be the Messiah during his lifetime.
c. Wrede argues that the Gospel of Mark was written to explain away this problem- the reason Jesus never publicly claimed to be the Messiah is because he did so in secret!
2. Conclusion: The Gospels are not reliable records but are the church’s attempt to fix a problem
a. Gospel of Mark is a literary devise to explain away their belief that Jesus is the Messiah.
F. Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) – The Quest for the Historical Jesus (1906)
1. Schweitzer’s Theory
a. Rejected thorough-going (hyper) skepticism of prior writers.
b. Returned the eschatological component to the person of Jesus
i. Jesus was not just a good moral teacher
ii. Jesus thought that God’s final judgement was coming.
c. How then is Christ, as such a failure, significant today?
i. However, Jesus failed
ii. He was wrong
iii. Ends up moralizing Jesus like those that came before him.
d. Results = All the requestors just found the Jesus that looks like them
2. Response- Jesus is not the type of Jesus that inspires the church – He does not solve the problem of the historical Jesus.
3. Significance
a. Critique basically ended the first Quest
b. All future authors would be divided into two camps.
c. Camp 1- Redaction Criticism
d. Camp 2- Skepticism
- What distinguishes the “Third Quest” from those?
- It has not ended
- Serious about placing Jesus within his proper Jewish context
- Less radical and extreme
- Dead Sea scrolls were discovered
- Better than the previous quests.
- More optimistic about the reliability of gospels
- Concentrate on larger, all-encompassing hypotheses
- Recovery of the eschatological message of Jesus
Describe the Jesus seminar.
A group of scholars trying to reconstruct the “real” Jesus. Trying to determine if Jesus really said something, may have said something, or did not say it within Scripture.
What were the criteria to determine if Jesus said something?
c. Criterion of Multiple Attestation: How many witnesses?
d. Criterion of Dissimilarity: What an Odd thing to say!
e. Criterion of Contextual Credibility: Does it fit other things we know in science and the world? If not - Jesus did not say it.
