The person of Jesus Flashcards
Wisdom teacher
Jesus’ Key Teachings
A theme is Jesus’ teachings was repentance, forgiveness, inner purity and morality
The Parable of the Lost Son teaches that we should see the error of our ways, turn our life around and ask for forgiveness. It teaches that God’s love/forgiveness know no bounds/God will forgive if we are sorry, no matter what.
Jesus taught that people should not just forgive an action once or even seven times but ‘seventy times seven times’ which teaches people that forgiveness should be a constant, not one off, event.
Christians must strive for peace and harmony in their lives, instead of anger. Anger is not controlled can lead to sinful actions which separates us from God. Christians should ‘turn the other cheek’ and not seek vengeance or retaliate.
Christians need to be pure in thought as well as in their deeds e.g. do not be lustful as this is considered to be adultery.
Jesus had come to fulfil the law, not replace it.
Jesus is referred to as ‘Rabbi’ many times in the Gospels by his disciples and by others. ‘Rabbi’ was a term of respect but was also used for educated teachers who interpreted the Jewish law, surrounded by their followers.
Jesus could clearly read and spent his time teaching in synagogues. He spoke on moral issues, such as, the importance of love, self-sacrifice, caring for the poor, peace and justice.
Hick
JESUS WAS A TEACHER OF WISDOM – Believed that the supernatural elements of Jesus need to be stripped away, leaving the authentic teacher of wisdom. He argued that once the supernatural elements of Jesus’ life are interpreted as symbolic what they reveal are Jesus’ close relationship with God. This allows Christianity to enter into a full dialogue with other religions. He notes that the way in which Jesus is aware of God’s will and God’s willingness to act is not unique to Jesus. He argues that Jesus is not literally the incarnation of God, but is one of many wise teachers, like the Prophet Muhammad, Guru Nanak, Buddha
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Believed Jesus’ authority came from his role as a teacher of wisdom living life as honestly as possible.
He admired Jesus for his affirmation of authentic human living. He argued that unless an idea can be lived, practiced and experienced, it has no value and he was impressed by Jesus’ commitment to truth, courage to speak against hypocrisy, his simple lifestyle and acceptance of death. He believed Jesus was ‘the living word’; the embodiment of the external moral and inner spiritual life.
– “if you try to be helpful to other people you will in the end find your way to God”
Dawkins
rejects the belief that Jesus was the Son of God instead believing Jesus was a teacher of wisdom - “Jesus was a great moral teacher”
Gerd Theissen
“In discussing with other scribes, gathering disciples around him, teaching in synagogue worship and answering theological enquiries of law people,
Jesus, the former disciple of the rabbi John, corresponded to the contemporary notion of rabbi.”
Ep Sanders
Began under john the Baptist
Jesus lives his life a Jew with Jews. References to non-Jews, such as Samaritans, were added later
Jesus did not reject or replace the Jewish law à “It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of the pen to drop out of the Law”. Jesus may have disagreed with its application but he did not seriously break Jewish Law.
Jesus rejected becoming the ‘Messiah’ that his disciples wanted and never describes himself as the Son of God.
Geza Vermes
JESUS WAS A RELIGIOUS REVOLUTIONARY/REFORMER - Argued that Jesus was trying to reform Judaism. He stressed Jesus’ Jewishness and rejected the idea that Jesus encouraged his disciples to try to convert non-Jews. He thought Jesus was a Galilean holy man, one who expected decisive action from the God of Israel in the near future. He believed the conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees would merely have resembled the in-fighting of factions belonging to the same religious body, like between the orthodox and progressive branches of Judaism in modern times. Like John the Baptist, Jesus was arrested and executed because he was seen to be popular with the people, and this alone justified suspicion of seditious intent.
Nt Wright
Jesus offered a fresh interpretation of the scriptural tradition which he shared with his Jewish contemporaries. He was a critique from within.”
‘Jewish Jesus theory’ à Jesus was leading a Jewish renewal movement, concerned with rethinking the Jewish religious through repentance and forgiveness.
