Jesus Christ
from Britannica
born c. 6–4 BC, Bethlehem
died c. AD 30, Jerusalem
also called Jesus of Galilee or Jesus of Nazareth founder of Christianity, one of the world's largest religions, and the incarnation of God according to most Christians.
His teachings and deeds are recorded in the New Testament, which is essentially a theological document that makes discovery of the “historical Jesus” difficult.
The basic outlines of his career and message, however, can be characterized when considered in the context of 1st-century Judaism and, especially, Jewish eschatology.
Name and title
Ancient Jews usually had only one name, and,
when greater specificity was needed, it was customary to add the father's name or the place of origin.
Thus, in his lifetime Jesus was called
Jesus son of Joseph (Luke 4:22; John 1:45; 6:42),
Jesus of Nazareth (Acts 10:38), or
Jesus the Nazarene (Mark 1:24; Luke 24:19).
After his death, he came to be called
Jesus Christ.
Christ was not originally a name but a title derived from the Greek word christos,
which translates the Hebrew term meshiah (Messiah), meaning “the anointed one.”
This title indicates that Jesus' followers believed him to be the anointed son of King David, whom some Jews expected to restore the fortunes of Israel.
Passages such as Acts of the Apostles 2:36 show that some early Christian writers knew that the Christ was properly a title,
but in many passages of the New Testament, including those in Paul's letters, the name and the title are combined and used together as Jesus' name: Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus (Romans 1:1; 3:24). Paul sometimes simply used Christ as Jesus' name (e.g., Romans 5:6).
Etymology :
The name "Jesus" is an Anglicization of the Greek Ίησους (Iēsous), itself a Hellenization of the Hebrew יהושע (Yehoshua) or Hebrew-Aramaic ישוע (Yeshua), meaning "YHWH rescues". (from Gk. Iesous, attempt to render Aramaic proper name Jeshua (Heb. Yeshua) "Jah is salvation," a common Jewish personal name, the later form of Heb. Yehoshua)
* Yeshua 와 같은 이름은 ( 특히 종교국가에서는 이름사전 등에서 좋은 이미지의 이름을 차용하는 것이 일반적임) 우리 이름 처럼 단순한 고유명사이므로 특별한 의미를 두고 해석해서는 안된다.
"Christ" is a title derived from the Greek Χριστός (Christós), meaning the "Anointed one," which corresponds to the Hebrew-derived "Messiah".
Summary of Jesus' life
Although born in Bethlehem, according to Matthew and Luke, Jesus was a Galilean from Nazareth, a village near Sepphoris, one of the two major cities of Galilee (Tiberias was the other). He was born to Joseph and Mary shortly before the death of Herod the Great (Matthew 2; Luke 1:5) in 4 BC. According to Matthew and Luke, however, Joseph was only his father legally. They report that Mary was a virgin when Jesus was conceived and that she “was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:18; cf. Luke 1:35). Joseph is said to have been a carpenter (Matthew 13:55), that is, a craftsman who worked with his hands, and, according to Mark 6:3, Jesus also became a carpenter.
Luke (2:41–52) states that as a child Jesus was precociously learned, but there is no other evidence of his childhood or early life. As a young adult, he went to be baptized by the prophet John the Baptist and shortly thereafter became an itinerant preacher and healer (Mark 1:2–28).
In his mid-30s, Jesus had a short public career, lasting perhaps less than one year, during which he attracted considerable attention. Some time between AD 29 and 33—possibly AD 30—he went to observe Passover in Jerusalem, where his entrance, according to the Gospels, was triumphant and infused with eschatological significance.
While there he was arrested, tried, and executed.
His disciples became convinced that he still lived and had appeared to them.
They converted others to belief in him, which eventually led to a new religion, Christianity.
Jewish Palestine at the time of Jesus
The political situation
Palestine in Jesus' day was part of the Roman Empire, which controlled its various territories in a number of ways.
In the East (eastern Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt), territories were governed either by kings who were “friends and allies” of Rome (often called “client” kings or, more disparagingly, “puppet” kings) or by governors supported by a Roman army.
When Jesus was born, all of Jewish Palestine, as well as some of the neighbouring Gentile areas, was ruled by Rome's able “friend and ally” Herod the Great.
For Rome, Palestine was important not in itself but because it lay between Syria and Egypt, two of Rome's most valuable possessions. Rome had legions in both countries but not in Palestine. Roman imperial policy required that Palestine be loyal and peaceful, so that it did not undermine Rome's larger interests. This end was achieved for a long time by permitting Herod to remain king of Judaea (37–4 BC) and allowing him a free hand in governing his kingdom, as long as the requirements of stability and loyalty were met.
When Herod died shortly after Jesus' birth, his kingdom was divided into five parts. Most of the Gentile areas were separated from the Jewish areas, which were split between two of Herod's sons,
Herod Archelaus, who received Judaea and Idumaea (as well as Samaria, which was non-Jewish), and
Herod Antipas, who received Galilee and Peraea.
(In the New Testament, Antipas is somewhat confusingly called Herod, as in Luke 23:6–12; apparently the sons of Herod took his name, just as the successors of Julius Caesar were commonly called Caesar.)
Both sons were given lesser titles than king: Archelaus was ethnarch; Antipas was tetrarch.
The non-Jewish areas (except Samaria) were assigned to a third son, Philip, to Herod's sister Salome, or to the province of Syria.
The emperor Augustus deposed the unsatisfactory Archelaus in AD 6, however, and transformed Judaea, Idumaea, and Samaria from a client kingdom into an “imperial province.”
Accordingly, he sent a prefect to govern this province. This minor Roman aristocrat (later called a procurator) was supported by a small Roman army of approximately 3,000 men. The soldiers, however, came not from Italy but from nearby Gentile cities, especially Caesarea and Sebaste; presumably the officers were from Italy. During Jesus' public career, the Roman prefect was Pontius Pilate (ruled AD 26–36).
Although nominally in charge of Judaea, Samaria, and Idumaea, the prefect did not govern his area directly; instead, he relied on local leaders. The prefect and his small army lived in the predominantly Gentile city Caesarea, on the Mediterranean coast, about two days' march from Jerusalem. They came to Jerusalem only to ensure peace during the pilgrimage festivals—Passover, Weeks (Shabuoth), and Booths (Sukkoth)—when large crowds and patriotic themes sometimes combined to spark unrest or uprisings.
On a day-to-day basis Jerusalem was governed by the high priest. Assisted by a council, he had the difficult task of mediating between the remote Roman prefect and the local populace, which was hostile toward pagans and wanted to be free of foreign interference.
His political responsibility was to maintain order and to see that tribute was paid.
Caiaphas, the high priest during Jesus' adulthood, held the office from about AD 18 to 36, longer than anyone else during the Roman period, indicating that he was a successful and reliable diplomat. Since he and Pilate were in power together for 10 years, they must have collaborated successfully.
