Historical Jesus Criteria

From SteveWiki

Introduction

While studying the texts of the New Testament Gospels to look for examples of Jesus' life and teachings that illustrate the brahmaviharas, as part of the discipline for writing my book Four Minds, One Commandment, I encountered a problem that I had previously dismissed as being outside my concern. The problem is the question of the historicity of the four canonical Gospels--Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. This problem is but one issue of a larger problem: the quest for the Historical Jesus.

I had long dismissed the quest for the Historical Jesus as merely an academic problem, rooted primarily in idle curiosity. However, in order to provide credible examples of universal appeal to my readers--and, in a larger sense, to accomplish one of the major purposes of my book: to bring together people of diverse spiritual and faith traditions--I needed to address the issue of the authenticity of the New Testament Gospels so that I could determine more exactly what Jesus said and did, on the one hand, and what was likely a later theological tradition about Jesus that had developed later, on the other hand.

This is no small task because the New Testament Gospels were written decades after Jesus lived on the earth. Moreover, while these Gospels no doubt recount many facts about Jesus' life, and his words and deeds, they were not written primarily as historical accounts. The four New Testament Gospels are documents of faith and religion, addressed to diverse audiences, and written with a fairly easily discernible theological agenda.

None of these issues provides a reason to dismiss outright the usefulness of the Gospels in understanding the Historical Jesus. However, these issues do, or at least should, prompt us to examine the Gospel accounts critically so that we do not confuse Jesus' message with that of his followers' followers.

Because I believe that we can learn a great deal about Jesus from the New Testament Gospels, and because there is a fairly broad consensus about the importance of those Gospels to Christianity, I have developed my method and analysis on those four Gospels. If this fundamental assumption is incorrect, it is indeed a problem for my methodology. However, if it is a problem for my methodology, it is an even greater problem for Christianity at large.

Having decided to restrict my inquiry, at least for the time being, to the New Testament Gospels, I developed a set of criteria for analyzing the texts of those Gospels. In very general terms, my criteria seek to winnow the authentic from the inauthentic, the statements and acts that Jesus indeed said and did, versus the statements and deeds that Jesus most likely did not say or do.

These criteria are not arbitrary rules to govern my analysis. I explain each of the criteria in a manner that is reasonable given the totality of the content of the Gospels.

An important feature of my analysis is that one can replicate it using the gospel texts and my criteria. One may disagree with the inclusion of a particular criterion in the analysis; however, applying any of the criteria to the gospel texts should yield the same results I have reached. Indeed, my hypothesis is that these results can be replicated using any methodology that is sound and based on a critical examination of the contents of the texts in the context of the totality of the New Testament Gospels. For that reason, my analysis can participate in a dialogue with other approaches to the Historical Jesus and all of the approaches, if explored and compared with one another in good faith and intellectual honesty, can serve as error-correcting tools for the others.


General Limitations in My Study and Its Underlying Methodology

  • Sources: Limited to the four canonical gospels
    • Matthew
    • Mark
    • Luke
    • John
  • Text used: World English Bible
  • Focus: Statements and acts attributed directly to Jesus
  • Analysis:
    • Establish criteria
      • Outside scope
        • Statements
        • Acts
      • Authentic
        • Statements
        • Acts
      • Doubtful
        • Statements
        • Acts
    • Establish database of texts
      • Use harmony of the gospels for guidance and cross-references in establishing complexes of Jesus' statements and acts.
      • Enter World English Bible texts into database.
    • Apply criteria


Outside the Scope of My Study

  • Statement is not attributed directly to Jesus.
    • My study of the Historical Jesus is concerned only with the statements Jesus himself made. If a statement is not attributed directly to Jesus, then it falls outside the scope of my study. Perhaps the easiest examples of statements that satisfy this criterion are all the statements made in the infancy narratives found in Matthew's gospel and Luke's gospel. Because these two gospels do not claim that Jesus made any of the statements in the infancy narratives, all the statements contained in those narratives are necessarily outside the set of statements I am considering. It is important to remember that my exclusion of those statements from my consideration is definitely not an assessment of those statements' historicity or of the truth of their contents.
  • Action is not attributed directly to Jesus.


Authentic

  • Statement is attributed directly to Jesus.

If a gospel text attributes a statement to Jesus, that attribution tells us something about the statement. First, it says that the author of the gospel wanted the reader to think that Jesus had made the statement in question.


  • Statement comports with at least one of the Two Greatest Commandments of loving God with all of one's being and loving one's neighbor as oneself.


  • Statement is kind and compassionate.


  • Statement promises salvation.


  • Statement purports to teach about the Kingdom of God.


  • Statement illustrates that any sin can be forgiven.


  • Statement agrees with other, comparable statements attributed to Jesus.


  • Statement emphasizes inclusion of people.


  • Statement is consistent with Jewish Law or tradition.


  • Statement uses a figure of speech whose elements are internally consistent with one another.


  • Action is attributed directly to Jesus.


  • Action comports with at least one of the Two Greatest Commandments of loving God with all of one's being and loving one's neighbor as oneself.


  • Action gives life in a compassionate way.


Doubtful

Introductory note

When considering the criteria I list in this section, please remember that I am definitely not saying that Jesus did not say or do something. Instead, I am saying that there is some reason to question the historical accuracy of a particular statement or act attributed to Jesus, according to reason and relative to the entire text of each of the four canonical gospels. Of course, reasonable minds can differ as to the conclusions they reach by applying these criteria of relative doubtfulness. My goal is to encourage a thoughtful and critical--some might even argue prayerful--reading of the Gospels in order to see deeply into the human life Jesus lived on earth.

I am not discouraging faith, nor am I sowing seeds of uncertainty in the minds of believers. Instead, I invite my readers to experience a more authentic and genuine faith and relationship with Jesus, founded upon a deeper and more complete understanding of the gospels.

  • Statement does not comport with either of the Two Greatest Commandments of loving God with all of one's being and loving one's neighbor as oneself.


  • Statement is harsh or judgmental, and cannot be explained as any of the following:
    • An immediate test of the hearer's faith;
    • An immediate challenge to the hearer to "wake up" and see reality clearly;
    • An expression of Jesus' sense of humor.


  • Statement threatens eternal damnation.


  • Statement claims that some sins cannot be forgiven.


  • Statement contradicts other, comparable statements attributed to Jesus.


  • Statement emphasizes exclusion of people.


  • Statement condemns persons, places, or things.


  • Statement disparages persons, places, or things.


  • Statement criticizes Jews.


  • Statement criticizes Pharisees, teachers of the Law, chief priests, scribes, or other members of the Jewish community, except to the extent that such criticism can reasonably be interpreted as the use of humor or rhetoric by Jesus.


  • Statement contradicts Jewish Law or tradition.



  • Statement is, taken by itself or in comparison with its parallels in the other canonical Gospels, designed to appeal to the audience of the first readers of the Gospel containing the statement, to the possible detriment of another person or group of persons.


  • Statement is factually implausible to a reasonable person reading the statement without a predetermined theological agenda.


  • Statement uses a figure of speech whose elements are internally inconsistent with one another.


  • Action does not comport with either of the Two Greatest Commandments of loving God with all of one's being and loving one's neighbor as oneself.


  • Action gives life in a miraculous way that is not compassionate.


  • Action takes away life.
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