Preliminary Observations

The Overall Temporal and

Thematic Framework for a
History of Early Christianity

According to the unanimous judgment of all four evangelists, the temporal

starting point for a history of the beginnings of Christianity is the appear-
ance of John the Baptist. The beginning of the public activity of Jesus
is most intimately connected with his person. Despite their theological

Luke and Matthew elude a historical presentation. At most we can infer

from them that Jesus was born prior to the death of King Herod (4 BCE).
The evangelist Luke therefore connects his only exact chronological spec-

in a synchronism of various rulers patterned on Jer 1.1-2 (LXX), which

27 or 28 CE.1 Tiberius became princeps on September 19, 14 CE. The

time of his reign must be calculated from this date. There is no reason to

Luke 3.1-2. Pontius Pilate, the prefect of Judaea (see section 3.1.3), the sons of Herod

regions, the tetrarch Lysanias of Abiline (see Schürer 1973–1987, I: 567ff.), and the high
priests Annas and Caiaphas (see section 3.1.3) are also named. Cf. also Luke 1.5, which
places the birth of the Baptist (and of Jesus; see Matt 2) at the time of King Herod, as well
as Luke 2.1-2, which places the birth of Jesus at the time of the tax estimate under Augustus
and Cyrenius (P. Sulpicius Quirinius), the governor of Syria. To be sure, this governorship

thus carried out; see Schürer 1973–1987, I: 258–59, 399–427. The evangelist has erred
here. Luke places great value on the historical anchoring of Jesus’ activity in world history;

of educated Christian authors of the second century such as Justin (1 Apol. 31.3–4; Dial.
103.3–4) or Irenaeus, Epid. 74; cf. Haer. 2.22.4–5 with appeal to John 8.57.
4 Jesus and Judaism

fundamentally mistrust Luke here,2 to place the appearance of the Bap-

tist in 26 CE, and, for example, to place the death of Jesus already in the
following year 27 CE.3 Whoever fundamentally rejects the information
provided in Luke 3.1-2 must entirely forgo the attempt to provide a more
exact chronology of Christian beginnings. Since Pilate did not come to
Palestine until the summer of 26 CE, Jesus would have been executed at
4
Against this
speaks not only the passion story—Pilate shows himself to be familiar
with the Jewish relations there—but also the bloody incident effected by
Pilate, which is portrayed in Luke 13.1ff. If Pilate “mixed the blood of

probably with an event on a day of preparation for the Passover festival,

when the pilgrims brought their Passover lambs to the temple for slaugh-
ter. After all, the prefects usually came to Jerusalem only for the main

the various indications in Josephus and the Gospels that this festival was
always especially threatened by unrests.5

activity of the Baptist from about 27/28 CE and the time of Jesus, who was
-
over festival, presumably of the year 30 CE. This means that in the case
6

of Jesus’ public activity we are dealing with a relatively short period of

time of scarcely more than a year and a half to two years, from which, to
be sure, unique world-historical effects resulted. From this brief period a
tradition that is astonishingly detailed by ancient standards is preserved for
us, in which historical recollection and later interpretation are often insep-
arably fused with each other. These few years and the traditions bound
up with them have changed the world as no other comparable period

on this period of time. The attempt to provide a portrayal of the activity of

Jesus cannot be separated without loss from a history of emerging early

Thus, however, Lüdemann 1980, 67 and elsewhere; Schneemelcher 1981, 37–38.

The late dating to 36 CE by N. Kokkinos is equally improbable (see Kokkinos 1989; 1998,
196 n. 82, 301, and elsewhere). On this, see note 231 in chapter 3.

chapter 11.
Josephus, J.W. 2.169–170; Ant. 18.35; cf. Schürer 1973–1987, I: 383–87.
See the discussion of Archelaus at the end of section 3.1.1 and section 18.3 below.
For the day of Jesus’ death and for the chronology, which extends for more than two
years in John, see section 18.2 below. For the second volume of our history of early Chris-
tianity, see Hengel/Schwemer 2019.
 The Overall Temporal and Thematic Framework for a History of Early Christianity 5

Christianity. The connection to Jesus has imprinted itself upon his disci-

by them. The tradents of the oral tradition—above all Peter—were, like

the evangelists later, important community members who had authority.
The primitive church as well was determined to a large extent by Jesus
tradition in the shaping of its life and faith. This always remained vibrant
in primitive Christianity. Accordingly, in the treatment of John the Baptist

in view the later tradition history of the Jesus tradition in the primitive
community. A concise presentation of the political, the social, and espe-
cially the religious conditions in Jewish Palestine, which had been restless
since the time of the Maccabees, belongs, of course, in this volume. This
includes especially the time of the Hasmoneans, Herod I (37–4 BCE) and

to the outbreak of the Jewish War in 66 CE.

The forty years between the emergence of the primitive community
after Easter and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE can be designated
7
to
8
for it is domi-

the brother of the Jesus, Peter, and Paul, were executed before 70 CE.9
10
-
bius’ Ecclesiastical History and encompasses for him the time of emer-
gence of the writings gathered in the New Testament, which he regarded

Cf. Schneemelcher 1981.

J. Becker 1993, 12, 121. Against the criticism of Schneemelcher 1981, 7–8, a valua-
tion in the sense of a “time of the one
this term. Schneemelcher is followed with not very convincing arguments by Alkier 1993,

extends to Galerius’ decree of toleration in 311 CE. Therefore, in light of the subject matter,
the use of appropriate terms for periods cannot be prohibited because they have sometimes
-

the second and third centuries (without protection from the state) did not split into innu-
merable groups and sects. On the identity and plurality of early Christianity, cf. now also
Markschies 2015, 301–45, esp. 335–45 (GV = 2007, 337–83, esp. 373–83).
See further below.
Eusebius, Hist. eccl.
Trall. inscr.