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Jesus and the Gospels Part I Professor Luke Timothy Johnson THE TEACHING COMPANY ® Luke Timothy Johnson, Ph.D. Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins, Emory University Luke Timothy Johnson is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia. Born in 1943 and from the ages of 19 to 28 a Benedictine monk, Dr. Johnson received a B.A. in philosophy from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, an M.Div. in theology from Saint Meinrad School of Theology in Indiana, and an M.A. in religious studies from Indiana University, before earning his Ph.D. in New Testament from Yale University in 1976. Professor Johnson taught at Yale Divinity School from 1976 to 1982 and at Indiana University from 1982 to 1992 before accepting his current position at Emory. He is the author of 20 books, including The Writings of the New Testament: An Interpretation (2nd edition, 1999), which is used widely as a textbook in seminaries and colleges. He has also published several hundred articles and reviews. His most recent publications are: The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why It Matters and The Future of Catholic Biblical Scholarship. He is working on a study of the influence of Greco-Roman religion on Christianity. Professor Johnson has taught undergraduates, as well as master’s level and doctoral students. At Indiana University, he received the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching, was elected a member of the Faculty Colloquium on Excellence in Teaching, and won the Brown Derby and Student Choice Awards for teaching. At Emory, he has twice received the “On Eagle’s Wings Excellence in Teaching” Award. In 1997–1998, he was a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar, speaking at college campuses across the country. Professor Johnson is married to Joy Randazzo. They share 7 children, 12 grandchildren, and 3 great-grandchildren. Johnson also teaches the courses called The Apostle Paul, Early Christianity: The Experience of the Divine, Practical Philosophy: The Greco-Roman Moralists, and Christianity in Great World Religions for The Teaching Company. ©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership i Table of Contents Jesus and the Gospels Part I Professor Biography............................................................................................i Course Scope.......................................................................................................1 Lecture One Why Not “The Historical Jesus”?..............................2 Lecture Two The Starting Point—The Resurrection Experience .................................................................4 Lecture Three The Matrix—Symbolic World of Greek and Jew ......................................................................6 Lecture Four Parallels—Stories of Greek and Jewish Heroes ........8 Lecture Five The Context—Jesus in the Memory of the Church ...............................................................10 Lecture Six Earliest Stages—Paul and the Oral Tradition ..........12 Lecture Seven Why Compose Gospels?..........................................14 Lecture Eight The Synoptic Problem and Its Solutions..................16 Lecture Nine Gospel of Mark—Apocalyptic and Irony................18 Lecture Ten Gospel of Mark—Good News in Mystery...............20 Lecture Eleven Gospel of Mark—Teacher and Disciples.................22 Lecture Twelve Gospel of Mark—Passion and Death ......................24 Timeline.............................................................................................................26 Glossary.............................................................................................................28 Biographical Notes............................................................................................31 Bibliography......................................................................................................34 ii ©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership Jesus and the Gospels Scope: Early Christianity was prolific in its production of Gospels—narratives that in one way or another have Jesus of Nazareth as their central character. There are many more Gospels than the four included in the New Testament. They are almost bewilderingly diverse in the way they portray Jesus. The Gospels are fascinating literary compositions in their own right, and they raise puzzling questions about the figure they portray and about the religious movement, Christianity, that produced them. What accounts for the diversity of images? Is it possible to speak of a single Jesus when accounts about him are so various? The most common approach to these questions is through history. The so-called “quest for the historical Jesus” asks who the human Jesus really was behind all the different portraits. One example of that quest is offered in the Teaching Company course called The Historical Jesus. Although the historical question is legitimate and even compelling, it is also virtually impossible to answer satisfactorily. Certainly some historical statements can be made about the human Jesus that meet the strictest criteria of historical method. But such statements fall far short of providing a full or even meaningful grasp of Jesus’s identity. Worse, such historical efforts treat the actual Gospels shabbily. The literary effect of the compositions tends to be completely ignored, while the materials in them that are deemed authentic are ripped out of their literary contexts to be placed in the historian’s reconstruction. The approach to Jesus and the Gospels taken in this course is not primarily historical but literary. Of course, history comes into play as we place the various Gospels within the development of Christianity. Our search, however, is not for the figure behind the Gospels but for the even more fascinating figure in them. Only after the full range of these literary representations has been considered can the question of “the real Jesus” adequately be posed—and it may not be answerable in strictly historical terms. Our focus, in short, is not simply on Jesus but also on the Gospels as literary compositions. We want to know how they came to be, how they are related to one another, and how they communicate through their literary structure, plot, character development, themes, and symbolism. It is, after all, as literature that the Gospels influenced history. And it is through literature that present-day readers can continue to encounter Jesus. The opening lectures set the context for the emergence of the Gospels as distinctive literary expressions: the historical, cultural, and experiential matrix in which Jesus traditions were selected and shaped by early Christian communities. Then, we consider the conditions that required a shift from oral tradition to written composition and the literary relations among the synoptic Gospels. The four canonical Gospels (those found in the New Testament) of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John are next examined in considerable detail, precisely as literary expressions that witness to and interpret the Christian community’s convictions concerning Jesus. For each Gospel, we consider not only what is being said but also how it is being said. Such attention is appropriate both because of the literary richness of the canonical Gospels and because theirs are the portrayals of Jesus that have exercised the most influence through history. We turn next to the wide range of apocryphal Gospels (those not found in the New Testament), including the intriguing infancy Gospels of James and Thomas, fragments from lost narrative Gospels deriving from Jewish Christian circles, and finally, the various compositions usually associated with Gnosticism that in one way or another can be considered Gospels. The final lectures consider the illusive and compelling figure of Jesus, both as he is found in his diverse literary representations and as he is experienced in communities of faith that read the Gospels in the context of worship. ______________________________ Material from Documents for the Study of the Gospels edited by David R. Cartlidge and David L. Dungan, is reproduced with permission from Augsburg Fortress, Publishers (Minneapolis, MN). Material from The Nag Hammadi Library in English, 2nd Edition by James M. Robinson, is reproduced with permission from Brill Academic Publishers. ©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership 1 Lecture One Why Not “The Historical Jesus”? Scope: Given that Jesus is a real human figure of the past, it would seem that the best way to learn about him would be through the discipline of history. The so-called “quest for the historical Jesus,” however, suggests that even though history is important as a tool, it also has real limits. A better approach to the human Jesus is through a literary study of the various compositions in which he is the central figure. This opening presentation shows how history is and is not helpful and why a comparative literary analysis of Gospels is at once a more responsible and more satisfying way of engaging this most fascinating yet illusive person. Outline I. That Jesus of Nazareth is a figure deserving study is not difficult, and usually not necessary, to demonstrate. A. Jesus is the single most pivotal figure in the shaping of Western culture: One cannot claim to understand the West without coming to grips with Jesus. B. Jesus is the founding figure of the largest world religion; understanding the religious behavior of two billion people involves understanding their allegiance