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The Quest of the Historical Jesus: Problem & Promise Robert W Intersections Volume 1998 | Number 5 Article 8 1998 The Quest of the Historical Jesus: Problem & Promise Robert W. Funk Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/intersections Augustana Digital Commons Citation Funk, Robert W. (1998) "The Quest of the Historical Jesus: Problem & Promise," Intersections: Vol. 1998: No. 5, Article 8. Available at: http://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/intersections/vol1998/iss5/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Augustana Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Intersections by an authorized administrator of Augustana Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DISCUSSION: THE QUEST OF THE HISTORICAL JESUS: PROBLEM & PROMISE Robert W. Funk Introduction (1) Jesus reveals God as the absolute monarch of the kingdomof God. The quest of the historical Jesus is the pursuit of the (2) In his confession, "You are the Anointed" (the discrepancybetween the historical figure andthe portraits of messiah), 1 Simon Peter reveals who Jesus is. him in thegospels. The problem is to distinguish fact from fictionin thetwenty-two ancient gospels thatcontain reports The Apostolic Partyvests its faithin the faith of the apostle about what he said and did. The quest is thus essentially a Peter, as expressed in his confession. The Jesus Party search for reliable data. believes thatJesus, andnot Peter, ought to have the primary say about the faith that posits him as its author. The popular view is thatJesus did andsaid everything that is reportedof him in thefour New Testament gospels. After There is also a third party, the Bible Party, that cannot more thantwo centuries of critical work we know that is not always be distinguished fromthe Apostolic Party: the Bible true: the New Testament gospels are a mixture of folk Party is willing to risk everything on the New Testament, memories and creative storytelling; there is very little hard with or without the confirmation of the creeds. The New history. Furthermore, we now have thetext, in whole or in Testamentreveals the convictions of a select group of early part, of eighteen additional gospels to consider. Like the believers headed by the apostle Paul. New Testament gospels, they too must be evaluated critically. Tue· first task of the quest is to establish a firm The three parties represent three options: The Jesus Party databasefrom which to reconstruct aspects of the historical makes Jesus the catalyst of the faith; the Apostolic Party figure of Jesus. bases its claims ·on the confession of Peter and the creeds; and the Bible Party takes the New Testament as the Manyscholars believe we canisolate at least a small fund of foundation of its faith. reliable historical data. Of what value are those data? Does knowledge of the historical Jesus carry any significance for For those who have taken the decisions of the ancient Christian faith? ecumenical councils as normative, the insertion of the historical Jesus into the equation has a destabilizing effect: Responses to this question fall into two discrete categories, Jesus may not support the vote of the councils. For those which I will refer to as "parties." On the one hand, the who have vested everything in the reliability of the New Apostolic Partyinsists that knowledge of the historical Jesus Testament gospels, the · foundations have already been does not andcannot affect how we understandthe Christian shaken as a consequence of two centuries of critical faith. The content of the faith was once and for all scholarship. But for others, especially forthose for whom determinedby the"apostles" andearly church councils. On the ancient creedal formulations have begun to lose their the other hand, the Jesus Party believes knowledge of the cogency, any success in rediscovering the founder of the historical Jesus does matter and that Jesus should have faith is filled with promise regardless of its consequences. somethingto say about the religion that claims him as lord. For the most part during its long history, Christianity has The differencebetween these two parties may be expressed been preoccupied with the status of Jesus rather than with in these two formulations: the kingdomof God, which wasthe focus of Jesus' teaching. Christians call on converts to confess that Jesus is lord and Robert W. Funk is the founder of The Jesus Seminar and personal savior. Christian leaders tend to follow that with Weststar Institute. Recent books include Honest to Jesus: demands to support and honor the church and accept the Jesus for a New Millenium (Harper 1996) and Five teachings of its leaders. As a result of the quest, however, Gospels: WhatDid Jesus really say? (Harper 1996) we are being challenged to ask ourselves whether those requirements square with Jesus focus on the kingdom of Intersections/Summer 1998 14 God. 1. The synoptics vs. John. In themodern criticalstudy of thegospels beginning as· early The discrepancy between Jesus' views and behavior andthe as theeighteenth centur