Finding the Historical Jesus Questions for Discussion

Finding the Historical Jesus
Questions for Discussion

Chapter 1
Robert J. Miller, Back to Basics
1. What is the difference between a claim that something is historical because an authority says so and a claim based on evidence? What is the weight of authority and what is the weight of evidence?
2. How is the historian like the journalist? How like the lawyer?
3. How do these two analogies help one understand the historian’s task?
4. Miller’s first principle states, “You do not know it if you cannot show it.” Why can’t we assume that what the ancients report is accurate?
5. Why is probability rather than certainty an appropriate goal for history?
6. Why is the argument, “It is possible; it could have happened that way” not a helpful argument? Why can it not be used to win an argument?
7. What is the relationship between historical evidence and religious truth? Do they belong to the same or separate intellectual categories? Does one trump the other? Do they interrelate? If so, how?

Chapter 2
Robert W. Funk, Criteria for Determining the Authentic Sayings of Jesus
1. Compose your own list of Red sayings (Jesus said this) and Black sayings (Jesus did not say this) and see how Funk’s criteria help you sort the lists.
2. Why do sayings have to be memorable to survive?
3. Why are scholars suspicious of the Gospel of John as a witness to the historical Jesus?
4. The early community applied Jesus’ sayings to their own situation. Why did they do this and how does it help or impede our recovery of the historical Jesus?
5. Why is it that language typical of the early Christian preaching put on the lips of Jesus is always suspect? Couldn’t Jesus and the early community have been saying the same thing?
6. Why does Funk think a non-apocalyptic Jesus is the best explanation for the authentic material?

Chapter 3
Robert W. Funk, Rules of Oral Evidence
1. In oral cultures folks remember the gist of a saying, but do not pass it on verbatim . How does this explain the multiple versions of some sayings, and what does it say about what we can know about the exact words of Jesus?
2. If Jesus spoke his aphorisms and parables on many different occasions, what does this say about the importance of the context or the situation in which he spoke for the interpretation of the aphorisms and parables?
3. In a literate culture (like ours) plagiarism is a major offense. But in an oral culture (like that of Jesus) speaking in another’s name honors that person. Why is this so, and what effect does this difference have on how we understand the development of the Jesus tradition?
4. If in an oral culture the simpler saying is more likely original, how does this rule help one understand the Sermon on the Mount? Following this rule, does the Q-document appear earlier or later than the Gospel of Mark? Which appears earlier, the Gospel of Mark or the Gospel of John?
5. As sayings get passed on, their edge gets softened. Why is this so? Can you think of examples in contemporary society?
6. As the oral tradition developed, sayings thought by the early communities to be appropriate to Jesus were attributed to him. Is this the same process by which George Washington is remember as having chopped down the cherry tree? Can you think of other examples?

Chapter 4
Robert W. Funk, Do the Gospels Contain Eyewitness Reports?
1. Why does Funk argue that the scenario of the calling of the disciples in Mark makes sense only in the context of the later church? Why can it not be an eyewitness remembrance?
2. If Luke supplies motivation for the call of the disciples, where does he get this motivation? In Funk’s reconstruction, how does Luke create the calling story and why? Why do or don’t you find his argument convincing?
3. Why does Funk think that locating the first disciples among the followers of John the Baptist, as in the Fourth Gospel, may be more accurate historically? Does this mean that the story itself is historically accurate?
4. By the time the gospels were written, that is, after the destruction of the Temple in 70 ce, the names of the Twelve are no longer remembered. What is Funk’s evidence for this and what are its implications?

Chapter 5
Stephen J. Patterson, Outside the Bible: Can It Be Jesus?
1. What is the significance of a gospel being in or outside the canon? Does it make any difference in terms of its historical value? Theological value? Religious value?
2. If the Gospel of Thomas is independent of the canonical gospels, what is its value as a witness to the sayings of Jesus?
3. If a saying in Thomas has no parallel in the canonical gospels, can it still be ascribed to Jesus? What are the problems in ascribing a saying that only has single attestation to Jesus?
3. What is christological reflection? Why do scholars believe it comes from the early community and not from Jesus?
4. Why do rules for the regulation of the community come from the later tradition? What assumption does this make about the historical Jesus?
5. Thom 14:4 (“When you go into any region and walk about in the countryside, when people take you in, eat what they serve you and heal the sick among them”) was voted into the database as being from Jesus. Why do you think this was so? Why was Thom 14:2 (“If you fast, you will bring sin upon yourselves”) rejected?
6. Thomas 98, the parable of the Assassin, has remained controversial. Should it be ascribed to Jesus or the tradition? Make a list of the pros and cons in the argument and then vote for yourself.

Chapter 6
Robert T. Fortna, The Gospel of John and the Historical Jesus
1. What are the implications of seeing Jesus as a Jew? As a pre-Christian Jew?
2. Why do scholars argue that the idea of Jesus being the Son of God, as the messiah, was not entertained during his lifetime?
3. In Romans 1:3b–4 Paul states that Jesus became Son of God at the resurrection. Why does Fortna think this is important in understanding how christology developed?
4. What is the significance of referring to the movement around Jesus before his death as the “Kingdom movement” rather than the “Jesus movement”?
5. Why does Fortna argue that “almost nothing of what the Johannine Jesus says can be taken to be historically authentic”?
6. Make a list of items that show a contrast between the synoptic and the Johannine presentations of the sayings of Jesus. Why conclusions can you draw from them?

Chapter 7
Joseph B. Tyson, Why Dates Matter
1. What do you make of the parallelism in Acts between the portrayal of Peter and Paul? Is it accidental? Historical? The creation of the author?
2. Why would some argue for a date for Acts before 60 ce? What are the strong and weak points in this argument?
3. Why do some place the writing of Acts between 70 and 100 ce? Again, what are the strong and weak points in this argument? What significance does the destruction of the Temple in 70 ce have for the dating of Acts?
4. What significant differences are there between the picture of Paul in Acts and that which emerges from Paul’s letters?
5. What is the evidence for dating Acts after 100 ce? How strong do think this argument is?
6. How does the logic of Marcionism with its two different Gods—one of Hebrews and another of Jesus—derive from Paul?
7. How does seeing Acts as a response to Marcion help us understand the rise of the Christian Canon?

Chapter 8
Lane C. McGaughy, The Search for the Historical Jesus
1. Why is it that scholars believe we possess no single word or deed of the historical Jesus that is not filtered through the faith of the early community? How seriously does this reservation impact our effort to reconstruct the historical Jesus?
2. The criterion of dissimilarity stresses how Jesus is different from his contemporary culture. This accents Jesus’ distinctiveness. What is the strength of this criterion? What is its weakness?
3. Many Jesus Seminar Fellows placed a stronger emphasis on the criterion of multiple attestation, which holds that those sayings or forms that appear in several places in the tradition have the strongest claim to authenticity. What is the strength of this criterion and what are its weaknesses?
4. What is the significance of “Sayings are repeated, deeds are reported”?
5. How does the fixed form of Jesus’ miracles indicate that they were stylized in the oral tradition and do not represent historical memory?
6. The distinctive voice of Jesus has two elements: (1) the form of that speech because it consists of parables and aphorisms and (2) the radicalness of its content because of its vision of the kingdom of God. Are the form and content related? If so, how?