Historical Jesus Research Articles

로즈마리 래드퍼드 류터의 해방신학적, 여성신학적, 생태신학적 그리스도론

In this article, I will examine the three-stage development of Rosemary Radford Ruether’s Christology. At first Reuther developed her Christology from the perspective of liberation theology by analyzing contemporary studies of the historical Jesus and incorporating insights of liberation Christology. Afterwards, taking seriously feminist critiques of traditional Christology, she argued for an prophetic-iconoclastic Christology from the perspective of feminist theology. More recently, Ruether turned her attention to the cosmic Christology and developed an ecological perspective. While analyzing excerpts from her works, this study explores both the continuity and discontinuity in the development of Ruether’s Christology. In the process it is made clear that her Christology shows a greater continuity throughout her entire career than it first appears and that it becomes even more holistic in her later Christology. In the final analysis, despite Ruether’s significant contribution to contemporary Christological discourse, the author points out some limitations and then suggests urgent tasks of Christology for this century.

Can Study of the Historical Jesus Escape its Typographical Captivity?

Abstract As part of the deepening diversification of biblical studies, several lines of research are now undermining the print-cultural assumptions on which New Testament studies developed. The first section offers summaries of important inquiries into ancient communications media: the dominant oral communication and the uses of writing; revisionist text-criticism of manuscripts of texts later included in the Hebrew Bible; the oral-written cultivation of their cultural repertoire by Judean scribes; the parallel oral cultivation of Israelite popular tradition; revisionist criticism of Gospel texts; and the learning and oral performance of Gospel texts. These separate but related lines of research are undermining the standard print-cultural assumptions, concepts, and approaches of Jesus studies. The second section explores the implications of these researches that open toward an alternative view of what the sources are, a more comprehensive approach to the historical Jesus appropriate to ancient communications media, and a reconceptualization of Jesus studies.

Miracles and Methods

Prominent scholars in the field of historical Jesus research have argued that historians should be willing to accept all sorts of miracles that are convincingly attested to in the sources. The present article agrees with this view in principle but argues that, if analysed with the ordinary source-critical methods of conventional historical scholarship, there are significant and systematic differences in the source-critical strength of the stories. Miracles that fit inside a modern scientific worldview seem to have a stronger foundation in the sources than miracles that do not. The difference is quite clear when one compares the stories about how Jesus raised the dead, but it is also visible when one compares stories of other miracles. There are at least two ways of explaining these differences. One is that they are created by the scepticism of the modern scientific worldview of this writer. The other is that the differences exist in the sources because some of the miracle stories go back to memories of real events, while others do not.

Mystery Sonatas by Heinrich ignaz Franz Biber as an example of metatextuality in instrumental music from the Baroque era

The article is devoted to Mystery Sonatas (also known as Rosary Sonatas) by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber and the aspect of metatextuality in these pieces. The text includes an outline of the composer’s biography, a description of the origin and circumstances in which the Sonatas were written, and an explanation of the essence of metatextuality and its connections with Biber’s works, taking into consideration rhetoric, symbolism and scordatura. Referring to Polish and foreign literature on the subject, the author finds interesting dependencies between sonatas and emblems, she describes sound results achieved thanks to the use of scordatura, gives examples of rhetorical figures, analyses the use of these figures in selected sonatas, and presents the symbolic importance of a key. Mystery Sonatas are a musical picture, in which the composer painted the history of Jesus and Mary by means of sounds, using symbolism and rhetoric in a masterly way. Figurativeness of the Sonatas that Biber acquired thanks to the discussed means of expression may constitute quite an interesting

Communal Incarnation: The Corporate, Collective Jesus of Paul’s Letters

Abstract In his authentic letters, Paul describes a historical, human Jesus, but is strangely silent about the events of Jesus’ life. At the same time, Paul describes the figure of Christ using participatory language, and provides no reason to think that this collective embodiment of Christ does not also apply to Jesus’ historical body. I propose that Paul’s historical Jesus was therefore a corporate figure, embodied by the Jewish, pre-Christian community to which Jesus the Nazarene belonged. I present the literary background for this proposal, and explain how the evidence in Paul for a historical Jesus should be interpreted in a corporate or collective sense. I also provide a typological derivation of the name ‘Jesus’ in Paul.

