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Chapter Four the Historical Bedrock Pertaining to the Fate of Jesus

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Chapter Four the Historical Bedrock Pertaining to the Fate of Jesus Chapter Four The Historical Bedrock Pertaining to the Fate of Jesus 4.1. Introductory Comments Given the pitfall of horizons that await a haphazard historian, painting a historically responsible portrait of Jesus requires the use of historical facts that are regarded as virtually indisputable. These facts are ‘historical bedrock,’ since any legitimate hypothesis claiming to paint a fairly accurate portrait must be built upon it.1 If a hypothesis fails to explain all of the historical bedrock, it is time to drag that hypothesis back to the drawing board or to relegate it to the trash bin. In chapter one, we provided two criteria for identifying historical bedrock: the facts are strongly evidenced and contemporary scholars nearly unanimously regard them as historical facts. Historians commonly employ other facts of lesser strength, but all hypotheses posited to answer a historical question need at minimum to include the bedrock.2 Gary Habermas first adopted a similar approach as he contended that a strong case for the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus may be built upon only a few facts that are agreed upon by the vast majority of scholars writing on the subject, including rather skeptical ones. Habermas identified twelve historical facts that meet the above criteria. He then asked, “[W]hat if my list were challenged by some skeptical person? Or perhaps we are simply interested in discovering a reduced historical case that could still bear the weight of an investigation of Jesus’ resurrection. What would such a case look like?”3 Habermas then reduces his list of twelve to six “minimal facts.”4 At present Habermas has an unpublished bibliography of academic literature written on the subject of Jesus’ resurrection between 1975 to the present in German, French, and English. He has told me that there are in the neighborhood of 2,500 sources. He has catalogued the positions of scholars on more than one hundred topics directly related to the resurrection of Jesus in an MSWord document that is roughly formatted and more than six hundred pages in length.5 A point of interest related to Habermas’s research is that he has actually engaged in serious “bean counting.” Statements pertaining to a so-called “majority of scholars” are common and are usually based on educated hunches. These are not necessarily wrong, but they sometimes lead to conflicting assertions pertaining to where the majority sides. Consider the statement by Wright who describes himself as among the “recalcitrant minority” of scholars who regard Ephesians and Colossians as from Paul, while Witherington states that 1 Fredriksen (1999), 264. 2 See chapter 1.2.3, letter e. 3 Habermas (2003), 26. 4 Habermas (2003), 26-27. 5 For the published results of some of Habermas’ research, see Habermas (2003), 3-51; Habermas (2005), 135-53; G. R. Habermas, “Mapping the Recent Trend toward the Bodily Resurrection Appearances of Jesus in Light of Other Prominent Critical Positions” in Stewart, ed. (2006), 78-92; Habermas (2004). 195 “Most scholars still believe that Paul wrote Colossians.”6 Brown writes, “At the present moment about 60 percent of critical scholarship holds that Paul did not write the letter [ital. his].” He cites CLPDNW 171 as his source but adds three others studies, two of which found a majority favoring Pauline authorship of Colossians.7 Even formal counts can produce conflicting results. I wish to be clear that the “minimal facts” approach of Habermas and the nuanced one I will be taking are not to be confused with a “consensus” approach in which a fact is identified because a strong majority of scholars grant it. Habermas is also careful to consider the arguments provided by the strong majority of scholars who grant a particular fact. The strength of supporting arguments and their ability to answer counter-arguments are of primary value. Something does not become a “fact” because the majority of scholars believe it.8 I am in agreement with Allison when he states, “I am always much less interested in counting noses than in reviewing arguments—and especially in a case such as [the resurrection of Jesus].”9 Pannenberg offers a similar comment: “A single judgement of a sober historian easily outweighs a majority vote, in my opinion. Historical judgement must remain a matter of argument. A majority vote may express the dominant mood of a group, possibly its prejudices, but is not very helpful in judging claims to historical truth or authenticity.”10 Pannenberg makes a good point but he is too quick to dismiss majority opinion. While not always a reliable filter of conclusions that have been overly influenced by the horizons of historians, no filters are. In a similar manner, none of the criteria frequently employed for ascertaining