Thus, at the time of Jesus' public career, Galilee was governed by the tetrarch Antipas, who was sovereign within his own domain, provided that he remained loyal to Rome and maintained peace and stability within his borders.
Judaea (including Jerusalem) was nominally governed by Pilate, but the actual daily rule of Jerusalem was in the hands of Caiaphas and his council.
Relations between Jewish areas and nearby Gentile areas
Galilee and Judaea, the principal Jewish areas of Palestine, were surrounded by Gentile territories (i.e., Caesarea, Dora, and Ptolemais on the Mediterranean coast; Caesarea Philippi north of Galilee; Hippus and Gadara east of Galilee). There also were two inland Gentile cities on the west side of the Jordan River nearGalilee (Scythopolis and Sebaste).
The proximity of Gentile and Jewish areas meant that there was some interchange between them, including trade, which explains why Antipas had telōnēs (often translated “tax collectors” but more accurately rendered “customs officers”) in the villages on his side of the sea of Galilee.
There also was some exchange of populations: some Jews lived in Gentile cities, such as Scythopolis, and some Gentiles lived in at least one of the Jewish cities, Tiberias.
Jewish merchants and traders could probably speak some Greek, but the primary language of Palestinian Jews was Aramaic (a Semitic language closely related to Hebrew).
On the other hand, the Jews resisted paganism and excluded temples for the worship of the gods of Greece and Rome from their cities, along with the Greek educational institutions the ephebeia and gymnasion, gladiatorial contests, and other buildings or institutions typical of Gentile areas.
Because Jewish-Gentile relations in the land that the Jews considered their own were often uneasy, Jewish areas were usually governed separately from Gentile areas. The reign of Herod the Great was the exception to this rule, but even he treated the Jewish and the Gentile parts of his kingdom differently, fostering Greco-Roman culture in Gentile sectors but introducing only very minor aspects of it in Jewish areas.
In the 1st century, Rome showed no interest in making the Jews in Palestine and other parts of the empire conform to common Greco-Roman culture. A series of decrees by Julius Caesar, Augustus, the Roman Senate, and various city councils permitted Jews to keep their own customs, even when they were antithetical to Greco-Roman culture. For example, in respect for Jewish observance of the Sabbath, Rome exempted Jews from conscription in Rome's armies. Neither did Rome colonize Jewish Palestine. Augustus established colonies elsewhere (in southern France, Spain, North Africa, and Asia Minor), but prior to the First Jewish Revolt (AD 66–74) Rome established no colonies in Jewish Palestine. Few individual Gentiles from abroad would have been attracted to live in Jewish cities, where they would have been cut off from their customary worship and cultural activities. The Gentiles who lived in Tiberias and other Jewish cities were probably natives of nearby Gentile cities, and many were Syrians, who could probably speak both Aramaic andGreek.
Economic conditions
Most people in the ancient world produced food, clothing, or both and could afford few luxuries. Most Palestinian Jewish farmers and herdsmen, however, earned enough to support their families, pay their taxes, offer sacrifices during one or more annual festivals, and let their land lie fallow in the sabbatical years, when cultivation was prohibited.
Galilee in particular was relatively prosperous, since the land and climate permitted abundant harvests and supported many sheep. Although it is doubtful that Galilee was as affluent in the 1st century as it was during the late Roman and Byzantine periods, archaeological remains from the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries nevertheless confirm the plausibility of 1st-century references to the region's prosperity.
There were, of course, landless people, but the Herodian dynasty was careful to organize large public works projects that employed thousands of men. Desperate poverty was present, too, but never reached a socially dangerous level.
At the other end of the economic spectrum, few if any Palestinian Jews had the vast fortunes that successful merchants in port cities could accumulate; however, there were Jewish aristocrats with large estates and grand houses, and the merchants who served the Temple (supplying, for example, incense and fabric) could become very prosperous.
The gap between rich and poor in Palestine was obvious and distressing to the poor, but compared with that of the rest of the world it was not especially wide.
The Jewish religion in the 1st century
Judaism, as the Jewish religion came to be known in the 1st century AD, was based on ancient Israelite religion, shorn of many of its Canaanite characteristics but with the addition of important features from Babylonia and Persia.
The Jews differed from other people in the ancient world because they believed that there was only one God. Like other people, they worshiped their God with animal sacrifices offered at a temple; unlike others, they had only one temple, which was in Jerusalem. The sanctuary of the Jewish temple had two rooms, as did many of the other temples in the ancient world, but the second room of the Jewish temple was empty. There was no idol representing of the God of Israel.
The Jews also believed that they had been specially chosen by the one God of the universe to serve him and obey his laws. Although set apart from other people, they believed God called on them to be a “light to the Gentiles” and lead them to accept the God of Israel as the only God.
An important part of Jewish Scripture was theTorah, or Pentateuch, comprising five books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) that were believed to have been given to Moses by God. For Jews and their spiritual descendants, these books contain God's law,
which covers many aspects of ordinary life:
it requires that males be circumcised; regulates diet; mandates days of rest for humans and animals alike (Sabbaths and festival days); requires pilgrimage and sacrifice; stipulates recompense and atonement following transgression; and specifies impurities and required purification before entry to the Temple.
Moreover, it provides both rules and principles for the treatment of other people: for example, calling for the use of honest weights and measures in trade and for “love” (that is, upright treatment) of both fellow Jews and foreigners (Leviticus 19).
The laws governing worship (sacrifice, purification, admission to the Temple, and the like) were similar to the religious laws of other people in the ancient world.
Judaism was different because in most other cultures divine law covered only such topics, but in Judaism it regulated not only worship but also daily life and made every aspect of life a matter of divine concern.
Since both faith and practice were based firmly on the five books of Moses modified slightly over time, they were shared by Jews all over the world, from Mesopotamia to Italy and beyond. The common features of Jewish faith and practice are reflected in the decrees from various parts of the ancient world that allowed Jews to preserve their own traditions, including monotheism, rest and assembly on the Sabbath, support of the Temple, and dietary laws.
There were, naturally, variations on each main theme. In Jewish Palestine, for example, there were three small but important religious parties that differed from each other in several ways: the Pharisees (numbering about 6,000 at the time of Herod), Essenes (about 4,000), and Sadducees (“a few men,” according to Flavius Josephus, in The Antiquities of the Jews 18.17).
A largely lay group that had the reputation of being the most precise interpreters of the law,
the Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead. They also relied on the nonbiblical “traditions of the fathers,” some of which made the law stricter, while others relaxed it.
The Essenes were a more radical sect, with extremely strict rules. one branch of the group lived at Qumran on the shores of the Dead Sea and produced the Dead Sea Scrolls. At some point in their history the Essenes were probably a priestly sect (the Zadokite priests are major figures in some of the documents from Qumran); however, the composition of their membership at the time of Jesus is unclear.
