Jesus Criteria And The Demise Of Authenticity

This volume discusses the new approaches regarding the criteria of authenticity and their relevance in the quest for the historical Jesus studies.

In recent years, a number of New Testament scholars engaged in academic historical Jesus studies have concluded that such scholarship cannot yield secure and illuminating conclusions about its subject, arguing that the search for a historically "authentic" Jesus has run aground. Jesus, Skepticism, and the Problem of History brings together a stellar lineup of New Testament scholars who contend that historical Jesus scholarship is far from dead. These scholars all find value in using the tools of contemporary historical methods in the study of Jesus and Christian origins. While the skeptical use of criteria to fashion a Jesus contrary to the one portrayed in the Gospels is methodologically unsound and theologically unacceptable, these criteria, properly formulated and applied, yield positive results that support the Gospel accounts and the historical narrative in Acts. This book presents a nuanced and vitally needed alternative to the skeptical extremes of revisionist Jesus scholarship that, on the one hand, uses historical methods to call into question the Jesus of the Gospels and, on the other, denies the possibility of using historical methods to learn about Jesus.

For two centuries scholars have sought to discover the historical Jesus. Presently such scholarship is dominated not by the question 'Who was Jesus?' but rather 'How do we even go about answering the question, "Who was Jesus?"?' With this current situation in mind, Jonathan Bernier undertakes a two-fold task: one, to engage on the level of the philosophy of history with existing approaches to the study of the historical Jesus, most notably the criteria approach and the social memory approach; two, to work with the critical realism developed by Bernard Lonergan, introduced into New Testament studies by Ben F. Meyer, and advocated by N.T. Wright in order to develop a philosophy of history that can elucidate current debates within historical Jesus studies.

Historical-Jesus research continues to captivate the interests of scholars, and recently, there has been renewed discussion of the criteria for authenticity. The first half of this volume reviews the state of play in historical-Jesus research and examines the criteria in particular. One chapter is devoted to the so-called 'Quests', and a second critically charts the development of the criteria in the light of form criticism. One of the conclusions of this part of the volume is that several criteria, especially those based on linguistics, need re-evaluation. The second half of the volume proposes three new criteria, based upon use of the Greek language. These criteria are: Greek language and its context; textual variance; and discourse features. The criteria are proposed as a way forward in historical-Jesus research.

An internationally renowned Jesus scholar rethinks our knowledge of the historical Jesus in light of recent progress in the scientific study of memory.

The Quest of the Historical Jesus. A Critical Study of its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede by Albert Schweitzer is a profound exploration into the historical study of Jesus. Schweitzer meticulously examines the various perspectives and methodologies, offering readers a comprehensive understanding of the quest to uncover the historical figure of Jesus.

This volume offers annotated bibliographies for all the major areas of critical scholarship in the historical Jesus. It is an indispensable tool for research in this important field of the study.

The author focuses on the title Son of Davidas it was used in Jewish and Christian traditions to demonstrate both how his new theory functions and to advance historical Jesus research.--David Brack, Asbury Theological Seminary "Catholic Biblical Quarterly"