Jesus, Christ, Christians

1. Jesus, Christ, Christians

2. Texts • History from documents • No originals; copies of copies • Modern textual criticism • Lower and higher criticism • Some examples:

3. John 1 5:7-8 (trinity stuff). In 1830, three manuscripts found prior to 325 (Nicea) that don’t have this in there. 6 This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. 7 For there are three that bear recordin heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. 8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one

4. 1 Corinthians 14:33-35, a later addition to the text) 33 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints, 34 the women should keep silence in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as even the law says. 35 If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.

5. Luke 23:32 “Two others also, who also were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him.” • To avoid the implication in this text that Jesus was also a criminal, most Greek witnesses have changed the sequence of words to solve the difficulty.

6. Mark’s Gospel • “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing (Mark 16:6-8) • … and that’s it. Earliest gospel – the “endings” of Mark later additions, drawing on, among other sources, the other gospels

7. Point: • this kind of textual detective work that begins in earnest in the mid 1800s radically alters conceptions of the nature of religion. No longer revealed, handed down in an intact, pristine forms—rather, religion is a construct, pieced and put together in various ways, according to various agendas. Manuscript studies, philology open up many questions, and can undermine authority of the text. • Manuscript study also basis for reconstructing, arguing historical developments of early and ancient church

8. Jesus • Bare outline of life; historical details disputed; search for the historical Jesus • History of religions: Jewish preacher; wandering sage; magical healer; political revolutionary • Teacher of wisdom: “what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? (Mark 6:2) • Crazy wisdom: “Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” (Luke 12:22) • Cynics – similarities • Healer/wonders • kingdom

9. References outside NT • Josephus (Jewish historian, died ~37 - 100C.E.) • Jesus as sage, wonder-worker; “doer of startling deeds”; gained a following (Jews and Greeks) trouble in Jerusalem; accusations; condemned, crucified. He concludes: Even at the end of the 1st c., “the tribe of Christians” named after him had not died out. • Tacitus (Roman historian, ~56-120C.E.) • Fire in Rome under Nero, in 64C.E. Tacitus reports Nero blamed Christians, using them as scapegoats. “Their name comes from Christus, who suffred the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one our procurators, Pontius Pilate.” • “this mischievous superstition again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their center and become popular.” • Point: in first c. of Christian era, images and memories of Jesus shaped at intersection of history, religious memory, social/political interest

10. Christians • Circa 50C.E. • Two kinds of groups – Jesus movement and Christ congregations • Jesus Movements • Pillars of Jerusalem – Peter, James, John • Family of Jesus – James (brother) • Others, too • Community in Galilee – source sayings

11. Christ Congregations • More than public rejection/humiliation and torture of righteous teacher – redemptive event in history • Early ritual creed: “That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures; and that he appeared.” (1 Corinthians; Mark 14:22)

12. Paul • Around the year 48, Paul went to Jerusalem to meet with the “pillars”, Peter, James, and John. According to Paul, they discussed the issue of circumcision (Gal, 1-2). • Flesh, lineage, law – spirit • Literal – allegorical reading of scripture • Genesis – God promises Abraham his “seed” would multiply and that “all the nations would be blessed in him.” • Seed – literal (biology) or allegorical (spiritual)? • Opened up scripture, also huge can of worms. • Corinthians • Liberated from ethics (60s counterculture) – free sex, for example • Spiritual freedom = license • “All things are lawful for me.” (1 Corinthians) • “discerning the body”