Spor o Belzebula: analýza jedné synoptické tradice v kritické reflexi

The Beelzebul controversy: Analysis of one synoptic tradition in a critical reflection The article offers an analysis of the synoptic tradition of the Beelzebul controversy, which is preserved in two independent versions in Mark and Q. The analysis reflects some recent methodological impulses from orality and (social) memory studies that offer possible corrections of the theoretical assumptions about the synoptic tradition. The article focus-es on the particular meanings of this tradition in the specific literary representations and on the process of reception. Mark and Q offer two forms of textualization of an oral tradition that their authors creatively embedded into their literary productions. Matthew, in turn, combines the content of both of them and places them within his own compositional framework. This process reflects a conservative appreciation of the received tradition as well as the creative freedom of the individual authors to locate the tradition in new literary and narrative contexts. The article concludes with a brief reflection of the possibilities and limitations of exploring the synoptic tradition and studying the historical Jesus.

Jesus in Asia

Jesus in Asia

Between History and Spirit: The Apostolic Witness of the Book of Act

The hermeneutical triad is best described as the process of assessing a text’s history, literary merit, and theology. The careful reader will examine each of these areas in order to assess the text’s meaning. In Between History and Spirit: The Apostolic Witness of the Books of Acts, Craig Keener takes the reader to the very heart of the book of Acts by cross-examining its history, context, and theology. Keener is no stranger to Acts scholarship, as he is the author of an extensive four-volume commentary on the book. In the current selection, Keener brings together a series of essays, some in the Acts commentary and others not, into one volume. These essays are divided into three parts. The first examines the question of history in the book of Acts. Readers will find selections dedicated to Luke’s depiction of the historical Jesus (ch. 1), the use of “we” in the book of Acts (ch. 2), Paul’s apologetic in Acts (ch. 3), the growth rate of the church (ch. 4), a comparison of Acts and ancient novels (ch. 5), the landscape and military brass of Caesarea during Agrippa’s rule (ch. 6), and an examination of Paul’s mission to the Athenians (ch. 7). Each of these essays combines Keener’s encyclopedic knowledge of primary sources and sensitivity to the historicity within Acts’ narrative. The section is especially focused on parts of Acts that commentators have struggled to reconcile with extracanonical evidence.In the second division, Keener explores the literary and contextual aspects of Acts. This section of the volume has essays on interethnic marriages in Acts 7 and 16 (ch. 8), Paul’s use of irony and figurative language in Acts 7 and 26 (ch. 9), turning from idolatry in Acts 14 (ch. 10), postcolonial missions in Acts 16 (ch. 11), Paul’s Asiarch friends in Acts 19 (ch. 12), the relationship between Acts 21 and Eph 2 concerning the temple (ch. 13), rhetorical techniques in Acts 24 (ch. 14), Paul’s madness in Acts 26 (ch. 15), and fever, dysentery, and medicine in Acts 28 (ch. 16). The ordering of this section broadly follows the order of chapters in Acts. It is also interesting to note that, whereas the last chapter consistently displayed long-form articles, the current section has three articles that are concise and punchy.The final section deals with some theological aspects of Acts with special regard to the movement of the Spirit. Essays include engagement with miracles and history in Acts (ch. 17), Luke’s missiology in Acts 1–2 (ch. 18), the use of tongues in Acts 2 (ch. 19), Spirit possession in modern anthropology and its relationship to Acts 16 and 19 (ch. 20), the Spirit-filled ministry described in Acts 19 (ch. 21), and ancient African Christianity (ch. 22). Chapter 23 concludes the essay selections with some of Keener’s reviews of Acts-focused scholarship. Keener engages the work of Bruce Winter and David Clarke, David Gill and Conrad Gempf, Richard Pervo, David Peterson, and Joshua Jipp. The volume ends with an extensive bibliography (78 pages), ancient documents index (57 pages), and scripture, subject, and author indexes.Keener opens with a short preface recounting the request of Michael Thomson to put together the following collection. In an academic world where edited volumes are becoming fewer, it is even more unusual to have an scholar who can edit a volume of their own essays. These volumes are a gift and allow the reader to avoid the hassle of finding some of Keener’s more obscure work. In many ways, the following set of essays contributes not only to ongoing research in the book of Acts but also speaks volumes about the author. Keener has continued to write intensely researched and thought-provoking scholarship on this particular book of Scripture. This quantity and quality of research is a testament to a genuine love of the subject. Keener’s work is a force to be reckoned with and will challenge the reader to reassess the historical records time and again. In the vein of Keener’s work, Ad fontes!