Many aristocratic priests, as well as some prominent laymen, were Sadducees. They rejected the Pharisaic “traditions of the fathers” and maintained some old-fashioned theological opinions; most famously, they denied resurrection, which had recently entered Jewish thought from Persia and which was accepted by most Jews in the 1st century.
Most Jews based their faith and practice on the five books of Moses (slightly modified by the passage of time) and rejected the extreme positions of the three parties.
The Pharisees were respected for their piety and learning, and they may have exercised substantial influence on belief and practice.
The Essenes were a fringe group, and those who lived at Qumran had dropped out of mainstream Judaism. Their interpretation of the Bible led them to reject the priests and the Temple as they existed in Jerusalem, and they looked forward to the time when they could seize control of the Holy City.
To the degree that any of these parties had power, however, it belonged to the Sadducees. More precisely, the aristocratic priests and a few prominent laymen had power and authority in Jerusalem; of the aristocrats who belonged to one of the parties, most were Sadducees. According to the Acts of the Apostles (5:17), those who were around the high priest Caiaphas were Sadducees, which recalls the evidence of the Jewish priestly aristocrat, historian, and Pharisee Josephus.
While the vast majority of Jews did not belong to a party, the study of these parties reveals the substantial variety within the general framework of Judaism. Another indicator of this variety was the diversity of Jewish leaders; among them were charismatic healers and miracle workers, such as Honi the Circle Drawer and Hanina ben Dosa; hermitlike sages, such as Bannus; eschatological prophets, such as John the Baptist; would-be messianic prophets, such as Theudas and the Egyptian; and apocalyptic visionaries, represented by the pseudepigraphal First Book of Enoch.
Most Jews had some form of future hope; in general, they expected God to intervene in history and to restore Israel to a state of peace, freedom, and prosperity.
Not all Jews expected God to send a son of David as Messiah to overthrow the Romans, though some did.
The Qumran sect believed that there would be a great war against Rome, that the sect would emerge victorious, and that the main blows would be struck by the angel Michael and finally by God himself. Notably, a Messiah plays no role in this war of liberation.
Some Jews were ready at any moment to take up arms against Rome, thinking that if they started the fight God would intervene on their side. Others were quietists, hoping for divine deliverance without having a more specific vision of the future but entirely unwilling to fight.
Whatever their specific expectations, very few Palestinian Jews were completely satisfied with the governments of Antipas, Pilate, and Caiaphas.
As God's chosen people, the Jews felt they should be free both of foreign domination and of ambitious worldly leaders.
In the final analysis, variety and commonality are equally important to the understanding of Palestinian Judaism in Jesus' day. Jews agreed on many basic aspects of their religion and way of life, and they agreed that they did not want to surrender their covenant with God to accept the lure of pagan culture; but, when it came to details, they could disagree with one another violently. Since God cared about every aspect of life, competing groups and leaders often saw themselves as representing the side of God against his adversaries.
Sources for the life of Jesus
The only substantial sources for the life and message of Jesus are the Gospels of the New Testament, the earliest of which was Mark (written AD 60–80), followed by Matthew, Luke, and John (AD 75–90).
Some additional evidence can be found in the letters of Paul, which were written beginning in AD 50 and are the earliest surviving Christian texts.
There are, however, other sources that may have further information. Noncanonical sources, especially the apocryphal gospels, contain many sayings attributed to Jesus, as well as stories about him that are occasionally held to be “authentic.”
Among these apocrypha, the Gospel of Thomas (written in the mid-2nd century AD) has attracted much attention.
A “sayings” gospel (114 sayings attributed to Jesus, without narrative), it is grounded in Gnosticism, the philosophical and religious movement of the 2nd century AD that stressed the redemptive power of esoteric knowledge acquired by divine revelation.
For Thomas, salvation consists of self-knowledge, and baptism results in restoration to the primordial state—man and woman in one person, like Adam before the creation of Eve (saying 23). Spiritual reversion to this state meant that nakedness need not result in shame; one passage (saying 37) allows us to suspect that the early Christian followers of the Gospel of Thomas took off their garments and trampled on them as part of their baptismal initiation. There are a few connections between this worldview and that of Paul and the Gospel According to John, but the overall theology of the Gospel of Thomas is so far removed from the teaching of Jesus as found in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke—in which Jewish eschatology is central—that it is not considered a major source for the study of Jesus. It is, of course, possible or even likely that individual sayings in Thomas or other apocryphal gospels originated with Jesus, but it is unlikely that noncanonical sources can contribute much to the portrait of the historical Jesus.
As in the case of the Gospel of Thomas, the traditions found in other apocryphal gospels are often completely unlike the evidence of the canonical gospels and are embedded in documents that are generally believed to be unreliable.
There are a few references to Jesus in 1st-century Roman and Jewish sources. Documents indicate that within a few years of Jesus' death, Romans were aware that someone named Chrestus (a slight misspelling of Christus) had been responsible for disturbances in the Jewish community in Rome ( Suetonius, The Life of the Deified Claudius 25.4).
Twenty years later, according to Tacitus, Christians in Rome were prominent enough to be persecuted by Nero, and it was known that they were devoted to Christus, whom Pilate had executed (Annals 15.44). This knowledge of Jesus, however, was dependent on familiarity with early Christianity and does not provide independent evidence about Jesus.
Josephus wrote a paragraph about Jesus ( The Antiquities of the Jews 18.63ff.), as he did about Theudas, the Egyptian, and other charismatic leaders (History of the Jewish War 2.258–263; The Antiquities of the Jews 20.97–99, 167–172), but it has been heavily revised by Christian scribes, and Josephus's original remarks cannot be discerned.
The letters of Paul contain reliable but meager evidence. Their main theme, that Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead, is especially prominent in 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul evokes an early tradition about Jesus' death and subsequent appearances to his followers. The Crucifixion and Resurrection were accepted by all first-generation Christians. Paul also quotes a few of Jesus' sayings: the prohibition of divorce and remarriage (1 Corinthians 7:10–11), the words over the bread and cup at Jesus' last supper (1 Corinthians 11:23–25), and a prediction of the imminent arrival of the Saviour from heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:15–17).
Fuller information about Jesus is found in the Gospels of the New Testament, though these are not of equal value in reconstructing his life and teaching. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke agree so closely with one another that they can be studied together in parallel columns in a work called a synopsis and are hence called the Synoptic Gospels.
John, however, is so different that it cannot be reconciled with the Synoptics except in very general ways (e.g., Jesus lived in Palestine, taught, healed, was crucified and raised).
In the Synoptics, Jesus' public career appears to have lasted less than one year, since only one Passover is mentioned;
in John, three Passovers occur, implying a ministry of more than two years.