y, it becameapparent that theGospel institutional church is joined by a second entirely modern of Johnpresents a very differentpicture of Jesus than do the problem. In his famous demythologizing essay of 1941, so-calledsynoptic gospels--Mark, Matthew, Luke. In John, Rudolf Bultmannpointed out thatthe ancient cosmology that for example,Jesus speaksin long, involved discourses, while framesthe Christianmessage is no longer functional. We no in the synoptics Jesus' discourse consists by and large of longer believe in a three-tiered universe, heaven andhell, a short stories we call parables and one- and two-liners that second coming, a finalholocaust, and lifeafter death. These look like proverbs or epigrams. In thesynoptics, the subject features do not fit our knowledge of the physical universe. of Jesus' teachingis thekingdom of God or God's domain; in They should have awakened us long ago to the possibility John, Jesus makeshimself thetheme of his own teaching. In that such elements may not be an adequate vehicle of the the synoptics, Jesus' concerns appear to turnoutward on the Christian message. That possibility is reinforced as it poor, oppressed, sinners, and defiled; in John, his vision is becomes clearer that these items were not part of the focused on his own status andthe status of those who belong message ofJesus. We may be clinging to theold worldview to his community. It is often difficult to believe that the in order to retainour theological andecclesiastical brokerage synoptics and Johnare actually depicting the same person. systems. As a consequence of these andother discr epancies, it became My basic propositions, then, are these: almostaxiomatic in thelast two centuries of critical study to hold theview thatany real history of Jesus of Nazareth is to [JJ The quest of the historical Jesus is the pursuit of the be foundprimarily in the synoptics rather than in John. discrepancy between the historical figure and the representations of him in the gospels. 2. Matthew and Luke rewrite Mark [21 The quest of the historical Jesus is the search for Most scholars believe- that Matthew and Luke based their reliable data. gospels on the gospel of Mark. If Matthew and Luke are [3J The quest of the historical Jesus assumes that some doing no more than copying (and revising) Mark, do they reliable historical data are recoverable. provide us with independent information about Jesus? [4} Knowledge of the historical Jesus matters for faith. Again, thecommon judgment is that Matthew and Luke add [5J The recovery of the historical figure of Jesus may little or nothingreliable to Mark when they are revising their precipitate a sweeping reformation of the Christian source. However, Matthew and Luke may have made us of traditionas it enters the third millennium. independent traditions---stories and sayings---where they depart from Mark. These "stray" traditions may contain • [1] The quest of the historical Jesus is the pursuit of important inf01mation about Jesus. the discrepancy between the historical figure and the representations of him in the gospels. 3. Mark and Q. As biblical scholarship emerged fromunder the censorious The quest assumes there is some discrepancy between the eye of dogmatic theology during the eighteenth and historicalfigure of Jesus andthe way he is depicted in all the nineteenth centuries, it became clear that even the synoptic surviving gospels. Were there no discrepancy, there would evangelists differedconsiderably fromeach otherin theway be no need, indeed, no incentive, for a quest. The quest they representedJesus .. And then with the emergence of the implies thatwhat Jesus said and did has been fictionalized, Q hypothesis---a sayings gospel common to Matthew and misrepresented, or distorted to some extent in these ancient Luke---andthe discovery of the Gospel of Thomas in 1945, texts. Critical scholars---those whose historical judgments the contrastingimages of Jesus multiplied still further. The are not driven by theological commitments---generally Gospel of Mark represents Jesus as preparing forhis death subscribe to this point. almost from the beginning of his public life. Jesus three times predicts his own death. At one point Jesus even 2 How do scholars knowthere is a discrepancy? The principal interprets his own impending deathas "a ransom for many." reason is that the gospels themselves vary in the pictures they present of the historical figure. That, in turn, leads The Sayings Gospel Q, on the other hand, has no passion scholars to suspect that the gospels were not written by narrative, no predictionsof death, no resurrection stories, no eyewitnesses. These two issues are worth close scrutiny. birthand childhood stories. In QJesus is primarily a teacher Intersections/Summer 1998 15 of wisdom, althoughhe does occasionally cure people. The differentstory. InLuke's version, 4 Jesus borrows one of the orthodoxinterpretation of Jesus' death andresurrection had fishing boats, pulls out from the shore, and teaches the apparently not yet taken root in the formulationof gospels.
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