In Search of Jesus
Some scholars seek answers in history and redefine the meaning of his life and deeds
'Whom do men say that I am?" Jesus once asked his disciples, according to Matthew's gospel. The disciples' answer--"some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah ... or one of the prophets"--revealed how even then there was little consensus over the identity of the enigmatic preacher from Galilee. And the controversy endures today. While believers through the ages have echoed Peter's faith-filled declaration, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," some modern scholars say that historical evidence reveals a much different portrait of Jesus than the one in Christian creeds.
Among biblical scholars, no issue has stirred more activity, excitement or acrimony than the "quest for the historical Jesus." In the past 10 years alone, dozens of books have been published on the topic. Some, based on readings of Scripture and recent archaeological evidence, have presented dramatic portraits of Jesus as a secular sage, a cynic revolutionary and a mystic healer. Others have offered less radical refinements of traditional views.
The historical quest has been denounced by some as a frontal assault on Christian faith and an attempt to undermine the Bible's authority. Yet proponents find in it hope for a more rational basis for belief and a clearer essence of Jesus's teachings. At the heart of the debate is whether it is possible to improve upon the words and images of Jesus in the Christian Scriptures. Many scholars think the gospels are unreliable records since they were written as proclamation, not objective history, decades after Jesus's death. But one new book argues that the gospels were recorded much earlier than most scholars think and likely contain eyewitness accounts. The book Eyewitness to Jesus, by Carsten Thiede and Matthew D'Ancona, is based on a new analysis of ancient papyrus fragments containing parts of Matthew's gospel.
Perhaps the most intriguing part of this modern quest is how the interests and personalities of scholars intersect with their work. The "control-beliefs of a scholar," writes Gregory Boyd, theology professor at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minn., in his book Cynic, Sage or Son of God?, "determine what kind of Jesus he or she is looking for by defining what kind of Jesus is and is not possible." That is why examining the lives of leaders in the historical-Jesus movement is a key to understanding their findings.
REINVENT CHRISTIANITY Even now, when Robert Funk addresses an audience, there are hints of the precocious young preacher who once led revival meetings in rural Texas. In a field characterized more often by esoteric discourse than revivalist fervor, the renowned biblical scholar and head of the controversial Jesus Seminar still has an evangelist's dramatic flair, frequently cajoling listeners to repent their errors and behold Jesus.
But the Jesus who Funk commends to his audiences bears little resemblance to the Savior of his gospel-preaching youth. Stripped of what he now considers to be the artificial accretions of centuries of church tradition, the historical Jesus of Nazareth, in Funk's view, was probably more akin to a Jewish Socrates--or perhaps a Lenny Bruce--than the divine Son of God. The goal of his seminar, Funk recently told a California audience, is to "set Jesus free" from the "scriptural and creedal prisons in which we have entombed him. We aspire to no less than to roll away the stone from the door of the rock-cut tomb."
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