Political Liberator
esus clashed with the political authorities on many occasion:
He talked about the Kingdom of God – a political statement because it suggested that authority was going to be taken away from those in earthly authority (Romans)
He made tax collectors, who represented the government, turn away from their former lifestyle
He publicly entered Jerusalem on a donkey. Reza Aslan argues Jesus coming in to Jerusalem on a donkey was an orchestrated event by Jesus to fulfill the Messianic prophecy of Zechariah.
There was links between Jesus and the Zealots:
Jesus suggested the coming of a violent, political revolution ‘I did not come to bring peace, but a sword’
Jesus’ followers carried weapons à they used these weapons to defend themselves and Jesus when he was arrested
Jesus’ followers had suspicious names à Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot (Iscarii meant ‘dagger men’ and was another name for the Zealots)
Reza Aslan
JESUS WAS A POLITICAL REVOLUTIONARY/LIBERATOR - Jesus was born in Nazareth and grew up a poor laborers.
He was a disciple of John the Baptist until John’s arrest.
Like John, Jesus preached the imminent arrival of the kingdom of God, which would be an earthly, political state ruled by God or his anointed, a messiah. Jesus never intended to found a church, much less a new religion. He was loyal to the law of Moses as he interpreted it. Jesus opposed not only the Roman rulers but also their Jewish representative
S.G.F. Brandon
JESUS WAS A POLITICAL REVOLUTIONARY/JESUS WAS NOT A PACIFIST/JESUS’ RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD WAS NOT UNIQUE - Argued that Jesus was a politically driven freedom fighter, but that the Bible toned him down and made him a pacifist.
He believed that there is no way the Christian claims of Jesus’ uniqueness can be substantiated from history alone - this is because faith and history are not the same. Sanders argued that Jesus’ teaching on non-violence, hope for outcasts and eschatological teachings makes him substantially different from others at the time but they are not enough to make him unique.
Social revolutionary
The Parable of the Good Samaritan à Using a Samaritan as an example of exemplary moral behaviors is important in a time when the Jews and the Samaritans did not get along. Jesus is teaching people to look past social/religious and political divides and treat everyone equally.
Jesus touches a woman who has been bleeding for 12 years à Woman who were on their period were viewed an ‘unclean’ by Jewish people at the time but Jesus challenges prejudices and attitudes towards woman of his day.
Jesus rejects the hierarchy of society stating “the last shall be first, and the first shall be last”
Jesus was executed alongside bandits – perhaps the Roman’s considered him to be one too
Robert Webb
JESUS WAS A SOCIAL REVOLUTIONARY/LIBERATOR - Suggests at the time of Jesus there was a movement of “social banditry” which sought to free the poor peasants from their life of poverty.
Richard Horsley
JESUS WAS A SOCIAL REVOLUTIONARY/LIBERATOR - Describes Jesus being part of a ‘Robin Hood’ style resistance because Rome was holding the people of Israel in servitude through heavy taxation and therefore social banditry was the first step to overthrow the Roman rulers. He believed the Romans considered Jesus as a bandit, he was executed alongside them on the cross.
Boff
“Jesus Christ as the liberator seeks be committed to the economic, social and political liberation of those groups that were oppressed and dominated”
Cs Lewis
JESUS WAS THE SON OF GOD/NOT A HUMAN TEACHER OF WISDOM - C. S. Lewis’ trilemma argues that Jesus was either “liar, lunatic, or Lord,” “mad, bad, or God,” or “myth, madman, or messiah”. He believed that Christ either deceived mankind by conscious fraud, or was deluded, or he was divine.
He implies that these amount to a claim to be God and argues that they logically exclude the possibility that Jesus was merely “a great moral teacher”, because he believes no ordinary human making such claims could possibly be rationally or morally reliable. Lewis’ trilemma does not intend to prove the divinity of Jesus (although Lewis believed in it), but merely the impossibility of accepting Jesus as a moral teacher while refusing his claims to divinity.