In all four Gospels, Jesus performs miracles, especially healings, but, while exorcisms are prevalent in the Synoptics, there are none in John.
The greatest differences, though, appear in the methods and content of Jesus' teaching.
In the Synoptic Gospels, he speaks about the kingdom of God in short aphorisms and parables, making use of similes and figures of speech, many drawn from agricultural and village life. He seldom refers to himself, and, when asked for a “sign” to prove his authority, he refuses (Mark 8:11–12).
In John, on the other hand, Jesus employs long metaphorical discourses, in which he himself is the main subject. His miracles are described as “signs” that support the authenticity of his claims.
Scholars have unanimously chosen the Synoptic Gospels' version of Jesus' teaching. The verdict on the miracles is the same, though less firmly held: in all probability Jesus was known as an exorcist, which resulted in the charge that he cast out demons by the prince of demons (Mark 3:22–27). The choice between the narrative outline of the Synoptics and that of John is less clear. Besides presenting a longer ministry than do the other Gospels, John also describes several trips to Jerusalem. only one is mentioned in the Synoptics. Both outlines are plausible, but a ministry of more than two years leaves more questions unanswered than does one of a few months.
It is generally accepted that Jesus and his disciples were itinerant; that they traveled around Galilee and its immediate environs; and that Jesus taught and healed in various towns and villages, as well as in the countryside and on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. But where did they spend their winters? Who supported them? None of the Gospels explains how they lived (though Luke 8:1–3 alludes to some female supporters), but the omission is even more glaring in John, where the longer ministry presumes the need for winter quarters, though none are mentioned. This and other considerations are not decisive, but the brief career of the Synoptic Gospels is slightly to be preferred.
The Synoptic Gospels, then, are the primary sources for knowledge of the historical Jesus. They are not, however, the equivalent of an academic biography of a recent historical figure; instead, the Synoptic Gospels are theological documents that provide information the authors regarded as necessary for the religious development of the Christian communities in which they worked. The details of Jesus' daily life are almost entirely lacking, as are such important features as his education, travel, and other developmental experiences. The characters on the whole are “flat”: emotions, motives, and personalities are seldom mentioned. There are, nevertheless, a few exceptions that show how little is actually known. Peter wavers (Matthew 14:28–31; Mark 14:66–72); James and John ask for preferential treatment in the coming kingdom (Mark 10:35–40); and Pilate anguishes over the decision to execute Jesus (Matthew 27:15–23; Luke 23:2–25). on the other hand, the Pharisees and scribes periodically challenge Jesus and then disappear, with little indication of what, from their point of view, they hoped to accomplish. Even Jesus is a rather flat character in the Gospels. He is sometimes angry and sometimes compassionate (Mark 3:5; 6:34, respectively), but one can say little more. This is a frustrating aspect of the Gospels. The situation is different with regard to Paul, whose letters are extant and self-revelatory. The force of his personality is in the letters, but the force of Jesus' personality must be found somewhere behind the Gospels.
The Gospels comprise brief, self-contained passages, or pericopēs (from the Greek word meaning “cut around”), relating to Jesus.
Further study reveals that the authors of the Synoptic Gospels moved these pericopes around, altering their contexts to suit their own editorial policies—for example, by arranging the pericopes according to subject matter. In chapters 8 and 9, Matthew collects 10 healing pericopes, with a few other passages interspersed. Mark and Luke contain most of these passages, but their arrangements are different. Table 1 delineates the Synoptics' accounts of 10 of Jesus' healings. Matthew put all of these healings in one place; Mark and Luke scattered them, but in different ways. Since the authors of the Gospels rearranged the material to suit their own needs, it must be assumed that earlier Christian teachers had also organized stories about Jesus didactically. This means that the sequence of events in Jesus' ministry is unknown.
Moreover, the Evangelists and other early Christian teachers also shaped the material about Jesus. During the course of transmission, the factual narrative elements that surrounded each saying or event were stripped away, leaving only a central unit, which was applied to various situations by the addition of new introductions and conclusions.
For example, both Matthew and Luke relate the Parable of the Lost Sheep. In Matthew 18:12–14, the parable is told to the disciples, and the meaning is that they, like the shepherd, should go in search of the lost. In Luke 15:4–7, the same story is directed at the Pharisees, this time to instruct them not to grumble because Jesus has attracted repentant sinners. Both applications of the parable were useful homiletically, and therefore were preserved.
The context in which Jesus originally used the parable, however, is unknown.
Another example is the saying “love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44). Homiletically, it may be applied to numerous circumstances, which makes it very useful for sermons and teaching. Historically, however, it is not known to whom Jesus referred when he spoke these words.
The lack of firm knowledge of original context makes the precise interpretation of individual passages difficult.
Further, not all the sayings and deeds in the Synoptic Gospels are reports of things that Jesus actually said and did.
Believing that Jesus still lived in heaven, the early Christians spoke to him in prayer and sometimes he answered (2 Corinthians 12:8–9; cf. 1 Corinthians 2:13).
These early Christians did not distinguish between “the historical Jesus” and “the heavenly Lord” as firmly as most modern people do, and some sayings heard in prayer almost certainly ended up in the Gospels as sayings uttered by Jesus during his lifetime.
Since both the original context of Jesus' sayings and deeds and those passages in the Gospels that go back to the historical Jesus are unknown, there are substantial difficulties in attempting to reconstruct the Jesus of history. Of these two difficulties, the lack of immediate context is the more serious. It must be admitted that, on many points, precision and nuance in describing the teaching and ministry of Jesus cannot be achieved.
There are, however, tests of authenticity that make it possible to acquire good general information about Jesus' teachings.
One of the most important of these is “multiple attestation”: a passage that appears in two or more independent sources is likely to be authentic.
A prime example is the prohibition of divorce, which appears in the letters of Paul and in two different forms in the Synoptic Gospels.
The short form, which is focused on remarriage after divorce, is found in Matthew 5:31–32 and Luke 16:18.
The long form, which is more absolute in prohibiting divorce, appears in Matthew 19:1–12 and Mark 10:1–12.
Paul's version (1 Corinthians 7:10–11) agrees most closely with the short form. Because of this excellent attestation,
it is almost indisputable that Jesus opposed divorce and especially remarriage after divorce, though study of the five passages does not reveal precisely what he said.
A second test is “against the grain of the Gospels”:
a passage that seems to be contrary to one of the main themes or views expressed in one or more Gospels is likely to be authentic because the early Christians were not likely to have created material with which they disagreed.
Matthew's depiction of John the Baptist is a good example.
The author apparently found it to be embarrassing that Jesus received John's baptism of repentance (why would Jesus have needed it?).
Thus, he has John protest against the baptism and claim that Jesus should instead baptize him (Matthew 3:13–17; this objection is not in Mark or Luke).
