We’re going to travel back in time to where the ‘quests’ for the historical Jesus first began. We’ll find out what scholars throughout history have thought about who Jesus was and what they concluded about his significance in their own time. And we’ll hear about what some of the new research and archaeological finds are telling us about Jesus today.
Meet our guest
Professor Craig A. Evans is a bit of a legend in the world of studying the historical Jesus. He is Distinguished Professor Christian Origins at Houston Theological Seminary. Professor Evans has published over 70 books including Jesus and His Contemporaries and Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels. But we’re talking to Professor Evans today primarily about his latest endeavour: a two-volume monster called A History of the Quests for the Historical Jesus.
Links
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To Read
- Despite the widespread scholarly consensus, the jury still seems to be out in the community over whether Jesus is real to Australians
- The same can be said of the UK, as unpacked by the BBC – for many Brits Jesus is not a real person
- Our very own JD wrote on this very topic for the ABC (Australia’s public broadcaster) – ‘Most Australians doubt Jesus existed, but historians don’t’
- He’s also done this overview of the First Quest for Jesus for CPX
- The New York Times article ‘Return of the Jesus Wars’ is a great introduction to the work of Reimarus and the Jesus quests
- The Atlantic has also gifted us with an overview of the quests via this great article- ‘Who Do Men Say I Am?’
- This New York Times exploration of the harmony between religion and the enlightenment is helpful reading for understanding the context of the early Jesus’ quests
- The Gospel Coalition also has this helpful resource unpacking why Jesus appears so coy about his identity
- Encyclopedia Britannica gives us the rundown on Hermann Reimarus
- And same again for David Strauss
- This archive of Origen’s works is a great tool if you’re after a more ancient take on how people saw the gospels
- Associate Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School Joshua Jipp has done an excellent unpacking of some of Bultmann’s theology in his essay ‘Myth, Science and Hermeneutics: Rudolph Bultmann on Creation’
- ‘The Problem With the Criteria of Double Dissimilarity’ – Courtesy of the History of Christianity podcast – further breaks down why this historical method is riddled with problems
- Geza Vermes’s obituary via The Guardian is both moving and insightful, recounting the life of one of the great Jesus scholars
- The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls was – and continues to be – huge news for the wider historical community. Check out this read from The Times on it; ‘Dig Uncovers new fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls in caves
- This great article from the Smithsonian details the uncovering of a 2000-year-old synagogue in Mary Magdalenes purported home-town
- And finally – The Guardian once again provides the goods, with this summation of the early historical evidence that Jesus Christ – at the very least – lived and died
To Watch
- Professor Evans is well-travelled on the quest for the historical Jesus – check out this YouTube discussion with Faithlife on Jesus and archaeology
- Speaking of Quests – we can’t go past the greatest fictional quest of all; The Lord Of The Rings – enjoy this outtake featured in the episode here
- Check out this helpful video on Origen of Alexandria
- The ‘10 Biggest Lies’ about Jesus
- Introduction of ‘Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail’
- While certainly a side-step, this video of the earliest depictions of Jesus in art is a fascinating insight into the Christological tradition as it evolved over the centuries
- And of course, don’t forget our friends at Zondervan with their ongoing series of Academic Master Lectures
To Listen
- For more on the gnostic gospels – and just juicy gospel info in general – check out our episode Canon Fodder, with insights from historian Dr Chris Forbes and New Testament scholar Mike Bird
- The Stanford Continuing Studies Program has an in-depth, thorough lecture series looking at the historicity of Jesus. Check it out here
- Dr Bart Ehrman’s newish podcast Misquoting The Historical Jesus unpacks “little-known facts about the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the rise of Christianity”. Check it out here or wherever you get your podcasts
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