Chapter 3: Tracing the Historical Life of Jesus ©Ave Maria Press.

Chapter 3:Chapter 3:Tracing the Historical Tracing the Historical

Life of Jesus Life of Jesus ©Ave Maria Press

One Solitary LifeOne Solitary LifeArguably, no

human being has ever affected the world as much as

Jesus Christ.•All areas and aspects of life and history

•People today who doubt that People today who doubt that Jesus ever existedJesus ever existed•Say that, after two thousand Say that, after two thousand years, we can have almost no years, we can have almost no reliable information about Jesus’ reliable information about Jesus’ life.life.

•Why is this a problem? •Because the value of Christianity depends on the historical reality of

Jesus Christ and the reliability of the Gospels.

Ancient Ancient Testimony Testimony About JesusAbout Jesus

Are there any historical sources

outside the Bible for Jesus’ existence ?

Since the Gospels clearly make

statements of faith about Jesus,

they are often rejected as

objective sources of information.

In fact, there In fact, there areare impartial impartial ancient sources that establish ancient sources that establish the historical reality of Jesus.the historical reality of Jesus.

Ancient historians like Tacitus, Josephus, Pliny the Younger,

Suetonius, and others, as well as texts such as the Babylonian Talmud

– many of which were actually opposed to Christianity – record

information that helps us conclude that Jesus was, indeed a real

person.

•Sources verify beliefs and Sources verify beliefs and traditions of the Christian traditions of the Christian community are consistent with community are consistent with historical reality. historical reality. •The writers of this material were The writers of this material were not Christians.not Christians.• Therefore, they lend credibility to Therefore, they lend credibility to the oral traditions handed down the oral traditions handed down within the Church.within the Church.

• Persecution of Christians was verified.Persecution of Christians was verified.•Some of the Roman emperors required Some of the Roman emperors required their subjects to worship them, and their subjects to worship them, and punished those who refused with torture punished those who refused with torture and death.and death.

• Temptation continues to try to lead us to sin. Whether it is money, pleasure, drugs, sex, popularity, or any other

attractive thing—we must resist those temptations and give only to God the

honor that belongs to him.

The The Gospels Gospels

and and the the

Historical Historical JesusJesus

It is from the writings of the

Four Evangelists that we receive the most useful

written information about Jesus.

The word The word gospelgospel means “good means “good news,” and the news,” and the evangelistsevangelists

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote the four versions of the wrote the four versions of the

story of Jesus that we have in the story of Jesus that we have in the New Testament.New Testament.

Gospels are NOT strict biographies, the Gospels present biographical information about Jesus combined

with the authors’ beliefs about the Son of God.

Tacitus

Suetonius

Pliny the Younger

Josephus

Lucian of Samosata

Celus

Babylonia Talmud

•Gospels present brief accounts Gospels present brief accounts of Jesus’ life of Jesus’ life • There is no extensive details There is no extensive details like in today’s biographieslike in today’s biographies

•The Gospels do not tell us much about Jesus’ youth or physical appearance. •They all focus on key events •One aspect of a person’s life that ancient biographies usually pay attention to is how a person died.

Certain aspects of the Gospels, however, are unique. Jesus

himself, is in the Gospels—

Because the Good News

proclaimed by the Evangelists IS Jesus Christ.

The process that brought The process that brought about the written Gospels about the written Gospels took place in three stages:took place in three stages:

1. The Historical Jesus (4-6 BC – AD 30-33)

2. Oral Tradition (AD 30-50)

3. New Testament Writings (AD 50 – ca. 120)

•The Jesus is identified by a few different “surnames.” •In the ancient world, people with the same first name were identified by things like where they came from, who their father was, or what they did for a living.

Jesus of Nazareth

Jesus, son of Joseph

Jesus the Carpenter

During the historical life of Jesus, his During the historical life of Jesus, his actions formed the basis for his actions formed the basis for his

disciples’ later proclamation about disciples’ later proclamation about him.him.Jesus’ early life was spent

in Galilee as the son of a humble carpenter.

During his public ministry, he traveled the countryside teaching, healing, and proclaiming God’s Kingdom.At the end of his public life, Jesus was arrested and crucified—only to rise again after three days.

•A.D., for Anno Domini, meaning “In the Year of Our Lord,” to designate years from the time of Christ’s birth onward.

•B.C., meaning “Before Christ,” came to refer to any year thought to be before the birth of Christ.

•After Jesus’ death, the apostles After Jesus’ death, the apostles obeyed Jesus’ command to go out obeyed Jesus’ command to go out to all the world and spread the to all the world and spread the Good News.Good News.

Approaching their audience as people who did not yet possess faith in Christ, the apostles preached an outline of basic truths about Jesus called the kerygma.

•Apostles put together an oral set of essential teachings about Jesus known as the didache, which means “teaching.”

Over the next twenty years, the Over the next twenty years, the apostles obeyed Jesus’ command apostles obeyed Jesus’ command

to go out to all the world and to go out to all the world and spread the Good News.spread the Good News.

