The Historical Jesus

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CHAPTER ONE
The Historical Jesus
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Historical Evidence
- Although Jesus is known to have been a great
teacher, he personally left no writings
behind - New Testament writings, especially the
gospels, prove Jesus existence while also
noting historical events and people
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Historical Evidence
- Historical evidence of Jesus existence from
both Roman and Jewish independent sources
include writings from Tacitus
Suetonius Pliny the Younger Josephus
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The Scriptures and Jesus
- The Primary source material about Jesus and
earliest followers is the New Testament
The New Testament contains 27 books Most
important are the four gospels Composed over
a period of about 70 years Testament means
covenant Jesus Christ represents the new
covenant shown in the New Testament
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The Scriptures and Jesus
-The covenant theme is central in the Old
Testament 46 books of inspired writings
Began with the call to Abraham Many examples
of Gods loving kindness Reveals how
unfaithful the Chosen People were to the
covenant Gods covenant was to be a new
testament sealed in the blood of his Son -
Jesus is the New Testament NT continues and
fulfills the Old Testament
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The Scriptures and Jesus
- God is the true author of the sacred
scriptures - Inspiration Holy Spirit teaching
truth through the Bible without destroying the
free and personal activity of the human writer
Holy Spirit inspired the human authors of the
Bible Gospel - Good News -Why are there
four written versions of one gospel? God
wanted four different perspectives of Jesus
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The Scriptures and Jesus
- Canon of the Bible official list of books the
Church considers its inspired writings - 46 Old
Testament books and 27 New Testament books - In
order to be included in the Canon, the following
criteria had to be met Apostolic Origin
Widespread Acceptance Conformity to the Rule
of Faith
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Formation of the Gospels
-Three stages involved in the formation of the
gospels 1.) Public life and teaching of
Jesus 2.) Oral tradition and preaching by the
apostles and early disciples of
Jesus 3.) Written gospels themselves
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Formation of the Gospels
Stage 1 Public Life - Apostles were eyewitnesses
to Jesus life and ministry that helped to form
and preserve the gospel in the first
stage Stage 2 Oral Tradition - Oral preaching
took three forms 1.) Kerygma - preaching to
nonbelievers 2.) Didache - teachings 3.)
Liturgy - worship of the Christians
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Formation of the Gospels
- Oral preaching had to be committed to writing
for three major reasons 1.) End of the world
was not coming as quickly as the early
Christians thought it would 2.) Distortions were
setting in 3.) More instruction was needed
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Formation of the Gospels
Stage 3 New Testament Writings - Earliest New
Testament writings are letters of St. Paul -
Gospels and various other writings such as Acts
of the Apostles and Revelations followed
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Interpreting the New Testament
- The New Testament is the most important
collection of books ever written and
assembled - Historical research looks to the
customs and ways of thinking at the time the
events took place and were written -Literary
criticism analyzes the writings
themselves -Analysts look to the Magisterium for
final authority in interpreting the scriptures
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Interpreting the New Testament
-Five categories of historical-literary
method 1.) Source Criticism 2.)
Historical Criticism 3.) Form Criticism 4.)
Redaction Criticism 5.) Textual Criticism
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Interpreting the New Testament
1.) Source Criticism Tries to determine what
source or sources the gospel and other New
Testament writers used to compose their works -
Synoptic Gospels Made up of gospels of
Matthew, Mark, and Luke Means seen
together - Widely accepted that Mark was the
first gospel written
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Interpreting the New Testament
Mark
Matthew
Luke
L
M
Q
-Matthew and Luke drew on a common source Q - a
collection of Jesus sayings -Matthew and Luke
also used materials unique to them called M
and L
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Interpreting the New Testament
2.) Historical Criticism -Attempts to discover
what the evangelists really wanted to say when
they wrote a text (literal sense) -Determine the
probability that what the gospels report about
Jesus and his teachings can be traced to him -
Criterion developed Linguistic analysis
Originality Convergence Consistency
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Interpreting the New Testament
3.) Form Criticism - Focuses on these literary
differences - the type of New Testament book we
are reading and the individual literary units
each book contains - Two literary forms
Historical narrative Parable - story
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Interpreting the New Testament
4.) Redaction Criticism -Focuses on the
evangelists as editors how and why they
arranged their sources the way they did -Tries to
discover the particular theological slant of the
given writer and how this influenced their
arrangement of the material -All four gospels
are necessary to get the full picture of Jesus
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Interpreting the New Testament
Redaction Criticism Cont. -Matthew Wrote for
a Jewish-Christian audience and stressed
how Jesus fulfilled prophecies made to the
Chosen People -Mark Wrote for a local church
that experienced great suffering
Presented Jesus as the Suffering Servant
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Interpreting the New Testament
Redaction Criticism Cont. - Luke Wrote for
Gentile-Christians Presented Jesus as the
Universal Messiah - John Wrote for various
churches around the Roman Empire Presented
Jesus as the Word of God
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Interpreting the New Testament
5.) Textual Criticism - Compares the minor
changes and mistakes made through the centuries
-Two interesting points The differences
between the majority of these copies are
minor There are far more copies of the gospels
and other New Testament writings than any
other ancient writing
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Interpreting the New Testament
- St. Jeromes translation of the entire Bible
into Latin is the Vulgate - became the Churchs
official translation of the Bible - Two
important Catholic translations of the Bible into
English are The New American Bible New
Jerusalem Bible
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Vocabulary
Canon (of the Bible) Catechesis Evangelist Gospel
Inspiration Q Synoptic Gospels Testament