These verses in Matthew assume that John recognized Jesus as being greater than he, but Matthew later shows John, in prison, sending a message to ask Jesus whether he was “the one who is to come” (Matthew 11:2–6).
These passages make it virtually certain that John baptized Jesus and highly probable that John asked Jesus who he was. John's protest against baptizing Jesus appears to be Matthew's creation. In keeping these passages while, in effect, arguing against them, Matthew validates the authenticity of the tradition that John baptized Jesus and later enquired about his true identity.
These are only a few examples of tests that may confirm the authenticity of passages in the Gospels.
In many cases, however, the criteria do not apply: many passages neither meet nor fail the tests. Grouping passages into categories—probable, improbable, possible but unconfirmed—is a useful exercise but does not go very far toward determining a realistic portrayal of Jesus as a historical figure.
More is needed than just the minute study of the Gospels, though that is an essential task.
Main aspects of Jesus' teaching
The kingdom of God
While the Gospels agree that Jesus proclaimed the eschatological kingdom of God, they offer different versions of his view of that kingdom.
One is that the kingdom of God exists in heaven and that individuals may enter it upon death (Mark 9:47). Since God's power is in some respects omnipresent, Jesus may have seen “the kingdom,” in the sense of God's presence, as being especially evident in his own words and deeds.
The parable that the kingdom is like yeast that gradually leavens the entire loaf (Matthew 13:33) indicates that Jesus may have understood the kingdom of God to be beginning in the present.
These other ways of viewing the kingdom do not, however, dominate the teaching of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels.
Statements about the heavenly kingdom, or the kingdom as partially present on earth, do not negate the eschatological nature of Jesus' message.
The essence of his teaching is that the kingdom would come to earth in its full power and glory, at which time God's will would be done “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).
Jesus died before heaven came down to earth, and this, coupled with the Resurrection appearances, led his followers to expect him to return in the near future, ushering in the kingdom and ruling in God's stead.
Jesus himself apparently anticipated the arrival of a heavenly figure whom he called “the Son of Man,” who would come on clouds of glory and gather the elect.
The Hebrew Bible laid the foundation for this teaching in two ways.
First, several prophets expected “the day of the Lord,” when the wicked would be punished or destroyed and the good would be spared, though the emphasis was on punishment (Amos 5:12–20; Zephaniah 1; Joel 1:15; 2:1; Obadiah verse 15).
Second, Daniel 7 describes various kingdoms that are represented by four fantastic beasts, all of which are destroyed.
Then, according to Daniel, the Son of Man, representing the people of Israel, ascends to God and receives “dominion and glory and kingship” (Daniel 7:14), after which Israel is to reign supreme (7:27).
These passages seem to have led Jesus to depict the arrival of the Son of Man from heaven as initiating the coming judgment and the redemption of Israel.
The theme appears in numerous passages in the Synoptic Gospels (see Tables 2, 3, 4, and 5).
Paul's depiction of the coming kingdom also merits consideration (italics indicate the closest agreements with the passages in the Gospels):
For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the appearance of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a command, with the voice of an archangel, and with a trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air. (1 Thessalonians 4:15–17)
Paul changed “the Son of Man” to “the Lord.”
It is not known whether Jesus intended to refer to himself or to another figure when he used the term Son of Man in this context (he did refer to himself as a Son of Man in the sense of “a human being,” as in Matthew 8:20).
By Paul's time, however, Christians made no such distinction and interpreted the heavenly Son of Man as the risen Jesus.
Jesus' belief that the Son of Man would soon arrive to usher in the kingdom is confirmed as authentic by multiple attestation.
It is also “against the grain” of the Gospel According to Luke, since the author tended to downplay eschatology (e.g., Luke 17:21 and Acts, written by the same author).
Moreover, Paul, whose letters are earlier than the Gospels, thought that most people then living would still be alive at the time of Jesus' return, whereas the Synoptic Gospels state that “some standing here will not taste death.”
The change from “most” to “some” probably demonstrates that the expectation was beginning to fade when the Gospels were written.
Inclusion in the kingdom
Several passages indicate that following Jesus was highly desirable for those who wished to be included in the coming kingdom. Jesus called on some people to give up everything in order to follow him (Mark 1:16–20; 10:17–31) and promised that their reward would be great in heaven. It cannot be said, however, that Jesus viewed personal loyalty as a prerequisite for inclusion in the kingdom. Often he simply urged all to fix their attention on the kingdom, not on material possessions (Matthew 6:19–21; 6:25–34; Luke 12:13–21).
The majority of his teaching in the Synoptic Gospels is about God and the value of returning to him. Thus, in one parable the “prodigal son” returns to “the father,” presumably representing God (Luke 15:11–32).
Perhaps faith in God and treating other people with love (Matthew 25:34–40) would suffice for entry into the kingdom.
This seems to be indicated by the study of children, the childlike, the poor, the meek, the lowly, and the sinners, whom Jesus especially called and favoured. “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs” (Mark 10:14).
In the coming kingdom, moreover, the last would be first (Mark 10:31); those who held the chief positions in the present world would be demoted (Luke 14:7–11); those who gave up everything and followed Jesus would receive “a hundred-fold” (Mark 10:30); and sinners, exemplified by the customs officers and prostitutes, also would be included in the kingdom (Matthew 21:31).
The Beatitudes, drawn from the Sermon on the Mount, particularly stress Jesus' concern for the poor and the meek who will be blessed (Luke 6:20; Matthew 5:3–5). This emphasis probably rests in part on his sympathy for those of his own socioeconomic class or below it.
Significantly, Jesus and his disciples were not themselves from the very bottom of society.
His father worked with his hands, but he was not destitute, and some of Jesus' disciples were from families who owned fishing boats and houses (Mark 1:19, 29).
They were not rich, but they also were not day labourers, beggars, or homeless, all of whom were the focus of Jesus' sympathy.
His message had a social dimension in two respects. He thought that in the kingdom there would be social relationships, not a collection of disembodied spirits floating on the clouds.
He also believed that the disadvantaged of the present world would be in some sense or other advantaged in the new age (Matthew 5:3–11; Luke 6:20–23). It is possible that the promise of houses and lands in Matthew 19:29 and Mark 10:29–30 is metaphorical, but it is also possible that Jesus envisaged a future society in which property would still count, though it would be redistributed.
Jesus' appeal to sinners, according to Luke 5:32, meant that he called them to repent, but neither Matthew 9:13 nor Mark 2:17 mentions the word repentance. Most likely, Jesus' message was more radical than a simple call for repentance, a proposition with which everyone would have agreed. He wanted sinners to accept him and his message, and he promised inclusion in the kingdom if they did so. This acceptance doubtless included moral reformation, but Jesus probably did not mean that they had to conform precisely to the standards of righteous Jewish society, which demanded repayment of money or goods obtained dishonestly, the addition of one-fifth as a fine, and the presentation of a guilt-offering in the Temple (Leviticus 6:1–7). Instead, Jesus called people to follow him and to be like his disciples. He evidently expected more people to be like him (accepting sinners, loving even enemies) than to join the small band that followed him. Although Jesus specifically called several followers, he seems not to have viewed personal faith in and commitment to him as absolute necessities (though faith in him became the standard requirement of early Christianity).
