Quest for Historical Jesus - В поисках исторического Иисуса

Metaphysics is prior to historiography. And there can be no value-neutral system or framework of metaphysics from which a methodological consensus about historical enquiry may proceed. It is the central thesis of this study that these two claims form intractable problems for the discipline of historical Jesus research and, moreover, that these problems ought not to be ‘solved’ (as though that were possible), but embraced, if the discipline is to advance in any meaningful sense. Only by embracing our fundamental philosophical and theological biases— and not by the impossible task of trying to overcome them—can the field truly progress.

 

In this study I examine the metaphysical presuppositions operative within modern academic historical Jesus research. The discipline has not sufficiently reflected upon its metaphysical foundations, and I argue it operates within a series of metaphysical frameworks one might accurately label ‘secular.’ My concern is to probe one aspect of the relationship between faith and history, not in terms of historically informed faith, but in terms of faith-informed historiography. I am concerned with the question, ‘is it reasonable to construct an academic historical method that presumes belief in God as a given, or even as axiomatic for a full account of the past?’ I argue secular metaphysical presuppositions influence historical judgement and observe this influence by employing the category of worldview in relation to historical decision-making. This observation invites us to examine the metaphysical presuppositions at work within modern academic historical Jesus research, which one may observe as adhering to a totalising secular metaphysical presupposition not to allow religious perspectives to contribute to the historical task. I conclude by claiming this observation should encourage the discipline to allow a greater plurality of metaphysical frameworks within the field, although the construction of historical-critical methods based upon alternative metaphysical frameworks is necessarily reserved for a future project rather than developed fully here.

 

London – New York: Routledge, 2023. – 272 p.

ISBN: 978-1-032-33282-6 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-032-33283-3 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-003-31895-8 (ebk)

 

Preface

List of Abbreviations

PART I. Worldviews and Historiographical Decision-Making

PART II. Worldviews and Historical Jesus Research

Bibliography

Author Index 252

Subject Index

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Radboud Prestige Lectures by Prof. Dr. Michael Wolter

Brill 2013 - 234 p.

ISBn 978-90-04-23578-6 (hardback)

ISBn 978-90-04-25480-0 (e-book)

 

List of Contributors

Abbreviations

Preface - Jan van der Watt

Academic Curriculum Vitae - Michael Wolter

List of Publications - Prof. Dr. Michael Walter

Susanna Asikainen - Jesus and Other Men - Ideal Masculinities in the Synoptic Gospels

Susanna Asikainen - Jesus and Other Men - Ideal Masculinities in the Synoptic Gospels – Contents

•  Of Masculinities and Men - A Reassessment of Connell’s Theory - Theorizing Marginalized Masculinities - Outline of the Study

•  Introduction - Biological Sex in the Ancient Greco-Roman World - Ancient Greco-Roman Gender Stereotypes - Who is a Real, Hegemonically Masculine Man? - Ideal Characteristics of Masculine Men - Effeminacy and Lack of Self-Control - Marginalized Masculinities in the Ancient Greco-Roman World - Philo - Josephus - 4 Maccabees - Rabbinic Judaism - Conclusions

•  Introduction - The Authority of Jesus - The Opponents as Negative Examples of Unmasculine Behavior - Jesus’ Disputes with His Opponents - Challenges to the Masculinity of Jesus - Herod - The Death of John the Baptist - Other Mentions of Herod - Pilate - Pilate in Mark (15:1–15) - Pilate in Matthew (27:11–26) - Pilate in Luke (23:1–25) - Conclusions

• Introduction - The Portrayal of the Disciples in the Synoptic Gospels - Peter in the Synoptic Gospels - The Messiah Confession - Peter in the Passion Narratives - Jesus’ Teaching on Ideal Behavior in the Sermon on the Mount - Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3–12) - Antitheses (Matthew 5:21–48) - Piety (Matthew 6:1–18) - Jesus and Family in the Synoptic Gospels - Service and Slavery as the Ideal Masculinity - Children as Examples for the Disciples - Matthew, Eunuchs, and Subordinated Masculinities - Conclusions

• Introduction - Ideal Women in the Ancient Greco-Roman World - The Women Followers of Jesus - The Syrophoenician or Canaanite Woman - Mark’s Account of the Story (Mark 7:24–30) - Matthew’s Account of the Story (Matthew 15:21–28) - The Syrophoenician Woman’s Challenge to Jesus’ Masculinity - The Women Jesus Heals: The Hemorrhaging Woman - The Anointing Woman - The Ideal Woman in Luke - Feminine Jesus - Conclusions

• Introduction - Emotions in Greco-Roman Antiquity - Grief and Tears in Greco-Roman Antiquity - Anger in Greco-Roman Antiquity - The Emotions of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels - The Tears of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke - The Incident at the Temple - The Emotions of the Other Characters - Conclusions

