CHAPTER ONE The Historical Jesus

Historical Evidence - Although Jesus is known to have been a great teacher, he personally left no writings behind - New Testament writings, especially the gospels, prove Jesus’ existence while also noting historical events and people

Historical Evidence - Historical evidence of Jesus’ existence from both Roman and Jewish independent sources include writings from: • Tacitus • Suetonius • Pliny the Younger • Josephus

The Scriptures and Jesus - The Primary source material about Jesus and earliest followers is the New Testament: • The New Testament contains 27 books • Most important are the four gospels • Composed over a period of about 70 years • Testament means “covenant” • Jesus Christ represents the new covenant shown in the New Testament

The Scriptures and Jesus -The covenant theme is central in the Old Testament: • 46 books of inspired writings • Began with the call to Abraham • Many examples of God’s loving kindness • Reveals how unfaithful the Chosen People were to the covenant • God’s covenant was to be a new testament sealed in the blood of his Son - Jesus is the “New Testament” • NT continues and fulfills the Old Testament

The Scriptures and Jesus - God is the true author of the sacred scriptures - Inspiration: Holy Spirit teaching truth through the Bible without destroying the free and personal activity of the human writer • Holy Spirit inspired the human authors of the Bible • Gospel - “Good News” -Why are there four written versions of one gospel? • God wanted four different perspectives of Jesus

The Scriptures and Jesus - Canon of the Bible: official list of books the Church considers its inspired writings - 46 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books - In order to be included in the Canon, the following criteria had to be met: • Apostolic Origin • Widespread Acceptance • Conformity to the Rule of Faith

Formation of the Gospels -Three stages involved in the formation of the gospels: 1.) Public life and teaching of Jesus 2.) Oral tradition and preaching by the apostles and early disciples of Jesus 3.) Written gospels themselves

Formation of the Gospels Stage 1: Public Life - Apostles were eyewitnesses to Jesus’ life and ministry that helped to form and preserve the gospel in the first stage Stage 2: Oral Tradition - Oral preaching took three forms: 1.) Kerygma - preaching to nonbelievers 2.) Didache - teachings 3.) Liturgy - worship of the Christians

Formation of the Gospels - Oral preaching had to be committed to writing for three major reasons: 1.) End of the world was not coming as quickly as the early Christians thought it would 2.) Distortions were setting in 3.) More instruction was needed

Formation of the Gospels Stage 3: New Testament Writings - Earliest New Testament writings are letters of St. Paul - Gospels and various other writings such as Acts of the Apostles and Revelations followed

Interpreting the New Testament - The New Testament is the most important collection of books ever written and assembled - Historical research looks to the customs and ways of thinking at the time the events took place and were written -Literary criticism analyzes the writings themselves -Analysts look to the Magisterium for final authority in interpreting the scriptures

Interpreting the New Testament -Five categories of historical-literary method: 1.) Source Criticism 2.) Historical Criticism 3.) Form Criticism 4.) Redaction Criticism 5.) Textual Criticism

Interpreting the New Testament 1.) Source Criticism Tries to determine what source or sources the gospel and other New Testament writers used to compose their works - Synoptic Gospels • Made up of gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke • Means “seen together” - Widely accepted that Mark was the first gospel written

Interpreting the New Testament Mark M Matthew Luke L Q -Matthew and Luke drew on a common source “Q” - a collection of Jesus’ sayings -Matthew and Luke also used materials unique to them called “M” and “L”

Interpreting the New Testament 2.) Historical Criticism: -Attempts to discover what the evangelists really wanted to say when they wrote a text (literal sense) -Determine the probability that what the gospels report about Jesus and his teachings can be traced to him - Criterion developed: • Linguistic analysis • Originality • Convergence • Consistency

Interpreting the New Testament 3.) Form Criticism: - Focuses on these literary differences - the type of New Testament book we are reading and the individual literary units each book contains - Two literary forms: • Historical narrative • Parable - story

Interpreting the New Testament 4.) Redaction Criticism -Focuses on the evangelists as editors: how and why they arranged their sources the way they did -Tries to discover the particular theological slant of the given writer and how this influenced their arrangement of the material -All four gospels are necessary to get the full picture of Jesus

Interpreting the New Testament Redaction Criticism Cont. -Matthew • Wrote for a Jewish-Christian audience and stressed how Jesus fulfilled prophecies made to the Chosen People -Mark • Wrote for a local church that experienced great suffering • Presented Jesus as the Suffering Servant

Interpreting the New Testament Redaction Criticism Cont. - Luke • Wrote for Gentile-Christians • Presented Jesus as the Universal Messiah - John • Wrote for various churches around the Roman Empire • Presented Jesus as the Word of God

Interpreting the New Testament 5.) Textual Criticism - Compares the minor changes and mistakes made through the centuries -Two interesting points: • The differences between the majority of these copies are minor • There are far more copies of the gospels and other New Testament writings than any other ancient writing

Interpreting the New Testament - St. Jerome’s translation of the entire Bible into Latin is the Vulgate - became the Church’s official translation of the Bible - Two important Catholic translations of the Bible into English are: • The New American Bible • New Jerusalem Bible

Vocabulary Canon (of the Bible) Catechesis Evangelist Gospel Inspiration Q Synoptic Gospels Testament