RLG 323F, Lecture 8 Summary(there was no lecture 7)

The Criteria of Authenticity

Scholars are most likely to conclude that a particular tradition about Jesus is authentic if it is historically plausible and there are good reasons to doubt that anyone other than Jesus might have invented it. The criteria of authenticity are basically principles for determining which traditions are least suspicious.

Embarrassment

Elements in the gospels that appear to cause some embarrassment or discomfort to the evangelists are unlikely to have been made up by Christians; they are preserved because they were generally known to be true. Examples include Jesus’ baptism by John (which implies sinfulness) and his assistance of John’s baptism ministry (which implies that Jesus was subordinate to John). These elements are in tension with the gospels’ preferred picture of Jesus as greater than John.

Sometimes this discomfort takes the form not of embarrassment but of theological rationalization. The crucifixion generated the most theologizing. For those who believed that Jesus was the messiah, Jesus’ execution for sedition was hard to comprehend, because the messiah was supposed to defeat Israel’s oppressors—not be killed by them. Hence the NT authors struggled to make sense of Jesus’ death theologically, producing numerous typological explanations (e.g., Jesus’ death is likened to a ransom, a passover sacrifice, a covenant-forming sacrifice, the Day of Atonement sacrifice or the scapegoat rite).

Theological Irrelevance

We have no reason to doubt plausible information about Jesus that has no theological relevance, particularly when this information is mentioned in passing. Examples include Jesus’ occupation as a tektōn (wood and stone artisan), the names of his family members and closest followers, Nazareth as his hometown (this detail also passes the criterion of embarrassment), Capernaum as his place of residence during his public career, the support of his ministry by various women (Luke 8:3), and Golgotha as the place of his execution. This is not a strong criterion.

(Double) Dissimilarity

Words or practices of Jesus that cannot be derived from Judaism of the time or from known early Christian practices and interests probably come from Jesus himself, provided these elements make sense within the context of first-century Judaism. Examples include Jesus’ table fellowship with sinners and tax collectors and his total rejection of divorce.

Problems with dissimilarity
  • We do not know enough about either Judaism of Jesus’ day or the range of early Christian beliefs to know that anything preserved in the gospels is dissimilar to both.
  • It is problematic to assume that Christians would preserve traditions about Jesus that were inconsistent with their own interests and concerns.
  • Rigorous use of this criterion produces a portrait of Jesus as someone who was both unaffected by his environment and had no effect on his followers, i.e., an alien from another world. Thus this criterion is sometimes used to imply that Jesus had a divine mind that allowed him to transcend his own culture, and that he was not really Jewish.

For Jesus to be a credible leader of a Jewish movement, we need to imagine him not in opposition to Judaism but rather as having a distinctive stand within Judaism.

Multiple Attestation

Multiple attestation exists in two forms, only the second of which is a strong criterion. The first form is multiple attestation of a particular saying or story in independent sources. The second form is multiple attestation of a theme in different literary forms (e.g., parable, proverb, aphorism, prayer, beatitude, legal formulation, controversy story, call story, miracle story). The more often we find the same theme in different literary forms (and in independent sources), the more likely it is that its source is Jesus. Independent sources include Q, Mark, Special Matthew, Special Luke, John (?), Thomas (?), sayings of Jesus quoted in Paul’s letters, and the agrapha (sayings of Jesus recorded in writings other than gospels).

Examples of multiplyattested themes include Jesus’ preaching about the kingdom of God, his practice of exorcism, and his fellowship with tax collectors.

Problems with Multiple Attestation
  • Multiple attestation of a particular saying or deed is better evidence of popularity and usefulness than of authenticity; useful traditions may have been invented to fill a need.
  • We are not completely sure that the sources deemed independent actually are independent.

Adjunct Criteria

Some criteria are not sufficient on their own but when used in conjunction with other, stronger criteria can strengthen claims of authenticity.

Coherence

Sayings or deeds that cohere with other materials that have been shown to be authentic on other grounds have a good claim to authenticity. For example, the sayings in Q that reflect a high estimate of John the Baptist on the part of Jesus (Q 7:24–28a) cohere with the embarrassing idea that Jesus was John’s disciple; hence they have a good claim to authenticity.

Views Common to Friend and Foe

Here Christians and non-Christians do not dispute the reality; they only dispute how to interpret it. Examples would include Jesus’ conception out of wedlock and his ability to cast out demons.

Striking Sayings in a Memorable Form

Scholars often assume that Jesus’ followers were not so capable as Jesus of producing clever sayings. Thus Jesus’ best sayings are often considered authentic. Certain qualities of sayings are also taken to reflect Jesus’ personality, e.g., humour, hyperbole, and uncompromising ethical demands.

Historical Causality

These considerations do not concern the authenticity of particular traditions but the plausibility of general characterizations of Jesus.

Ability to Explain the Crucifixion

A plausible historical Jesus would be a person who would get executed by the state but leave behind followers who existed in relative security in the same area (Jerusalem).

Ability to Explain Jesus’ Association with John the Baptist

A plausible historical Jesus would have responded positively to John’s apocalyptic gospel of repentance and furthered John’s ministry.

Ability to Explain the Aftermath of Jesus’ Life

A plausible historical Jesus would be a person whose beliefs and actions can explain the existence and nature of the earliest Jesus movements, e.g., the Jerusalem church, “the twelve,” and the Q community. The Resurrection and the Holy Spirit should not be invoked as all-purpose (and supernatural) explanations for these things. What was it about Jesus that made it conceivable that he was raised from the dead? What was it about Jesus that made it conceivable that God’s Spirit was active within the community of his followers? What was it about Jesus that led his followers to form communities of believers (churches)? What was it about Jesus that made it conceivable that he was the messiah and that he would return soon on the clouds of heaven?

Son of God

In the earliest sources, Son of God does not mean God the Son. Rather than implying divinity, Son of God is a metaphor for the unique relationship between God and a king of Israel, which isan extension of the unique relationship between God and Israel. Cf. Hosea 11:1: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” In 2 Sam 7:14, the rulers descended from David are described using the metaphor son. This verse was very important for Christians.

Accordingly, in the gospels the title Son of God often appears in poetic parallelism with the terms Christ and King of Israel, indicating that these terms are basically synonymous (e.g., Mark 1:1; 14:61; John 1:49). In Mark, Jesus becomes God’s son at his baptism, when the voice from heaven says, “You are my son; in you I am well pleased.” The first half of this verse alludes to Psalm 2:7: “I will tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to me, ‘You are my son, today I have begotten you.’” In that psalm a king describes how God metaphorically adopted him at his coronation. In accordance with this conception of sonship, Mark depicts Jesus becoming possessed by the Holy Spirit at his baptism, the way prophets and some of Israel’s kings were empowered by the Spirit of God to fulfil their functions (see 1 Sam 10:5–6).