Whether he made this particular requirement or not, Jesus certainly attached great importance to his own mission and person. The Christian preoccupation with titles (did he think that he was the Messiah, Son of God, heavenly Son of Man, son of David, or king?) obscures the issue. Jesus sometimes called himself the Son of Man, though perhaps not meaning the heavenly Son of Man, and according to two passages he indirectly accepted the epithets Messiah (or Christ) and Son of God (Matthew 16:16; Mark 14:61–62). In both cases, however, the parallel passages (Mark 8:29; Luke 9:20; 22:67–70; Matthew 26:63–64) are less strongly affirmative.
In any case, Jesus apparently did not make an issue of titles. He called people to follow him and to devote themselves entirely to God, not to accord him a particular appellation. If he was preoccupied with titles, the evidence is so scant that it cannot be known what those titles meant to him or others. If, however, this uncertain evidence is overlooked, a clearer picture of his self-conception emerges: Jesus thought that he was God's last emissary, that he and his disciples would rule in the coming kingdom, and that people who accepted his message would be included in it. He may also have believed that inclusion in the kingdom would be granted to those who loved their neighbours and were meek and lowly of heart.
The relation of Jesus' teaching to the Jewish law
Jewish law is the focus of many passages in the Gospels. According to one set, especially prominent in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7), Jesus admonished his followers to observe the law unwaveringly (Matthew 5:17–48).
According to another set, he did not adhere strictly to the law himself and even transgressed current opinions about some aspects of it, especially the Sabbath (e.g., Mark 3:1–5). It is conceivable that both were true, that he was extremely strict about marriage and divorce (Matthew 5:31–32; Mark 10:2–12) but less stringent about the Sabbath. The study of Jesus and the law is, like any other study of law, highly technical. In general, the legal disputes in the Gospels fall within the parameters of those of 1st-century Judaism. Some opposed minor healing on the Sabbath (such as Jesus is depicted as performing), but others permitted it. Similarly, the Sadducees regarded the Pharisees' observance of the Sabbath as too lax. There also were many disagreements in 1st-century Judaism about purity. While some Jews washed their hands before eating (Mark 7:5), others did not; however, this conflict was not nearly as serious as that between the Shammaites and the Hillelites (the two main parties within Pharisaism) over menstrual purity. It is noteworthy that Jesus did not oppose the purity laws. on the contrary, according to Mark 1:40–44, he accepted the Mosaic laws on the purification of lepers (Leviticus 14).
In one statement in the Gospels, however, Jesus apparently opposed Jewish law as universally understood. Jews agreed not to eat carnivores, rodents, insects, and weasels, as well as pork and shellfish (Leviticus 11; Deuteronomy 14), and the last two prohibitions set them apart from other people. According to Mark 7:19, Jesus “declared all foods clean.” If he did so, Jesus directly opposed the law of God as given to Moses. This seems to be only Mark's inference, however, and is not in the parallel passage in Matthew 15. More importantly, Peter seems to have first learned of this after Jesus' death, by means of a heavenly revelation (Acts 10:9–16). Perhaps Jesus did not, then, directly oppose any aspect of the sacred law.
He probably did, however, have legal disputes in which he defended himself by quoting scriptural precedent, which implies that he did not set himself against the law (Mark 2:23–28). His willingness to make his own decisions regarding the law was probably viewed with suspicion. Ordinarily, legal debates were between competing camps or schools, and individuals who decided how to observe lawswere deemed troublemakers. That is, Jesus was autonomous; he interpreted the law according to his own rules and decided how to defend himself when criticized. He was by no means the only person in ancient Judaism who struck out on his own, acting in accord with his own perception of God's will, and so he was not uniquely troubling in this respect, but such behaviour might nevertheless be suspicious.
Ethics
Along with his teachings on the kingdom and the law, Jesus advocated ethical purity. He demanded complete devotion to God, putting it ahead of devotion to self and even to family (Mark 3:31–35; Matthew 10:35–37), and taught that people should give up everything in order to obtain what was most precious (Matthew 13:44–46). According to Matthew 5:21–26 and 5:27–30, Jesus also held that observance of the law should be not only external but internal: hatred and lust, as well as murder and adultery, are wrong. The Jesus of Matthew in particular is a moral perfectionist (5:17–48). This fits quite well with the proclamation of the eschatological kingdom of God because Jesus believed, as fellow moral perfectionist Paul did, that divine intervention was near at hand, and therefore people had to be “blameless” for only a short time (1 Thessalonians 5:23). The difficulty with perfectionism in a continuing society is evident in later traditions regarding divorce. Paul quoted Jesus' prohibition of it butthen proceeded to make an exception—that if a Christian was married to an unbeliever, and the unbeliever wished a divorce, the Christian should agree to it—which he explicitly said was his own opinion, not the Lord's (1 Corinthians 7:10–16). Similarly, Matthew depicts the disciples as responding toJesus' prohibition by proposing that if divorce is impossible it is better to avoid marriage (Matthew 19:10). The impossibility of being perfect during a full lifetime leads some modern interpreters to propose that Jesus intended these admonitions to be only an ideal, not a requirement. It is more likely, however, that Jesus the eschatological prophet regarded perfection as quite possible during the short period before the arrival of the Son of Man.
Miracles
A prophet and teacher of ethics, Jesus was also a healer and miracle worker. In the 1st century, healers and miracle workers were fairly well known, though not precisely common, and were not considered to be superhuman beings. Jesus himself granted that others were capable of performing miracles, such as exorcisms, regardless of whether they followed him (Matthew 12:27; Mark 9:38–41; 6:7). Thus, the significance of this very important aspect of his life is frequently misunderstood. In Jesus' time, it was accepted that people could heal and perform nature miracles, such as causing rain. The question was, by what power, or spirit, they did so. Some of Jesus' opponents accused him of casting out demons by the prince of demons (Mark 3:19–22; Matthew 12:24; Luke 11:15). He countered that he did so by the spirit of God (Matthew 12:28; Luke 11:20). Obviously, many people disagreed, but this was the issue in Jesus' lifetime—not whether he, like a few others, could perform miracles, but by what power he did so. In his own day, miracles were proof neither of divinity nor of messiahship, and, at most, they might be used to validate an individual's message or way of life.