•  Introduction - Death and Suffering in the Ancient Greco-Roman World - Jesus’ Teaching on Suffering - Jesus in Gethsemane - Mark 14:32–42 - Matthew 26:36–46 - Luke 22:39–46 - The Masculinity of Jesus in Gethsemane - The Arrest of Jesus - The Jewish and the Roman Trials: The Silence of Jesus - The Mocking and Scourging of Jesus - The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus - The Death of Jesus in Mark and Matthew - The Death of Jesus in Luke - Conclusions

•  Primary Sources - Secondary Literature

Marcus J. Borg and N.T. Wright - The Meaning of Jesus: two visions

Marcus J. Borg and N.T. Wright - The Meaning of Jesus: two visions - Contents

• 1. Seeing Jesus: Sources, Lenses, and Method (Marcus Borg) - 2. Knowing Jesus: Faith and History (N. T. Wright)

• 3. The Mission and Message of Jesus (N. T. Wright) - 4. Jesus Before and After Easter: Jewish Mystic and Christian Messiah (Marcus Borg)

• 5. Why Was Jesus Killed? (Marcus Borg) - 6. The Crux of Faith (N. T. Wright)

• 7. The Transforming Reality of the Bodily Resurrection (N. T. Wright) - 8. The Truth of Easter (Marcus Borg))

• 9. Jesus and God (Marcus Borg) - 10. The Divinity of Jesus (N. T. Wright)

• 11. Born of a Virgin? (N. T. Wright) - 12. The Meaning of the Birth Stories (Marcus Borg)

• 13. The Second Coming Then and Now (Marcus Borg) - 14. The Future of Jesus (N. T. Wright)

• 15. The Truth of the Gospel and Christian Living (N. T. Wright) - 16. A Vision of the Christian Life (Marcus Borg)

Borg, Marcus J.- Jesus in contemporary scholarship

Nehemia Gordon - The Hebrew Yeshua vs. the Greek Jesus

Nehemia Gordon - The Hebrew Yeshua vs. the Greek Jesus - Contens

• Chapter 1: Whatsoever They Bid You Observe...
• Chapter 2. Washing the Hands
• Chapter 3. Understanding Phariseeism
• Chapter 4. Was Yeshua a Karaite?
• Chapter 5. A Contradiction in Greek Matthew?
• Chapter 6. Greek or Hebrew?
• Chapter 7. Shem-Tov's Hebrew Matthew
• Chapter 8. Moses' Seat
• Chapter 9. They Talk But They Do Not Do
• Chapter 10. You Have Heard It Said
• Chapter 11. A New Understanding
• Appendix 1. The Testimony of Papias
• Appendix 2. The Abomination of Desolation
• Appendix 3. Absolute Authority of the Rabbis
• Appendix 4. The Text of Matthew 23:2
• Appendix 5. A Glossary of Shem-Tov's Hebrew Matthew 23:2-3

Carlos A. Segovia - The Quranic Jesus. A New Interpretation

Carlos A. Segovia - The Quranic Jesus. A New Interpretation - Contents

• Descriptive vs. Anti-Christian Theological Texts? - The Study of the Quranic Jesus between the 1830s and Now - Purpose and Argument of this Book, with a Note on the Notion of “Symptomatic Reading”

• Distribution of the Relevant Passages - The Texts, with a Brief Commentary

• Towards a New Classification, Formal and Thematic - Thematic Division - Deciphering the Date of the Jesus Passages - Their Setting and the Chronology of the Corpus

• The Withdrawal from Byzantium’s Political and Religious Control in 6th-Century Yemen – and the Arabian Peninsula - East Syria and Iraq, or Christianity beyond the Limes of the Byzantine Empire - Monks, Bishops, and the Plausible Anti-Chalcedonian Setting of Q 9:31, 34

• A Sketch of the Early Qur’ān Christology (Q 75–107) - Introducing the Human alongside the Divine (Q 17, 68, 73–4, 81, 87, 88) - Substituting the Heavenly Messenger by a Human Messenger: The Beginnings of the Muhamadan Kerygma (Q 53, 55, 69)

Bart D. Ehrman, Craig A. Evans, Robert B. Stewart - Can We Trust the Bible on the Historical Jesus?

Bart D. Ehrman, Craig A. Evans, Robert B. Stewart - Can We Trust the Bible on the Historical Jesus? - Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction: History, Historians, and Trusting
• Robert B. Stewart - Historical Texts
• History and Historians
• Trusting Historical Texts
• What’s at Stake?
• Can We Trust the Bible on the Historical Jesus? - A Dialogue between Bart D. Ehrman and Craig A. Evans
• Bart Ehrman: Opening Statement
• Craig Evans: Opening Statement
• Bart Ehrman: Response
• Craig Evans: Response
• Bart Ehrman: Conclusion
• Craig Evans: Conclusion
• Questions and Answers
• Robert B. Stewart - The State of the Quest for the Historical Jesus
• Robert B. Stewart - Further Reading