Historical Jesus

Jesus lived from 4 BCE- 30 CE. Scholars use different methods to determine what he was really like. Below is some context and rules to determine as much as we can about the historical Jesus.

Jewish Apocalyptism
Using the rules, we can discover that Jesus probably adhered to Jewish apocalyptism. This was the belief that John the Baptist adhered to and it maintained that things were bad, not because God was punishing them but because there were evil forces in the world who were opposed to God and his people and were bent on harming and destroying all that sided with God (Ehrman 131). But soon he would come down, kick ass and make everything great again. Pretty much everything that Jesus does fits into this category – his miracles, his death, his deeds, pretty much everything.



Greco-Roman Context




The gospels are based on an oral tradition of the life and teachings of Jesus. This was the main way of transferring stories in the Greco-Roman period. However, with the Jesus stories they were not written down until at least 30 or 40 years after his death. Considering the way that missions worked – privately, from person to person – it is likely that the authors of the gospels had never met someone who had never met someone who was an eyewitness to Jesus’ life and teachings. It would be like a giant game of telephone, which helps to explain the differences in stories that emerged. The ways that the gospels changed reflect the concerns of the time and community that wrote them. An example of this is the timing of Jesus’ death in Mark vs. John.

The gospels of Jesus’ life can be considered ancient biographies. These are not like modern biographies that focus on the facts and chronology of the person’s life. These biographies are more concerned with establishing the person’s character and laying out who they were through deeds, thoughts and interactions. Also, the character remains consistent throughout their life. This is the genre we should consider the gospels of Jesus to be influenced by and maybe a part of.