Controversy and danger in Galilee
Crowds and autonomy
Jesus' reputation as healer had one very important historical consequence: he attracted crowds, as the early chapters of Mark (e.g., 1:28, 45; 2:2) reveal. By doing so Jesus could spread his message to more people, but he also ran the risk of attracting those whose interest in him was purely selfish and who came hoping for cures only. Moreover, crowds were politically dangerous. one of the reasons Herod Antipas executed John the Baptist was because he drew such large crowds that Antipas feared an uprising (Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews 18.116–119).
Although Jesus' message was not necessarily socially dangerous, the revolutionary implications of its promise of future reversal of status may have made some a little uneasy, and Jesus' promise to sinners might have been irritating to the scrupulous. Still, without crowds these aspects of his message would not have mattered very much. He did not strike at the heart of the Jewish religion as such: he did not deny the election of Abraham and the requirement of circumcision; nor did he denounce Moses and thelaw. Nevertheless, during his Galilean ministry some people regarded him with hostility and suspicion, partly because of the crowds and partly because of his autonomy. It was impossible to know what someone who was autonomous might do next, and this could be dangerous, especially if he had a following.
Scribes and Pharisees
In the 1st century, scribes and Pharisees were two largely distinct groups, though presumably some scribes were Pharisees. Scribes had knowledge of the law and could draft legal documents (contracts formarriage, divorce, loans, inheritance, mortgages, the sale of land, and the like). Every village had at leastone scribe. Pharisees were members of a party that believed in resurrection and in following legal traditions that were ascribed not to the Bible but to “the traditions of the fathers.” Like the scribes, they were also well-known legal experts: hence the partial overlap of membership of the two groups. It appears from subsequent rabbinic traditions, however, that most Pharisees were small landowners and traders, not professional scribes.
In Mark's view, Jesus' main adversaries in Galilee were scribes, but, according to Matthew, they were Pharisees. These apparently conflicting views are readily reconciled: men knowledgeable about Jewish law and tradition would have scrutinized Jesus carefully, and it is likely that both scribes and Pharisees challenged his behaviour and teaching, as the Gospels indicate (e.g., Mark 2:6, 16; 3:22; Matthew 9:11; 12:2). According to one passage, the Pharisees (along with the Herodians, Mark adds) planned to destroy Jesus (Matthew 12:14; Mark 3:6). If the report of this plot is accurate, however, it seems that nothing came of it, since the Pharisees did not play a significant role in the events that led to Jesus' death. Mark and Luke assign them no role, while Matthew mentions them only once (Matthew 27:62).
Some people in Galilee may have distrusted Jesus, and legal experts probably challenged his interpretation of the law, but he was never charged formally with a serious legal offense, and opposition in Galilee did not lead to his death. Mortal danger faced Jesus only after he went to Jerusalem for what turned out to be the last time.
Jesus' last week
In about the year AD 30, Jesus and his disciples went to Jerusalem from Galilee to observe Passover. Presumably they went a week early, as did tens of thousands of other Jews (perhaps as many as 200,000or 300,000), in order to be cleansed of “corpse-impurity,” in accordance with Numbers 9:10–12 and 19:1–22. The Gospels do not mention purification, but they do place Jesus near the Temple in the days preceding Passover. He entered Jerusalem on a donkey, perhaps intending to recall Zechariah 9:9, which Matthew (21:5) quotes: “your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey.” This touched off a demonstration by his followers, who hailed Jesus as either “Son of David” (Matthew 21:9) or as “the one who comes in the name of the Lord” (Mark 11:9). Matthew speaks of “crowds,” which suggests that many people were involved, but the demonstration was probably fairly small. Jerusalem atPassover was dangerous; it was well known to both Caiaphas, who governed the city, and Pilate, the prefect to whom the high priest was responsible, that the festivals were likely times of uprisings. Pilate's troops patrolled the roofs of the porticoes of the Temple. A large demonstration would probably have led to Jesus' immediate arrest, but, because he lived for several more days, it is likely that the crowd was relatively small.
Jesus spent some time teaching and debating (Mark 12) and also told his disciples that the Temple would be destroyed (Mark 13:1–2). on one of the days of purification prior to the Passover sacrifice and meal, he performed his most dramatic symbolic action. He entered the part of the temple precincts where worshipers exchanged coins to pay the annual temple tax of two drachmas or bought pigeons to sacrifice for inadvertent transgressions of the law and as purificatory offerings after childbirth. Jesus turned over some of the tables (Mark 11:15–17), which led “the chief priests and the scribes” (“and the principal menof the people,” Luke adds) to plan to have him executed (Mark 11:18; Luke 19:47; cf. Mark 14:1–2).
Later, the disciples found a room for the Passover meal, and one of them bought an animal and sacrificed it in the Temple (Mark 14:12–16; verse 16 states simply, “they prepared the passover”). Judas Iscariot, however, one of the 12, betrayed Jesus to the authorities. At the meal, Jesus blessed the bread and wine, designating the bread “my body” and the wine “my blood of the covenant” (Mark 14:22–25) or “the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20 and 1 Corinthians 11:25). He also stated that he would not drink wine again until he drank it with the disciples in the kingdom (Matthew 26:29).
After supper, Jesus took his disciples to the Mount of Olives to pray. While he was there, Judas led armed men sent by the chief priests to arrest him (Mark 14:43–52). They took Jesus to Caiaphas, who had gathered some of his councillors (called collectively the Sanhedrin). Jesus was first accused of threatening to destroy the Temple, but this charge was not substantiated. Caiaphas then askedhim if he was “the Christ, the Son of God.” According to Mark (14:61–62), Jesus said “yes” and then predicted the arrival of the Son of Man. According to Matthew (26:63–64), he said, “You say so, but [emphasis added] I tell you that you will see the Son of Man,” apparently implying the answer was no. According to Luke he was more ambiguous: “If I tell you, you will not believe” and “You say that I am” (22:67–70). (Some scholars believe that the New International Version misrepresents Jesus' answer in Matthew and Luke.)
Whatever the answer, Caiaphas evidently had already decided that Jesus had to die. He cried “blasphemy” and rent his own garments, a dramatic sign of mourning that the Hebrew Bible prohibits the high priest from making (Leviticus 21:10). The gesture was effective, and the councillors agreed that Jesus should be sent to Pilate with the recommendation to execute him.
It is doubtful that the titles Messiah and Son of God were actually the issue because there was no set meaning for either in 1st-century Judaism. As Mark, reprised by Matthew and Luke, presents the scene, when the attempt to have Jesus executed for threatening the Temple failed, Caiaphas simply declared whatever Jesus said (about which we must remain uncertain) to be blasphemy. This may be what convinced the council to recommend Jesus' execution. It appears, however, that the charges against Jesus that Caiaphas transmitted to Pilate (Mark 15:1–2, 26) may have included the accusation that Jesus claimed to be “king of the Jews.”
