RECOVERING THE HISTORICAL JESUS- ADRIANNE G.

ALINSA

First of all, the story of Jesus must be placed within the religious world of a first-century
Palestinian Jew. The efforts of critics like John Dominic Crossan to use cultural anthropology
rather than the religious tradition of his people to reconstruct the world of Jesus completely
overlooks the fact that Jesus was a member of a community whose worldview was formed by the
Hebrew scriptures. Jesus cannot be understood apart from the religious history of Israel. His
story, which opens with his baptism by John, is from the beginning situated within a religious
context. The Jesus who appears to us in the Christian scriptures, his understanding of God, his
sense of being part of and in solidarity with a people, the religious imagery, anthropology, and
theology implicit in his preaching must be understood in the light of that context. His own
religious imagination was shaped by the religious tradition of which he was part.

Criteria proposed by John P. Meier

1. Embarrassment

The criteria of ‘embarrassment’ assumes that material about Jesus or the apostles that
would prove embarrassing to Jesus or the early church would have been suppressed
or softened by the evangelists. The fact that such material is present is usually a sign
that it comes from the first stage of the Gospel tradition and so is authentic.

2. Discontinuity

Also referred to as the criterion of ‘dissimilarity’, ‘originality’, or ‘dual

irreducibility’, this criterion focuses on words or deeds of Jesus that do not reflect the
practice of either Judaism or the early church. The presupposition here is that a saying
or action contrary to what was taken for granted by the Jewish community or the
church is probably authentic.

3. Multiple Attestation

The criterion of ‘multiple attestation’ or ‘cross section’ holds that the words or deeds
of Jesus which are reported in more than one independent literary source (Paul, Mark,
John) and/or more than one literary form (saying, parable, miracle story) are most
probably authentic.

However Schillebeeckx (95) cautions that something found in only one tradition can
still authentic.

4. Coherence

Also called ‘consistency’ or ‘conformity’, this criterion can be applied once a certain
amount of historical material has been established on the basis of the other criteria.
This help to gradually build up a picture of historical Jesus. Some sayings attributed
 to Jesus may have been created by the earliest preachers and evangelist; since these
earliest Christians would have been familiar with the preaching of Jesus. This sayings
maybe consistent with his teaching even if not ‘authentic’ in the technical sense of
coming from Jesus himself.

Meier (176) notes that this criterion of coherence should not be used negatively,
declaring a saying or action inauthentic because it is judged inconsistent with what
has already been established as authentic.

5. Rejection and Execution

The historical Jesus, in his preaching and ministry, alienated powerful constituencies.
Taking note of Jesus violent end, this criterion of rejection seeks to find the words or
deeds that provoked it. As Meier says. “a bland Jesus who simply told people to look
at the lilies of the field” would threaten no one. A Jesus whose words and deeds
would not alienate people, is not the historical Jesus.

Doubtful Criteria

1. Traces of Aramaic

This means judging a saying as authentic on the basis of traces of Aramaic

vocabulary, syntax, grammar, or rhythm. While Joachim Jeremias popularized
this approach, many scholars today question its validity. Sayings reflecting
Aramaic vocabulary or usage could come from Aramaic speaking Palestinian
Christians rather than from Jesus.

2. Palestinian environment

Similarly, judging sayings of Jesus as authentic because they contain ‘local color’,
reflecting first century Palestinian, is dubious. Such sayings may come from early
Christians living in Palestine.

3. Saying with Formulas

Sayings distinguished by formulas such as ‘‘truly, truly I say to you’’ or ‘‘but I

say to you’’ are not necessarily authentic. Such formulae were frequently used in
Hellesnitic-Jewish apocalyptic writings.

4. Abba Sayings

Though ‘Abba’ is an authentic Jesus word, but not every saying containing the
word “Abba” is necessarily authentic.

5. Vividness of Narration
The fact that a story is vividly told with concrete detail not directly relevant to the
point of the story should not be taken automatically as a sign of authenticity. The
vividness of the account may simply reflect the skill of the storyteller.

CONCLUSION

In a culture so influenced by modernity and postmodernism, Christology must be

approached in a critical way. In an earlier, pre scientific age, the Bible supplied
not just the narrative of faith; it also provided the view of the natural world that
was considered normative. Scripture is inspired, literally “God-breathed” (2 Tim
3:16), and since God does not breathe falsehood, the text must be considered true
in all it affirms, including the miracle accounts, the attributed authors, and the
narratives traditionally considered as historical. Belief will not be intelligible in
the modern world without reconciling the division between theology and science,
faith and reason. In spite of occasional lapses, the Catholic tradition has always
taught that faith and reason are complementary must work in concert. This was
reemphasized by Pope John Paul II in his 1998 encyclical Fides et Ratio.
Throughout the encyclical the Pope stresses the compatibility of faith and reason.
The pope also emphasizes that the magisterium of the Church has rejected
‘fideism’ and ‘radical traditionalism’ as well as ‘rationalism’ and ‘ontologism’
(52). He cautions that ‘‘a resurgence of fedeism…. fails to recognize the
importance of rational knowledge and philosophical discourse for the
understanding of faith, indeed for the very possibility of belief in God’’. One
‘‘widespread’’ symptoms of this fideistic tendency is a ‘‘biblicism’’ which
appeals to the bible as the sole criterion of truth, thus eliminating the need of the
church.