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 | According to the Gospel of John, Jesus has existed since the creation of the world. |
| According to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, he was conceived by a Jewish virgin and the Holy Spirit, circa 4 to 7 BCE, in Palestine. |
| All four gospels accurately describe his baptism, ministry, execution, resurrection, re-appearance to his followers, and ascent to heaven. |
Thus, there is no need to search for the historical Jesus. All the information one needs to know is already in the Bible. One merely needs to pick it up and read it. There are many apparent conflicts among biblical passages. However, all or almost all can be either harmonized or attributed to minor copyist errors. Those that cannot be harmonized will be done so in the future.
Liberal Christian beliefs:
Religious liberals tend to view the Bible very differently.
| They note that essentially all of the information about Jesus and his earthly ministry is contained in the gospels. Very little is seen in the various Epistles or in extra-biblical documents by contemporary historians. Paul, for example, rarely mentions Jesus' ministry. He appears to be unaware of such items as the virgin birth, the empty tomb and bodily resurrection. | ||||||||||||||||
| They conclude that many, perhaps most, of the statements and actions attributed to Jesus were never actually said or done by him. They are fictional accounts created by various primitive Christian movements in order the support their theological beliefs about Jesus. | ||||||||||||||||
| They do not view the gospels as biographies of Jesus. They regard them as theological writings, intended to bolster the faith of the early Christians. | ||||||||||||||||
| They interpret the Christian Scriptures (New Testament) as
containing a variety of material of varying accuracy -- including:
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| If one reads the Gospel of Q (an early gospel whose text is contained in Matthew and Luke) and then studies the four gospels in chronological order (Mark, Matthew, Luke and John), a pattern emerges. In the earliest writings, Jesus is clearly portrayed as an itinerate rabbi / teacher / philosopher / spiritual healer. The synoptic gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke), written circa 70 to 90 CE, show the gradual development of theology about Jesus. John, the last gospel, written circa 100 CE, presents Jesus as a divine being, the Son of God, who has been in existence since the creation of the universe. |
Enormous effort has been committed over the past two and a half centuries to discover the historical Jesus by stripping away the multiple layers of theological accretions added to the gospels in the hopes of glimpsing the actual Jesus. The "search" has accelerated in recent decades, partly due to:
| Recent findings by archaeologists. |
| The increased availability of information on the two dozen or so forms of Judaism during the 1st century CE. |
| The addition of skilled historians to the search. |
| Increased study of early Christian epistles and gospels that never made it into the official canon. |
| The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi library. |
Copyright © 2000 to 2004 by Ontario Consultants on Religious
Tolerance
Originally written: 2001-MAY-28
Latest update: 2004-OCT-31
Author: B.A. Robinson
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