Although Pilate did not care about the fine points of Jewish law or Jesus' alleged blasphemy, most likely he saw Jesus as a potential troublemaker and therefore ordered his execution. The Gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John ascribe a rather good character to Pilate and show him as troubled over the decision but yielding to Jewish insistence (Matthew 27:11–26; Luke 21:1–25; John 18:28–40). In Luke, for example, Pilate states three times that he finds no fault with Jesus. This passage suggests that the early church, faced with making its way in the Roman Empire, did not wish its leader to be thought of as being truly guilty in Roman eyes. From other evidence Pilate is known to have been callous, cruel, and given to wanton executions (Philo, on the Embassy to Gaius, 300–302). He was finally dismissed from office for executing a group of Samaritans (Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, 18.85–89), and he probably sent Jesus to his death without anguishing over the decision.
Crucified as would-be “king of the Jews” (Mark 15:26 and parallels Matthew 27:37; Luke 23:38; John 19:19), Jesus also was taunted on the cross as the one who would destroy and rebuild the Temple (Mark 15:29). These two charges help to explain the decision to execute him. Jesus' minor assault on the Temple and prediction of its destruction seem to be what led to his arrest. His own thinking was almost certainly that God would destroy the Temple as part of the new kingdom, perhaps rebuilding it himself (Mark 14:58). The Temple Scroll from Qumran has a similar expectation. Caiaphas and his advisers probably understood Jesus well enough: they knew that he was a prophet, not a demolition expert, and that his disciples could not damage the Temple seriously even if they were allowedto attack its walls with picks and sledges. But someone who spoke about the Temple's destruction, and who turned over tables in its precincts, was clearly dangerous. These were inflammatory acts in a city that, at festival time, was prone to uprisings that could lead to the death of many thousands of Jews. Caiaphas probably had the thought that John 11:50 attributes to him, that “it is better to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” The high priest, under Roman rule, was responsible for keeping the peace, and he and his advisers acted accordingly.
The accusation that Jesus claimed to be “king of the Jews” was also sufficient to account for his execution. There is no direct evidence that Jesus ever said, “I am the king,” but his preaching on “the kingdom of God” was inflammatory. This phrase could have been interpreted several ways, but it certainly did not mean that Rome would continue to govern Judaea. Many people resented Roman rule, and Rome was quick to dispatch those who became too vocal in their opposition. Nevertheless, Pilate did not think that Jesus and his followers constituted a military threat. Had he thought so, he would have had the disciples, too, executed, either at the time or when they returned to Jerusalem to take up their new mission. Instead, the prefect limited his actions to their charismatic leader and turned Jesus over to his soldiers for execution. They took him and two thieves outside Jerusalem and crucified them.
Although Caiaphas did not think that Jesus could actually destroy the Temple, and Pilate did not believe that he could organize a serious revolt, inflammatory speech was a problem. Moreover, Jesus had a following, the city was packed with pilgrims who were celebrating the exodus from Egypt and Israel's liberation from foreign bondage, and Jesus had committed a small act of violence in thesacred precincts. He was dangerous, and his execution is perfectly understandable in this historical context; that is, he was executed for being what he was, an eschatological prophet. Caiaphas and his councillors fulfilled their mandate to keep the peace and suppress any signs of an uprising. Pilate presumably acted from similar motives. It is unlikely that the responsible parties lost much sleep over their decision; they were doing their duty.
Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom and his apparent threats against the Temple were based on his view that the kingdom was at hand and that he and his disciples would soon feast in it. It is possible that even to the end he expected divine intervention because among his last words was the cry “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34).
The Resurrection
What happened next changed history in a way quite different from what Jesus seems to have anticipated. Some of his followers claimed to have seen him after his death. The details are uncertain, since the sources disagree on who saw him and where he was seen (the final sections of Matthew, Luke, and John; the beginning of Acts; and the list in Paul's first Letter to the Corinthians, 15:5–8). According to Matthew, an angel showed the empty tomb to Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary” and instructed them to tell the disciples to go to Galilee. While still in Jerusalem, the two Marys saw Jesus, who told them the same thing, and he appeared once more, to the disciples in Galilee. Matthew's account is implied in Mark 14:28 and 16:7, though the Gospel of Mark does not have a resurrection story, ending instead with the empty tomb (Mark 16:8; translations print scribal additions in brackets). According to Luke, however, while the disciples remained in Jerusalem, the women (Mary Magdalene; Joanna; Mary, the mother of James; and “the other women”) found the empty tomb. “Two men in dazzling clothes” told them that Jesushad been raised. Later, Jesus appeared to two followers on the road to Emmaus (near Jerusalem), then to Peter, and later to the disciples. John (now including chapter 21, usually thought to be an appendix) mentions sightings in Galilee and Jerusalem. Acts provides a more extensive series of appearances than Luke, though written by the same author, but like it places all of these in or near Jerusalem. Paul's list of people to whom Jesus appeared does not agree very closely with the other accounts (1 Corinthians 15:5–8).
Because of the uncertain evidence it is hard to say what really happened. Two points are important: the sources describe the resurrected Jesus as neither a resuscitated corpse, a badly wounded man staggering around, nor as a ghost. According to Luke, the first two disciples to see Jesus walked with him for several hours without recognizing him (24:13–32). Luke also reports that Jesus could disappear and reappear at will (24:31, 36). For Paul, the bodies of Christian believers will be transformed to be like the Lord's, and the resurrection body will not be “flesh and blood” (1 Corinthians 15:42–53). According to these two authors, Jesus was substantially transformed, but he was not a ghost. Luke says this explicitly (24:37–39), and Paul insists on using the word body as part of the term spiritual body rather than spirit or ghost. Luke and Paul do not agree entirely, since Luke attributes “flesh and bones” to the risen Jesus (24:39). Luke's account nevertheless requires a transformation. The authors, in other words, were trying to explain something for which they did not have a precise vocabulary, as Paul's term spiritual body makes clear.
It is difficult to accuse these sources, or the first believers, of deliberate fraud. A plot to foster belief in the Resurrection would probably have resulted in a more consistent story. Instead, there seems to have been a competition: “I saw him,” “so did I,” “the women saw him first,” “no, I did; they didn't see him at all,” and so on. Moreover, some of the witnesses of the Resurrection would give their lives for their belief. This also makes fraud unlikely.
The uncertainties are substantial, but, given the accounts in these sources, certainty is unobtainable. We may say of the disciples' experiences of the Resurrection approximately what the sources allow us to say of the life and message of Jesus: we have fairly good general knowledge, though many details are uncertain or dubious.
E.P. Sanders
1200–50; ME < LL Iēsus < Gk Iēsoûs < Heb Yēshūaʿ, syncopated var. of Yəhōshūaʿ God is help; in Early Modern E, the distinction (lost in ME) between Jesus (nom.) and Jesu (obl., especially voc.; see Jesu ) was revived on the model of L and Gk sources; Jesus gradually supplanted the older form in both nom. and obl.
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