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To Mark,

"The problems always seem so much more interesting than the solutions."

Charlie 9/6/99

Reading: CWH ix-29

Supplemental Links and Reading

Reading: Fredriksen, "What You See is What You Get: Context and Content in Current Research on the Historical Jesus"

Supplemental Reading

Reading: "Texts and Tradition in Late Antiquity" (C&D 1-4); CWH 110-125

Supplemental Reading: Dunn, "Jesus in Oral Memory: The Initial Stages of the Jesus Tradition" [no longer online]

Supplemental Link: The Five Gospels Parallels

Reading: CWH 126-134

Reading: Hedrick, "The Four 34 Gospels: Diversity and Division Among the Earliest Christians." [no longer online]

Link: gospels.net

"History is a historian's construct" --Hedrick

Paper 1: Bios and Bias

Reading: Kirby, "Historical Jesus Theories"

Today we will survey a number of interesting recent Jesus books.  This survey will serve two purposes.  First, it will provide you with more examples of currently competing positions in Jesus scholarship and the scholars associated with them.  Second, it will introduce some of your options for a critical book review project.

Reading: CWH 30-35; Mark

Supplemental Reading: Review of Dennis R. MacDonald, The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark (Reviewer: Rabel)

Reading: CWH 35-39; Matthew

Reading: CWH 39-42; "Two Prefaces from Arrian" and "Isocrates" (C&D 119, 125-127); Luke

Reading: CWH 42-44; "Prefaces: The Sacred History of Asklepios" (C&D 121-124); John

Paper 2: Thomas

Reading: CWH 44-47; Thomas (C&D 19-29)

Link: The Gospel of Thomas Homepage

Closer Inspection and Evaluation

of Diverse Building Materials

Reading: CWH 48-53; SFG "Preface" and p. 1; "Preface" (C & D xi-xii); "Savior Gods in the Mediterranean World" (C&D 5-16)

Supplemental Reading: Given, "Exegesis of John 12:20-33", Lectionary Homiletics, (Spring '03).

Reading: CWH 53-63; SFG nos. 1-12 (pp. 1-11); "The Infancy Gospel of Thomas" (C&D 86-98); "Birth and Youth" (C&D 129-136)

Supplemental Reading: "The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew" and "A Latin Infancy Gospel" (C&D 91-98); "The Gospel of James" (C&D 101-110)

Supplemental Reading:

Chancey and Meyers, "How Jewish was Sepphoris in Jesus' Time?"

Given, "Exegesis of Phil 2:5-11", Lectionary Homiletics (Spring, '03)

"Ossuary (i.e., bone box) of 'James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus'"

Reading: CWH 63-66; SFG nos. 352-367 (pp. 325-338); "Gospel of Peter" (C&D 76-79); "Ascensions and Epiphanies" (C&D 185-200); Given, "Exegesis of John 20:19-31"

Position Paper 3: Comparative Construction Criticism

Reading: CWH 66-75

Reading: CWH 76-94

Links:

Three Gospel Synopsis (Don't read the whole thing.  Just test drive it.)

The Five Gospels Parallels (Don't read the whole thing.  Just test drive it.)

The Synoptic Problem

An outstanding resource.  Diagrams various proposed solutions and much more.

Supplemental Reading

Reading: CWH 95-109; "Q" using the link below.

Instructions: Since for reasons explained in CWH, many scholars think Luke is staying closer to the original order of the sayings, as you read Q see if you can discern any logical structure to it.  Try drawing brackets around sayings that seem to form a group based on a common theme and label the theme with a word or short phrase.  Also, reflect on the Jesus you see in Q.  Most readers agree that Q gives one a different impression of Jesus than Mark, but how different?  Is this really a substantially different Jesus than Mark's as some scholars argue?

Link: The Q Source based on Luke

Supplemental Reading

Paper 4: The Great Omission

Reading: Mark 14:48-52; 10:46; Fowler, "Identification of the Bethany Youth in the Secret Gospel of Mark with other Figures Found in Mark and John"

Instructions: Please read the brief assigned passages in Mark first. In the article you will read about some famous non-sequiturs and loose-ends in the narrative of the Gospel of Mark and how Secret Mark could provide solutions to these problems.  Some clues from John are also utilized. That's interesting since the other canonical gospel widely acknowledged to have several rough spots (often referred to as "literary seams") is John. See if you can detect a few of them by reading some verses and answering these questions:

1) Do the signs add up? (John 2:11, 23; 4:54).

