01_167854 ffirs.qxp 10/29/07 7:07 PM Page i The Historical Jesus FOR DUMmIES ‰ by Catherine M.Murphy,PhD 01_167854 ffirs.qxp 10/29/07 7:07 PM Page ii The Historical Jesus For Dummies® Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright ©2008 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or oth- erwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8600. 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Library of Congress Control Number: 2007939644 ISBN: 978-0-470-16785-4 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 01_167854 ffirs.qxp 10/29/07 7:07 PM Page v Dedication This book is lovingly dedicated to my family, to Kate McNichols and Bess Murphy; to Jen, Andrew, Ian, and Neil Moore; to Eileen, Stephan, Will, and Aaron Georis; and to Tim, Diane, Zoe, and Erin Murphy. Author’s Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledge the many colleagues who have taught me about the historical Jesus and first-century Judaism, from my mentors at the University of Notre Dame to the members of the Catholic Biblical Association and the Society of Biblical Literature. Their insights and hard work fill these pages. In particular, I relied on the work of John P. Meier, Amy-Jill Levine, Fabian E. Udoh, Seth Schwartz, Warren Carter, Paula Fredriksen, Jonathan Klawans, Thomas F. Matthews, Lloyd Baugh, Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, and Mary Rose D’Angelo. Thanks, too, to my colleagues and relatives who were gracious enough to read this whole book ahead of time and offer suggestions, especially my “alpha dummy,” Bess Murphy, Kate McNichols, Dr. Cynthia M. Baker (Santa Clara University), and Dr. Susan A. Calef (Creighton University). Other colleagues at Santa Clara University who generously offered help with certain sections include Dr. Frederick Parrella, Dr. David Pinault, Dr. Tom Beaudoin, Dr. James Bennett, Dr. David Gray, Dr. J. David Pleins, and Fr. Paul Soukup, SJ. Special and sincere thanks are also due to the Wiley Publishing team. I’m especially grateful to Georgette Beatty, whose encouragement and diligence made the entire editorial process smooth and fun. Jessica Smith carefully corrected every single word. Her keen awareness of audience helped make this a much better book. Mike Baker helped get the project in motion and stood behind it all the way. Dr. Clayton N. Jefford provided a lot of feedback that helped me rethink several sections and correct some errors. Finally, thanks to Alissa Schwipps, who helped shepherd the draft manuscript into production, and everyone else on the Wiley team who helped with this book. Students in my classes at Santa Clara University have shaped the presentation of this material more than they might realize. I espe- cially want to single out my research assistant, Kristin Williams, who helped investigate some of the sidebar topics, and my colleagues in the Department of Religious Studies and the faculty at large, whose support for this project and good humor reflect their love of teaching and scholarship. 02_167854 ftoc.qxp 10/29/07 7:07 PM Page vii Contents at a Glance Introduction.......................................................1 Part I: Piecing Together the Jesus Story...............7 Chapter 1:Meeting the Manfrom Nazareth.............................................9 Chapter 2:Comparing the Gospels: A Biblical Biography of Jesus....19 Chapter 3:Pursuing the Historical Jesus in the Gospels....................33 Chapter 4:Sharing in the Quests: Appreciating Modern Scholars’ Efforts...........................................47 Chapter 5: Checking the Sources for Evidence of Jesus......................61 Part II: Reconstructing the World of Jesus .........79 Chapter 6:Introducing the Great and Powerful Rome........................81 Chapter 7:Taking a Snapshot of Jewish Society in Jesus’s Time.......93 Chapter 8:Feeling Rome’s Influence....................................................113 Part III: Exploring the Life of Jesus the Jew......127 Chapter 9:Examining Jesus’s Family and Early Life..........................129 Chapter 10: Starting a New Movement................................................147 Chapter 11: Teaching Wisdom and Telling Tales................................161 Chapter 12: Working Miracles and Confounding Crowds.................179 Part IV: Witnessing Jesus’s Execution and Resurrection............................................195 Chapter 13:Scouting the Competition: Jesus’s Opponents..............197 Chapter 14:Examining Jesus’s Crucifixion.........................................213 Chapter 15:The Resurrection: From the Messiah to the Son of God..............................................................239 Part V: Experiencing Christ in Culture..............257 Chapter 16:A Western Savior Goes Global.........................................259 Chapter 17:From Graffiti to the Guggenheim: Jesus in Art..............273 Chapter 18:The Reel Jesus...................................................................289 Part VI: The Part of Tens.................................301 Chapter 19:Top Ten Historical Controversies about Jesus..............303 Chapter 20:Top Ten Pilgrimage Sites Associated with Jesus...........307 Index: ...........................................................311 02_167854 ftoc.qxp 10/29/07 7:07 PM Page ix ix Table of Contents Introduction....................................................................1 About This Book.........................................................................1 Conventions Used in This Book................................................2 What You’re Not to Read............................................................4 Foolish Assumptions..................................................................4 How This Book Is Organized......................................................4 Part I: Piecing Together the Jesus Story........................4 Part II: Reconstructing the World of Jesus....................5 Part III: Exploring the Life of Jesus the Jew...................5 Part IV: Witnessing Jesus’s Execution and Resurrection..........................................................5 Part V: Experiencing Christ in Culture...........................5 Part VI: The Part of Tens..................................................6 Icons Used in This Book.............................................................6 Where to Go from Here..............................................................6 Part I: Piecing Together the Jesus Story................7 Chapter 1:Meeting the Man from Nazareth. . . . . . . . . . . 