Bonhoffer
Bonhoeffer believes that the incarnation is important (cannot have just been a human teacher). This is because through the incarnation we meet God in human beings because ‘now we are in him’ - “And in the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God.”
He believed that the significance of the incarnation was that the ‘gulf between a godless world and its creator was bridged by the actions of that creator’.
Because of the incarnation, we can be reconciled with God. He clearly states that “God did not become an idea, a principle, a program, a universally valid belief, or a law; God became human.”
Evdience he knew divinity
Mattthew - ‘truly i tell you one of you will betray me’
-knew he would be denied ‘one of you will deny me 3 times’
Speaks of own death
Mark ‘son of man must undergo a great suffering, be killed, and rise again
Rahner
Jesus’ consciousness was multi layered, deep within he had a self-consciousness of his divinity
Like onions have many layers in the same way, Jesus’ human self-awareness was the top layer of his consciousness and the deeper layers were his divine consciousness.
O collins
hallenges the possibility of being able to answer these kinds of questions about the knowledge Jesus had.
He argued that it is very difficult to undertake any study of the inner world of a being, alive or dead. Particularly in the case of Jesus because he did not leave any writings of his own.
Before we can understand Jesus’ self-knowledge, a person must be able to appreciate the complexity of knowledge à multi-layered structure of memory, emotion, experience, intuition, instinct etc.
For Miracles
Jesus is God so knows he is divine
‘are you the son of the blessed one? I am ‘ (mark 14)
Jesus’ miracles seem to suggest that he was divine/had God’s power in a special way.
‘Magicians’ were common at the time of Jesus. People performed tricks to convince people that they were sent by God etc. Jesus did not perform miracles to convince his followers and he often asked people to not talk about what they had seen.
Jesus calms the storm (Mark 4:35–41). Jesus calms the storm with the words, ‘Be still’. This shows that Jesus has God’s authority.
The feeding of the five thousand (Mark 6:30–44).
Nicene creed
‘hommosusus’ - shows a hypostatic union , fully human and fully god.
Swinburne
A priori probability argument
Sees how evidence in the world makes probability for God logical
principle of credulity
if someone appears to be present, it makes logical sense to say that they are so, unless the observer is under particular circumstances (intoxicated, has a mental illness etc.). in the same way, testimonies of religious experiences should be taken at face value, unless there is significant evidence that they would be wrong.
principle of testimony
it makes sense to believe what people tell you, since the majority of people tell the truth. he says we tend to believe what people say because otherwise everyday conversation would be very tough.
Swinburne - Overstates probability
antony flew - accusing him of simply adding up theories to create a ‘cumulative case‘. using the analogy of ten leaky buckets, Flew stated that arguments for god make a ‘bucket’, but the flaws of all these arguments put holes in the buckets; it is pointless trying to fill up a bucket with holes in it.
JL Mackie (Credulity) said that in the balance of probabilities, it is more likely that a person is mistaken than God is the explanation.
2) swinburne -Cannot trust testimony
j.l. mackie reminded us that people will unintentionally dramatise, exaggerate and mislead people with their religious experiences.
R.M. Gale said religious experience is not the same as other types of experience and therefore normal rules do not apply. i wouldn’t claim i felt a monster under the bed was real. same as any other dream, just as fake.
makes god trivial and believable as a dream of eating food.
Michael Martin suggests that Swinburne’s credulity and testimony can be used to suggest that God doesn’t exist
Hume
THE MIRACLES ARE NOT PROOF OF JESUS’ DIVINITY – 1) Lack of Probability - Hume says it is more likely that the report of a miracle happening is incorrect than the laws of nature being violated. 2) Lack of convincing testimonies – Hume says miracle accounts are taken from those who have a lack of education/are religious fanatic
Bentham
Impossible to accept in a scientific age. He believed miracles were not acceptable to modern, scientific minds.
He stated “modern science does not believe that the course of nature can be interrupted or, so to speak, perforated, by supernatural powers”.
Schiellbexc
Although he was Christian, he moved away from a literal understanding of the incarnation. Rather than somehow being a miraculous “God-in-man” person, he thought that Jesus was more of an eschatological prophet. He believed Jesus’ miracles can therefore be interpreted as having a spiritual or metaphorical meaning rather than just a literal one.
- There is no single word for ‘miracle’ so these events might not necessarily mean/point to the laws of nature being broken. Might instead be understood like parables of the creation myths.
Wright
ooks to healing miracles or helping the marginalized
-e.g.)blindness symbolic of loss of faith
He argued that the title “son of God” was a way “of saying that what had happened in Jesus was the unique and personal action of the one God of Israel”. According to Wright, Jesus was “equipped” or “enabled” by God to do what he did. Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, commanded nature, not because he was God and had the power to do so, but rather because he was illustrating what the new creation would be like when heaven and earth came together
Popper
Christian documents, such as the Nicene Creed, can be brought into question à arguably written to silence Christians who had begun to develop their own understanding of the nature of Jesus.
The assertions made in the Nicene Creed cannot be proven false nor true, and consequently, it makes any discussion on its truthfulness somewhat fruitless. (Falsification Principle – Karl Popper)
o Collins - ressurection
‘easter mystery shines a new and final light on the story of Jesus’
Panenburg
‘visibly and unambiguously’ reveals Christ to be the son of god, is a sign of gods completion and perfection of creation
St Paul
f Christ has not risen you are still in your sins 1 Cor 15:17).
For Paul, if Jesus was not resurrected then all preaching would be in vain, sins would not be washed clean, and at death all would perish. A Christian faith without resurrection is impossible for Paul.
For the disciples and for Christians today Jesus’ victory over death to rise again (and Paul claims to be amongst those who witnessed this) is the most conclusive evidence that Jesus is the Son of God.
Jesus’ resurrection was enough proof for the disciples of the truth behind Jesus’ message and authority that they began a new religious movement.
Wright on ressurection
Wright accepts that ancient texts involve personal expression on the part of their authors which could include the expression of spiritual experience. However, that only justifies taking a critical view of the text. It does not justify abandoning realism by reducing the entire meaning of the text to expression of personal perspective or experience alone
-need critical realism
-Can learn of historical events
Remairus
(1694-1768) also suggested that story of the resurrection was made up by the disciples who stole the body.
Bultman
Bultmann argues that we need to strip away the supernatural and impossible elements and once we do we are left with an authentic Jesus, a teacher of wisdom.
Bultmann argued that all that matters is the “thatness”, not the “whatness” of Jesus i.e. only that Jesus existed, preached, and died by crucifixion matters, not what happened throughout his life.
Bultmann remained convinced that the narratives of the life of Jesus offered theology in story form, teaching lessons in the familiar language of myth.
Bultmann rejected the historicity of the resurrection, but not its spiritual significance. à “A historical fact which involves a resurrection from the dead is utterly inconceivable”
- Bultmann accepted the resurrection as a “mythical event, pure and simple.”
Strauss
he resurrection is best seen as a myth according to Strauss.
He believed that the resurrection was the result of the disciples’ “social conditioning and cultural outlook” more than a recollection of a real, historical event.
Hick - ressurection
metaphor for his authority
-is a ‘gift to the world’-
- Hick believed that understanding Christological language as mythological would increase Jesus’ importance in global religious life
- Hick believed that a metaphorical approach to incarnation avoided the need for Christian paradoxes, such as the duality of Christ and the Trinity.
- thought that the Bible contains ‘true myths’ meaning ‘not literally true’ but inspiring us spiritually and morally.
-ressuections shows ‘Gods gift of renewal’
- Demythologizing is the process of translating myths into language fitting modern culture, revealing the deeper truths about the encounter in early Christianity with a new spiritual way of life; the early message of Christianity which first spread the faith