2) Where in the world is Jerusalem Judea? (2:23; 3:22). CAUTION: In 3:22 some translations deliberately mistranslate the Greek word for "land" as "countryside" to avoid the problem.

3) Can you get there from here? (5:1; 6:1).

4) Huh? (13:36; 14:5; 16:5).

5) Going nowhere fast? (14:31; 15:1 - 17:26 [Just skim it quickly]; 18:1).

Supplemental Links

Building Codes III: Grading of Building Materials

Reading: CWH 135-152

Supplemental Links

Meet a Master Building Inspector!

The author of your textbook has agreed to an interview.  Your assignment  for today is to come up with at least two questions about the book that you'd most like to have answered.

Midterm Test (Study Guide)

Jesus the Undercover Messiah

Reading: Luke 24:25-27,44-49; Isaiah 1:1 - 2:4; 4:2-6; 6:1-13; 9:1-7; 10:20 - 11:16; 24:1 - 27:13; 32:1-4; 35:1-10

Instructions: First, read the introduction to Isaiah found in your Study Bible (either the required Oxford or HarperCollins).  Then try to understand these passages three ways as you read them. 1) Using the historical information provided by the introduction and the footnotes, think about what they might have meant in their original contexts to people living as many as eight centuries before Christ. 2) Think about what they might have meant to a Jew growing up in Nazareth under foreign domination. 3) Think about what they might have meant to followers of Jesus shortly after his death.  

Click here to see visions (of Isa 11).

Supplemental Reading:

Given, "Exegesis of Isaiah 25:6-9", Lectionary Homiletics, (Spring '03).

Witherington, "A Cracked Code"

Then the eyes of those who have sight will not be closed, and the ears of those who have hearing will listen.

 Isaiah 32:3

And [Jesus] said, "Let whoever has ears to hear listen!"

Mark 4:9

Reading: Isaiah 40:1-11; 41:1-16; 42:1 - 45:25; 48:1 - 56:12; 58:1-14; 59:21; 60:1 - 62:12; 66:1-24

Reading: 1 Cor 1:18 - 2:5; 15:1-11; Isaiah 52:13 - 54:10; Zechariah 7-14; SFG 269; 315-316; 341-361

Instructions: Before you read the passage from Zechariah, read the introduction to this book in your Study Bible (either the required Oxford or HarperCollins).  Then try to understand the passage three ways as you read. 1) Using the historical information provided by the introduction and the footnotes, think about what it might have meant in its original context to people living as many as four centuries before Christ. 2) Think about what it might have meant to a Jew growing up in Nazareth under foreign domination. 3) Think about what it might have meant to followers of Jesus shortly after his death.

Reading: Jeremiah 31:31-37; 32:36-41; Isaiah 42:1-9; 49:1-12; 52:13 - 54:10; 55:1-5; 61:1-11; Wisdom of Solomon 1:1 - 3:11; "Eleazar" (C&D 180-181); Dan 7; SFG 158-159; 164; 217; 262-263; 308, 311-313; 330; 1 Cor 5:7; 2 Cor 3:1-18; GThom 55, 58, 65-66, 68-69b; 86

Instructions: Before you read the passages from Jeremiah, Daniel and Wisdom, read the introductions to these books in your Study Bible (either the required Oxford or HarperCollins).  Then try to understand the passage three ways as you read: 1) Using the historical information provided by the introduction and the footnotes, think about what they might have meant in their original contexts to people living as many as two centuries before Christ. 2) Think about what they might have meant to a Jew growing up in Nazareth under foreign domination. 3) Think about what they might have meant to followers of Jesus shortly after his death.

Supplemental Reading: 1 Cor 11:23-26; Matt 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:19-20; "Sacraments" (C&D 165-169); "Martyrdom" (C&D 179-183); Keck, "Who is Jesus: History in the Perfect Tense" (Reviewer: Vinson)

Paper 5: Comparing the NT Gospels' Jesus to Pagan and Hellenistic Jewish Savior Gods

Reading: Philostratus, The Life of Apollonios' of Tyana (C&D 203-238) -or- Philo, The Life of Moses (C&D 247-283)

Supplemental Reading: Lucian, Alexander the False Prophet (C&D 284-89); 

By the Graces!  I wonder if Protagoras, who was all-wise, did not utter this enigma to the common mob like ourselves, but speak the truth in secret to his disciples.

Socrates (Plato, Theaetetus 152C)

This is how one should regard us: as assistants of Christ and administrators of God’s secret plans.