9 Telling the Good News in the Gospels......................................9 Sorting through the gospel versions............................10 Revealing the gospels’ message....................................10 Charting a Path Back to the Historical Jesus........................11 Adopting a critical distance..........................................12 Telling the difference between faith and fact..............12 Applying a few important rules to the evidence........13 Surveying the Life and Times of Jesus...................................14 Roman rule in Jewish lands...........................................15 Leading a godly movement...........................................15 Going to the cross and rising from the tomb..............16 Traveling through 2,000 Years of Beliefs in Jesus.................17 Debating Jesus’s divinity in late antiquity...................17 Identifying with Jesus’s humanity in the Middle Ages......................................................17 Subjecting Jesus to scrutiny.........................................18 Connecting with Jesus today........................................18 Chapter 2: Comparing the Gospels: A Biblical Biography of Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Born to Be Different: The Birth and Baptism of Jesus.........19 Away in a manger: The birth story according to Matthew and Luke...............................20 The baptism of Jesus and beyond................................20 02_167854 ftoc.qxp 10/29/07 7:07 PM Page x x The Historical Jesus For Dummies Drafting Disciples: Joining the Jesus Movement...................22 Calling people up to active duty...................................22 Understanding the backgrounds of Jesus’s followers....22 Teacher and Miracle Man: Jesus Spreads the Word.............23 Teaching with authority.................................................24 Acting with power..........................................................26 Meeting resistance wherever he went.........................28 Journeying to Jerusalem: The Crucifixion and Resurrection...................................................................29 The Last Supper..............................................................29 The agony and arrest in the garden.............................30 Jesus on trial...................................................................31 Jesus’s execution and burial.........................................32 On the third day: Jesus’s resurrection.........................32 Chapter 3:Pursuing the Historical Jesus in the Gospels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Setting Your Sights on the Historical Jesus...........................33 Navigating the Roadblocks......................................................35 Roadblock #1: The witnesses don’t agree...................35 Roadblock #2: The witnesses agree too much............36 Roadblock #3: Time has passed...................................38 Roadblock #4: The writers were biased......................39 Roadblock #5: Modern folks are biased, too...............40 Playing Detective: Imagining What Really Happened...........40 Following the clues.........................................................41 Building your case with a couple of tools...................42 Putting it all together.....................................................43 Trekking to another source in special cases: The mysterious Q.............................45 Chapter 4:Sharing in the Quests: Appreciating Modern Scholars’ Efforts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Responding to the First Critical Questions about Jesus......47 Gospels galore: Which of the gospels are true?..........48 Divine or not divine: What’s the true nature of Jesus?.....49 The Enlightenment’s Impact on the Perception of Jesus.....50 Applying science to Jesus..............................................51 Going after the gospels: The birth of deism and reactions to it.......................................51 The First “Liberal” Quest for the Historical Jesus................53 Outlining the principles and practices of the liberal quest......................................................54 Facing facts: The flawed quest collapses....................55 Responding to the collapse...........................................56 Venturing Out on the Second Quest.......................................56 Applying the rules of historicity...................................57 Reshaping the second quest.........................................57 The Third Quest: Plural Portraits of a Preacher...................59 02_167854 ftoc.qxp 10/29/07 7:07 PM Page xi xi Table of Contents Chapter 5:Checking the Sources for Evidence of Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Exposing the Earliest Christian Evidence..............................62 Peeling back the gospel layers: An alphabet soup of sources...........................................................62 Studying Paul’s epistles.................................................66 