the historicity of a saying or deed of Jesus can be said to be reliable all of the time. They are guidelines which often prove helpful but can never be applied in a wooden sense. In our case, there is a collection of facts pertaining to the fate of Jesus that are agreed upon by a nearly unanimous consensus of scholars on the subject. These scholars span a very wide range of theological and philosophical convictions and include atheists, agnostics, Jews, and Christians who make their abode at both ends of the theological spectrum and everywhere in between. We therefore have the heterogeneity we desire in a consensus and this gives us confidence that our horizons will not lead us completely astray during this portion of our investigation.11 I would like to address two concerns about any approach that employs a consensus. Robert Miller notes how scholar “A” who is widely respected awards historicity to a particular deed of Jesus without providing adequate argumentation. Scholar “B” who is likewise a respected scholar grants the historicity of the same deed and cites scholar 6 Wright (2003), 236; Witherington (Acts, 1998), 58. 7 R. Brown (Intro., 1997), 610, 610n24. 8 Habermas in Geisler and Meister, eds. (2007) writes, “While surveys, of course, do not mean that any particular position is correct, that this is the contemporary theological state provides at least some clues as to where recent scholars think the data point” (282). 9 Allison (“Explaining,” 2005), 125. 10 Pannenberg (1998), 22-23. 11 Bean counting is the approach of the Jesus Seminar when voting on the historicity of the sayings and deeds of Jesus. It differs from our approach in that the Jesus Seminar only takes a count from its small membership whereas the approach taken in this dissertation considers a much broader sampling of scholars (including those of the Jesus Seminar) and much greater heterogeneity is involved. 196 “A” in support. A third scholar “C” praises the thorough work of scholar “B.” Miller then asks, “Are these indications of an emerging consensus . How many consensuses in our field get started in just this way?”12 Miller makes a good point. This is where Habermas’s large-scale research on where scholars opine on a subject will be of value. The second concern relates to our collection of facts that make up the historical bedrock. Historical Jesus research is a broad field in which the number of discussions is legion. Therefore, we must be careful to remember that it is possible that some “facts” for which we may not give much attention may be used effectively in competing hypotheses. Stated differently, since we are narrowing our focus on the fate of Jesus, I may subconsciously fail to consider certain facts about Jesus because I do not see how they would fit into any of the hypotheses we will be considering. If I were more skeptical toward the idea that Jesus rose from the dead, I would be more motivated to form additional hypotheses that may include other facts that meet our criteria but which are not included in what will be our collection. However, we take comfort in the fact that many of those with whom we will be interacting are not handicapped by a similar bias and yet do not identify other facts for which a nearly unanimous majority approval exists. 4.2. The Historical Bedrock Pertaining to Jesus’ Life Before identifying the historical bedrock immediately relevant to our investigation, this is a good point to discuss a broader context of Jesus’ life in which the more immediate facts appear. There is a strong consensus today among scholars that Jesus thought of himself as an exorcist, miracle worker, and God’s eschatological agent. Many likewise maintain that he was convinced he would die an imminent and violent death and subsequently would be vindicated by God. These data strongly support the conclusion that the reports of Jesus’ resurrection place it in a significantly charged religious context. Accordingly, if the Resurrection hypothesis turns out to be the best explanation of the relevant historical bedrock, we are warranted in calling it a miracle. 4.2.1. Jesus the Miracle-Worker and Exorcist That Jesus performed feats that both he and his followers interpreted as miracles and exorcisms is a fact strongly evidenced and supported by the majority of scholars.13 Graham Twelftree, perhaps the leading authority on the miracles and exorcisms of 12 R. J. Miller (1992), 9. 13 C. A. Evans, “Authenticating the Activities of Jesus” in Chilton and Evans, eds. (Activities, 2002): “Scholarship has now moved past its preoccupation with demythologization. The miracle stories are now treated seriously and are widely accepted by Jesus scholars as deriving from Jesus’ ministry” (12); Sanders (1985) lists six “almost indisputable facts” about Jesus, the second of which is that he “was a Galilean preacher and healer” (11); Sanders (1993) states that there is an agreement among scholars that “Jesus performed miracles” (157).
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