The State of New Testament Studies: A Survey of Recent Research

The State of New Testament Studies: A Survey of Recent Research

So Great a Salvation: A Dialogue on the Atonement in Hebrews

So Great a Salvation: A Dialogue on the Atonement in Hebrews

Audience in Historical Jesus Research

Abstract Scholars writing within the historical Jesus research paradigm often write different books on the same topic: heavy tomes for other scholars and shorter books on the same subject for lay readers. While the scholarly works have been reviewed by other scholars, the books for lay readers have not. This article analyzes works on the historical Jesus for lay readers authored by N.T. Wright and John Dominic Crossan, comparing the popular works to the scholarly ones. The analyses show that in Wright’s case the ontological norms of historical Jesus research are consistently compromised in his work for a lay audience (Simply Jesus). In Crossan’s case, the voice of the dispassionate scholar yields to the passionate denunciator in his popular Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography.

African spirituality in the Johane Masowe Chishanu religious movement in Zimbabwe: A Christian church-sect dichotomy

This study explored the impact of African indigenous spirituality on African indigenous churches (AICs), particularly in the Zimbabwean context, a special focus was on the Johane Masowe Chishanu (JMC) religious movement spirituality. The spirituality of the JMC religious movement is examined by cross-examining its denigration of the centrality of the Bible, the historical Jesus and the temple gathering as the movement appropriates and re-socialises traditional African shrines for religious gatherings. Thus, the following questions are raised in this study: is the appropriation and resocialisation of African traditional shrines, the denigration of the Bible and the disregarding of the historical Jesus for salvation by the JMC a conscious or unconscious move? If it is a conscious move, the follow-up question is: what motivates the JMC religious movement to regard such religious shrines, whilst disregarding the Bible and Jesus for its spirituality and, because of this, does the JMC religious movement retain the label ‘a Christian church’ or has become a sect?Contribution: While majority of African scholars were celebrating the proliferation of Christianity in the continent as evidenced by an unremitting mushrooming of African Indigenous Churches, some Zimbabwean scholars were categorizing Johane Masowe Chishanu church a sect. Therefore, this article examine the veracity and provenances of the Johane Masowe Chishanu church-sect dichotomy in Zimbabwe.

Christ as Yogi: The Jesus of Vivekananda and Modern Hinduism

AbstractSwami Vivekananda was the most influential pioneer of a Yogi Christ, illustrating well over a century ago how the life and teachings of Jesus might be incorporated within a larger Hindu worldview—and then presented back to Western audiences. Appropriation of Jesus, one of the central symbols of the West, might be viewed as the ultimate act of counter-Orientalism. This article begins by providing a brief biography of Vivekananda and the modern Hinduism that nurtured him and that he propagated. He articulated an inclusivist vision of Advaita Vedanta as the most compelling vision of universal religion. Next, the article turns to Vivekananda's views of Christianity, for which he had little affection, and the Bible, which he knew extraordinarily well. The article then systematically explores Vivekananda's engagement with the New Testament, revealing a clear hermeneutical preference for the Gospels, particularly John. Following the lead of biblical scholars, Vivekananda made a distinction between the Christ of the Gospels and the Jesus of history, offering sometimes contradictory conclusions about the historicity of elements associated with Jesus's life. Finally, the article provides a detailed articulation of Vivekananda's Jesus—a figure at once familiar to Christians but, in significant ways, uniquely accommodated to Hindu metaphysics. Vivekananda demonstrated a robust understanding and discriminating use of the Christian Bible that has not been properly recognized. He deployed this knowledge to launch an important and long-lived pattern: an attractive, fleshed out depiction of Jesus of Nazareth, transformed from the Christian savior into a Yogi model of self-realization. Through his efforts, Jesus became an indisputably Indian religious figure, no longer just a Christian one. The Yogi Christ remains a prominent global religious figure familiar to Hindus, Christians, and those of other faiths alike.