Examining other New Testament texts........................67 Recovering Traces in Later Christian Sources......................68 Sayings in the agrapha...................................................68 Heretical and hidden traditions in complete texts.....69 Seeking Out Early Jewish Views of Jesus...............................73 The Dead Sea Scrolls......................................................73 The infamous testimony of Josephus..........................74 Sifting Through Roman Records.............................................75 Following the Physical Evidence.............................................76 The legitimate evidence.................................................77 The not-so-legitimate evidence.....................................77 Part II: Reconstructing the World of Jesus..........79 Chapter 6:Introducing the Great and Powerful Rome. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Witnessing a Succession of Empires before Rome...............81 The Assyrian Empire......................................................82 The Neo-Babylonian Empire..........................................82 The Persian Empire........................................................82 Alexander the Great.......................................................83 The Romans Are Coming! The Romans Are Coming!............83 Entering Jerusalem with Pompey.................................84 Seizing imperial control with Julius Caesar................85 Consolidating the empire with Octavian.....................86 Meeting the Romans Mentioned in the Gospels...................89 Augustus..........................................................................89 Quirinius..........................................................................90 Tiberius............................................................................90 Pontius Pilate and the missus.......................................90 Roman soldiers...............................................................91 Chapter 7:Taking a Snapshot of Jewish Society in Jesus’s Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Hoping for Their Own Kind of King........................................93 Falling to foreign kings and cultures............................94 Switching to the Seleucids.............................................94 Ruling with the Hasmoneans.........................................95 Living in the time of Herod the Great...........................97 Carving up the kingdom..............................................100 02_167854 ftoc.qxp 10/29/07 7:07 PM Page xii xii The Historical Jesus For Dummies Believing in God, Temple, and Torah...................................100 Holding fast to one God...............................................101 Worshipping in the Temple.........................................101 Praying at home............................................................104 Observing the Torah....................................................104 Meeting the Major Groups in Jewish Society......................105 The conservative Sadducees......................................106 The liberal Pharisees....................................................106 The strict, apocalyptic Essenes..................................107 The rebellious Zealots..................................................108 The heretical Samaritans.............................................108 Belonging to Social Networks................................................110 Relying on the family....................................................110 Depending on help from fellow Jews.........................112 Protecting strangers and aliens..................................112 Chapter 8:Feeling Rome’s Influence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Governing Jesus’s Homeland.................................................113 Keeping the peace through the force of the army....114 Allying with local aristocrats......................................117 Resisting Rome..............................................................119 Getting a Grip on the Economy.............................................120 Working the land for crops..........................................120 Building ports, trade routes, and village commerce...121 Paying taxes, tolls, and trade duties..........................122 Impacting Jewish Religion with Roman Practice................123 Problematic practices and idolatrous images..........124 Pagan cities....................................................................125 The pick of the high priest..........................................125 The plunder of the Temple treasury..........................126 Purifiers and prophets.................................................126 Part III: Exploring the Life of Jesus the Jew ......127 Chapter 9:Examining Jesus’s Family and Early Life. . . 129 Beginning with Jesus’s Family Background.........................130 Mary, Joseph, and Jesus’s conception.......................130 Jesus’s connection to past generations.....................131 Delving into Jesus’s Birth and Childhood............................135 Jesus’s birthplace and hometown..............................135 The nativity stories......................................................136 The escape to Egypt.....................................................138 Jesus’s upbringing........................................................139 Chronicling Jesus’s Brothers and Sisters.............................139 James, the most prominent brother...........................140 Marginalizing the brothers and sisters in the gospels....140 02_167854 ftoc.qxp 10/29/07 7:07 PM Page xiii xiii Table of Contents Filling the Gaps in Jesus’s Early Life in Later Centuries....143 Developing the doctrine of the Virgin Mary..............143 Describing Jesus’s infancy in Egypt...........................145 Portraying a powerful child.........................................146 Chapter 10:Starting a New Movement. . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Meeting John the Baptist.......................................................147 Rinsing off sins in the river..........................................147 Acting as the messengerof the messiah....................150 Battling the Devil in the Desert.............................................152 Gathering Companions...........................................................153 Naming the Twelve.......................................................154 Admitting the female companions.............................155 Hanging Out with the Wrong Crowd.....................................159 Chapter 11:Teaching Wisdom and Telling Tales . . . . 161 Teaching Wisdom with Jewish Techniques.........................161 Posing parables.............................................................162 Condensing wisdom into sayings...............................164 Rhyming to remember.................................................164 Using familiar images...................................................165 Teaching by example....................................................165 Making use of different techniques in the gospel of John...............................................166 Jesus’s Central Theme: Introducing the Reign of God.......166 Proclaiming the kingdom of God as an alternative to Roman rule........................................167 Seeing who’s invited to the kingdom.........................168 Finding out the kingdom’s rules.................................171 Figuring out when the kingdom is coming................175 Covering all the bases in the Lord’s Prayer..............176 Advising Followers How to Remember Him........................176 Establishing a memorial meal.....................................176 Exemplifying service....................................................177 Things Jesus Didn’t Talk About.............................................177 Chapter 12:Working Miracles and Confounding Crowds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Working Wonders in Jesus’s Day...........................................179 Practicing medicine and magic...................................180 Debating whether Jesus was a magician...................181 Holy Healer! How Jesus Helped Bodies and Restored Lives.............................................................182 Driving out the Devil....................................................183 Healing the sick.............................................................185 Raising the dead...........................................................189 02_167854 ftoc.qxp 10/29/07 7:07 PM Page xiv xiv The Historical Jesus For Dummies Demonstrating Power through Nature.................................189 Providing for the people..............................................190 Controlling the created world.....................................191 Revealing Jesus.............................................................191 Tying Jesus’s Message to the Miracles in the Gospels.......192 Examining Modern Perspectives on Miracles.....................193 Questioning miracles during the Enlightenment......193 Deciding whether Jesus’s miracles are historical....194 Part IV: Witnessing Jesus’s Execution and Resurrection.............................................195 Chapter 13:Scouting the Competition: Jesus’s Opponents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Scanning the Power Pyramid in Palestine...........................197 Starting at the Top: The Romans..........................................200 The reasons for Roman crucifixion............................200 The threat Jesus posed................................................200 Near the Center of Power: The Sadducees..........................202 Aristocratic allegiances...............................................202 Conservative religious beliefs.....................................203 Singling out the Scribes..........................................................204 A scribe’s role in the first century..............................204 The gospels’ proverbial pests.....................................205 Up for Debate: The Pharisees................................................206 The Pharisees’ different interpretation of the Torah...............................................................206 The issues with the gospels’ portrayal of the Pharisees.......................................208 Evading the Herodians...........................................................209 Alienating Relatives, Neighbors, and Disciples...................210 Turning away from family............................................210 Offending the hometown crowd.................................211 Scandalizing the disciples...........................................211 The Ultimate Opponent in the Gospels: Satan....................212 Chapter 14:Examining Jesus’s Crucifixion . . . . . . . . . 213 Crucifixion in the Time of the Romans.................................213 Advertising Rome’s power..........................................214 Developing new ways to inflict agony........................214 The Main Players in Charge When Jesus Was Crucified....215 Provoking the people: Pontius Pilate.........................215 Collaborating with Rome: The Jewish leaders..........216 The Entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem..................................217 Riding in on high expectations...................................217 Attracting attention from leaders...............................218