•Early Christians also came to reflect their beliefs about Jesus in public worship, or the liturgy. •Celebration of the Eucharist came to be the focal point of the early Church’s worship.

The final stage in the The final stage in the development of proclaiming the development of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ was Good News of Jesus Christ was the actual writing of the New the actual writing of the New

Testament.Testament.Three things caused the early Christians to finally commit the

Good News to writing:

1. The End of the World did not come as soon as they had first expected it to.

2. Distortions to the apostles’ message needed to be addressed and clarified.

3. Early Christians realized that people needed to be instructed about the faith, and written Gospels provided a good teaching tool.

The final stage in the The final stage in the development of proclaiming the development of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ was Good News of Jesus Christ was the actual writing of the New the actual writing of the New

Testament.Testament.

The earliest New Testament

writings are the letters of St. Paul.

The final stage in the The final stage in the development of proclaiming the development of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ was Good News of Jesus Christ was the actual writing of the New the actual writing of the New

Testament.Testament.Next came the four canonical

Gospels.•Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were recognized as Scripture •They were connected to the apostles, •They had widespread acceptance in the early Church, reflected what the early Church truly believed about Jesus.

The final stage in the The final stage in the development of proclaiming the development of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ was Good News of Jesus Christ was the actual writing of the New the actual writing of the New

Testament.Testament.Writings about Jesus that

did not meet these requirements were called

apocryphal gospels, “Apocryphal” means

“hidden.”

An example is the Protoevangelium of James, which attempted to fill in some details about Jesus’ early life, but was neither

historically accurate nor true to Christian belief.

The final stage in the The final stage in the development of proclaiming the development of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ was Good News of Jesus Christ was the actual writing of the New the actual writing of the New

Testament.Testament.Certain writings in early Christianity reflected various heresies, or

false beliefs.One such belief was Gnosticism, which

claimed that there is some secret knowledge

that is necessary for salvation.

The presence of heretical ideas is a reason that some books were not included in the Bible.

The four canonical Gospels The four canonical Gospels present different present different

perspectives, and address perspectives, and address their writings to different their writings to different

audiences.audiences.

John’s Gospel is different. It was the last one written and only

about 10% of the material in the Synoptics appears in John.

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are so similar, they are called the Synoptic Gospels. “Synoptic”

comes from the Greek word meaning “to see together.”

Each Gospel stands on its own, but all

four share the same Good News about Jesus Christ.

It is important torealize that the pictureof Jesus is incomplete

until you have allfour Gospels together.

Biblical “criticism” refers to the Biblical “criticism” refers to the analysis, judgment, and analysis, judgment, and

investigation of the written texts.investigation of the written texts.

Source Criticism tries to determine what sources the Gospel writers used to compose their works.

Form Criticism looks at the different literary forms used in the Gospels.

Redaction Criticism studies how the author edited his material for a particular audience.

Textual Criticism analyzes the Gospels by comparing various early texts of the same passages.

Historical Criticism uses our knowledge of ancient history, language, archaeology, etc. to determine the historical accuracy of the Biblical texts.

Through these various types of Through these various types of criticism of the Gospel texts, we criticism of the Gospel texts, we

can conclude that certain important can conclude that certain important concepts are original to Jesus.concepts are original to Jesus.

By “original,” scholars mean that Jesus was the first to convey these

ideas—that he did not borrow them from earlier thinkers or

teachers.

AbbaAbbaJesus was the first to invite us to refer to God with this Hebrew term that means “Daddy.”By this

invitation, he dramatically changed the way human

beings viewed God.

AmenAmen

Rather than using the word “Amen” at the end of a phrase to indicate assent with the previous statement, Jesus

used it as an introduction—

indicating that he spoke with unusual authority without

quoting some other teacher.

ParablesParablesJesus told stories that were unlike anything heard before or since.

They were memorable, unique,

and contained important insights

into the Kingdom of God. Their

existence proves that there was a

remarkable person who created them.

ConsistencyConsistency

•Everything Jesus said and did is also consistent with the larger picture that arises from the Gospels.

LoveLove

SacrificeSacrifice

ForgivenessForgivenessof Sinof Sin

Linguistic Linguistic Analysis Analysis

• By studying the language

Jesus used (Aramaic),

scholars have found a unique

and poetic quality to his

words.

Jesus was more than just another teacher.

The Church The Church and and

MartyrsMartyrsPeople who deny the historical existence

of Jesus have a difficult time

explaining how the Catholic Church came

to be.

The earliest disciples of Jesus The earliest disciples of Jesus were so convinced about his were so convinced about his

being the Son of God that being the Son of God that they gave up their lives to they gave up their lives to

proclaim him and his proclaim him and his message. Most of the message. Most of the

apostles died as apostles died as martyrsmartyrs..

People who do not truly believe what they are saying will not die

to defend a lie.

The martyrs of the early Church provide us a strong witness to the

truth of the Gospel.

•The martyrs of the Church had nothing to gain when they proclaimed Jesus as the Savior of the world.

•Nothing but Nothing but eternal life with eternal life with JesusJesus

Witness of the Martyrs