History and Eschatology: Jesus and the Promise of Natural Theology

History and Eschatology: Jesus and the Promise of Natural Theology

Jesus som själavårdare: Ett hermeneutiskt teologiskt studium

This article is an investigation of how to understand the concept of “Jesus as counselor” as it pertains to the hermeneutical gap between the historical Jesus and present day praxis of pastoral care. The expression “do like Jesus” is put into a critical discussion in the light of the New Testament understanding of Jesus as God incarnate and the Kingdom of God as center piece in the gospels. It is argued that if one desires to learn from Jesus’ and his way of relating to people, including paying attention to the Kingdom of God oriented identity of pastoral care and counseling, which includes guiding people towards Jesus himself, it presupposes a simultaneous and parallelistic movement.

Esus histórico e a América-Latina:desenvolvimento e contribuições em meio à Teologia Latino-Americana

This article investigates how Latin American theology sees the historical Jesus and builds its theology from him, besides observing its implications for society. To do this, it is necessary to understand what this Historical Jesus is. The Historical Jesus is understood as the result of scientific interdisciplinary research, which is characteristic of the third phase of the research on Jesus, the third quest. Thus, it is noted that Latin American theology welcomes the results of this research on Jesus and from this builds its theology, having an important task by discussing faith and history. This way, Latin American theologians have understood that the Historical Jesus is the basis of faith, so the starting point for a Latin American christology must be the historical Jesus. Thus, from the historical observation of Jesus, Jesus is understood during a context of oppression and injustice, which applies his message to these contexts. Considering that Jesus’ life and message are imbued with various social, economic, political, and ideological aspects, the theology presented in Latin America must also be involved in a fight against oppression and social injustice, as the political and social context of Latin America is permeated by various types of oppression, exploitation, and injustice.

Forgotten Origins: The Lost Jewish History of Jesus and Early Christianity by Juan Marcos Bejarano Gutierrez

Forgotten Origins: The Lost Jewish History of Jesus and Early Christianity by Juan Marcos Bejarano Gutierrez

The Secret of the Kingdom of God: The Literary and Theological Achievement of the Evangelist Mark by Hugh Humphrey

Reviewed by: The Secret of the Kingdom of God: The Literary and Theological Achievement of the Evangelist Mark by Hugh Humphrey Susan M. (Elli) Elliott hugh humphrey, The Secret of the Kingdom of God: The Literary and Theological Achievement of the Evangelist Mark (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2019). Pp. xiv + 179. $100. Hugh Humphrey offers a literary analysis of the Gospel of Mark, presenting the Gospel writer as a well-educated creative author trained in the literary conventions of his day. H. intends to elucidate what the “secret” or “mystery” of the kingdom of God is in Mark’s Gospel and to show that this expression does not refer to “‘heaven’ or ‘something after death’” (p. vii). [End Page 146] In his introduction, H. provides a concise view of what he considers a “new paradigm” of interpretation of Mark. He locates the beginning of this paradigm in the sociorhetorical methods that Vernon K. Robbins advanced starting in the 1980s and in the work of the Markan Literary Sources Seminar of the Society of Biblical Literature begun in 2010 (pp. x–xi). H. identifies this paradigm as “new” in distinction, first, from previous scholarly focus on Mark as a source of evidence for the historical Jesus based on the consensus source theory of Marcan priority and, second, from assumptions of form and redaction criticism that reduce Mark to what H. describes as “a cut-and-paste compiler of oral traditions” (p. x) rather than a skilled and creative author. H.’s discernment of this “new paradigm” omits mention of decades of other major work on Mark’s Gospel, including performance critics’ work on its narrative unity and authorial creativity and other scholars’ work on Roman imperial contexts that provide background for its core terminology and concepts. Following the introduction, H. presents several elements of his literary analysis in a series of readable short chapters. In chap. 1, he explains his theory of layers of development in Mark. The second chapter discusses the chreia as a rhetorical convention and lists chreiai in Mark with a comment on and full translation of each passage. The next three chapters discuss specific literary sources for Mark, starting with H.’s own exposition of Mark’s use of the Wisdom of Solomon to portray Jesus as the “righteous man” in the image found there. Evaluative reviews follow, first of Adam Winn’s work on Mark’s use of the Elijah/Elisha narratives and then of Dennis MacDonald’s work on the Gospel’s reliance on Homer (Adam Winn, Mark and the Elijah-Elisha Narrative: Considering the Practice of Greco-Roman Imitation in the Search for Markan Source Material [Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2010]; Dennis R. MacDonald, The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark [New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000]). Another chapter details Mark’s use of other sources, including Jewish Scriptures, a passion narrative, some sayings from Q, and Plato’s Timaeus. Overall H.’s presentation effectively demonstrates that Mark drew on more than one source and on Greek as well as Jewish sources. He avoids the pitfalls of claiming any single source as “the” explanatory source for the Gospel. H. shows that Mark used literary conventions of his time, pointing especially to chreia and mimesis. In chap. 7, H. provides a detailed summary of the entire Gospel detailing its literary sources and construction passage by passage. Before a brief epilogue and an appendix that includes a full translation of the Gospel with indications of the literary sources, H.’s final full chapter offers what could be a stand-alone exposition on the theme introduced in his title, The Secret of the Kingdom of God. He focuses on the teachings assembled in Mark 4, especially the parable of the sower (vv. 3–9) and its explanation (vv. 13–20) along with the key message from Jesus to the disciples in v. 11 that the secret of the kingdom of God has been given to them. H. sees this “secret” as the image of authentic discipleship as bearing good fruit offered in the explanation of the parable. H.’s analysis points most constructively to a shift of focus in the interpretation of Mark. H. redirects...

Jesus’ Intitulation of God as Abba: Its Sources and Impact on the Idea of the Fatherhood of God in the New Testament

In the article, the author discusses Jesus’ intitulation of God as Abba and its impact on the idea of God’s fatherhood in the New Testament writings. Responding to the recent criticism of J. Jeremias’s theses (cf. B. Chilton, M.R. D’Angelo), he tries to show that without the initial source, which was Jesus of Nazareth and his public teaching, the dynamic expansion of the idea of ​​God’s fatherhood in the New Testament would not be possible. After a brief presentation of J. Jeremias’s ground-breaking opinion on Jesus’ filial relation to God as Father, encapsulated in the “Abba, Father” cry (Mk 14:36), a second section analyses the texts of the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism that explore the theological idea of​ God as Father. The third part focuses on the NT witnesses to God’s fatherhood, i.e. God both as the Father of Jesus Christ and the Father of all believers (υἱοθεσία). In conclusion, the literary evidence preserved in the NT writings and rational arguments point to Jesus of Nazareth as the source and starting point of the NT idea of God’s fatherhood. Jeremias’s study is still valid, and the address “Abba-Father” uttered by the historical Jesus remains the most concise and fullest expression of his filial relation to God.

Nuevas propuestas para la investigación sobre el Jesús histórico : El Jesús Recordado de James Dunn (II)

James Dunn's work entitled Christianity in the Making (I): Jesus Remembered —first volume of his investigation of early Christianity — invites us to rethink the investigation of the historical Jesus from a better precision in the object of study, from a distinctive paradigm in the history of the Quest and from a methodology that is illuminated from that para- digmatic change. In this second part of our article, we show the most important contri- butions of the English scholar. His work is a reference in the Quest of the historical Jesus.