Paul (1 Cor 4:1)

Reading: 1 Cor 2:1 - 3:3; 2 Cor 12:1-4; SFG 18, Thomas 1, 5-6, 13, 17, 62, 92, 93, 96, 108; Context: Spirit Persons in many Cultures; Jesus as Mystic/Spirit Person; Smith, "William Wrede" (What did Wrede miss by treating the Messianic Secret mainly as a literary and theological concept?)

Supplemental Reading

Reading: Isa 66:5; SFG 99-104; 109; 112-113; 123-130, 181, 210; 177-179; 276; 326-328; C&D 145-148

"I saw Satan fall like lightning . . ."

Reading: The Miracles of Jesus; C&D 151-164; Online: Jesus as Healer; Tabor, The Signs of the Messiah- 4Q521

Instructions: The first link is provided because it lists all the miracles of Jesus.  The author includes lots of his own devotional commentary but I don't expect you to read that.  Just use the list to pick out a few miracles of different types, get the references, and then look them up in your Synopsis to read the reflect on them.  When they are found in more than one gospel, compare the accounts and see what significant differences you encounter.  If you have time you might look at the last link on the Miracles of Jesus page and read the first two sections, "The Effect of our Worldview" and "Five Views," to get a sense of the range of contemporary Christian attitudes towards miracles. 

Supplemental Links

His disciples said to him, "Twenty-four prophets spoke in Israel, and all of them spoke in you." He said to them, "You have omitted the one living in your presence and have spoken (only) of the dead."

GThom 52

Reading: Isaiah 1:10-23; 29:9-14; 56:1-12; 66:1-4; 65; SFG 34, 43- 44, 46-49; 150; 271-276; Online: Context: Social/Cultural World of Jesus; Jesus as Social Prophet; Jesus as Movement Founder; The Complexity of His Religious Identity; Jesus' Social Class

Supplemental Links

From a letter composed sometime between 73 (but more likely 135) and 165 C.E.:

What advantage did the Athenians gain from putting Socrates to death? Famine and plague came upon them as judgment for their crime. What advantage did the men of Samos gain from burning Pythagoras? In a moment their land was covered with sand. What advantage did the Jews gain from executing their wise King? It was just after that that their kingdom was abolished. God justly avenged these three wise men: the Athenians died of hunger; the Samians were overwhelmed by the sea; the Jews, ruined and driven from their land, live in complete dispersion. But Socrates did not die for good; he lived on in the teaching of Plato. Pythagoras did not die for good; he lived on in the statue of Hera. Nor did the wise King die for good; He lived on in the teaching which He had given.

Mara bar Serapion

Position Paper Makeup: Comparing the NT Gospels' Jesus to other Rabbis

Reading: Isa 58; SFG 50-83; 278; "Teachings" (C&D 137-149); Online: Jesus as Wisdom Teacher; Pelikan, "Jesus as Rabbi"; Pirke Aboth: Sayings of the Fathers

Supplemental Reading: Pirke Aboth Study Guide

"Listen to me . . ." (Mark 7:14)

"Listen to me . . ." (Isa 49:1)

Reading: SFG nos. 75, 122-134, 169, 173, 183, 200, 207, 209-210, 216-222, 228, 236, 256, 266, 277-279, 296-300

Instructions: The categories interpreters of the parables create to classify the parables reveal as much or more about the interpreters than the parables themselves.  As you read each of the parables try to come up with your own categories to describe their rhetorical purposes.

Resolution: Jesus intended to start Christianity.

Debate Instruction Page

Resolution: Even if Jesus was an eschatological prophet, he did not make the detailed predictions found in Mark 13 and parallels.

Resolution: The Gospel of "John" is a historically inaccurate and dangerous book that should never have been included in the NT.

The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us, how will our end come?" Jesus said, "Have you found the beginning, then, that you are looking for the end? You see, the end will be where the beginning is. Blessed is the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death."

GThom 18

Reading: 2 Esdras (a.k.a. 4 Ezra) 12-13; 1 Enoch 45-51; 62; 71; SFG 32; 160; 213; 234-235; 287-300; Mark 14:55-62 w/pars.; 1 Thess 4:15-17; Rev 1:9-19; 14:14-20; ; "Apocalyptic Predictions" (C&D 171-178)

Links:

The Jesus Movement

The Dead Sea Scrolls

Supplemental Links

Supplemental Reading: Matt 28:11-20; Luke 24:13-53; John ; C&D 185-200

Reading: Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, chap. xx.

Remember, these words were written in 1906.  Were/are they prophetic?

Supplemental Reading: Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus: A Critical Study of its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede