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Jesus Matters: 150 Years of Research
by C. J. Den Heyer
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Trinity Press International (1997-03)
ISBN: 1563381958
EAN: 9781563381959
Dewy Decimal #: 232.09034
Paperback: 193 pages
SKU: T071207-3442
Condition: Very Good
Comments: Ex-library (few marks). Very good overall condition. No writing, very tight binding. Dust cover is taped to book. Ships same day or next in a bubble mailer. Enjoy.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Jesus Matters offers a readable, reliable, and current guide to the state of research into Jesus, with wise and perceptive comments and abundant information and recommendations for further reading and exploration. Professor den Heyer describes the problems of investigating the life of Jesus, traces modern research into the life of Jesus from the beginning to the present day, takes the findings of Qumran and Nag Hammadi into full account, discusses scholarly accounts of the life of Jesus and those given in more popular bestsellers, and pays particular attention to works that have recently appeared in the United States and Britain.
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Customer Reviews
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No Historical Jesus
Rating  (5)
Date: 2000-10-09
4 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
This very brief volume, 175 pages of text, is a survey of the history of research into the reality of the life of the first century person Jesus. Many issues are at stake in the question. Was he a Galilean or Judean, was he thought to be human, a son of god, or god himself, a messiah or a rebel against Roman occupation, could he possibly have risen from the dead? What did he accomplish in this life, what did he think he was doing, or could he possibly have been a redeemer of humankind? To accomplish his task, the Dutch author recounts the history of this research. In fact, the beginning of rational study of Jesus can be timed rather precisely. It started in May 1778 with the posthumous publication of The Intention of Jesus and his Disciples by Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694-1768). In it the author is merely the first to argue the historical Jesus was a rebel who intended to liberate his people from Roman oppression. Which is why the colonial power nailed him to the cross. And, having failed, explains his cry "My god, my god, why have you forsaken me" (Mk. 15:34). The nineteenth century brought a host of insights. David Friedrich Strauss (1808-1874) argued the gospels were mythical and theological, not history. Holtzmann (1832-1910) found that Mark not John or Matthew was the earliest gospel, and that he and Matthew and Luke must have used a second source, Quelle or Q, for the confabulation of their stories. Ernest Renan (1823-1892) published the first demythologized Life of Jesus which described him as a human being of flesh and blood. This became a "best seller" which brought the discussion into the arena of an educated public. Two important scholars gained insights at the very end of the century, but published only in the twentieth. Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) considered the quest for an historical Jesus in vain. We can not know the authentic man, we must settle for the "apocalypticist." The Jesus of the gospels was mistaken, he clearly expected the end of the world and of time in the immediate future. Adolf von Harnack (1853-1930) described Jesus as a teacher of exalted ideals and a prophet of enlightenment. But he threw out all belief in miracles, the virgin birth, and the resurrection. Quite slowly the realization penetrated that all the documents of the New Testament were written years after the events they recount. They were written by believers who were making theological points, not presenting history. The sources of the historian proved less than reliable and lacked all corroboration from outside the canon. Thus slowly the awareness penetrated New Testament scholarship that historically speaking exegetes were groping in the dark. Jesus lived, but the historical Jesus remains unattainable and it is impossible to portray him. In the end the historian stands with empty hands. (P. 51) Discovered by Martin Kähler (1835-1912) but really explained by Rudolf Bultmann (1884- 1976) was a remarkable insight. The synoptic gospels consist of a collection of independent sayings or pericopes which each evangelist strung together in a different way providing various narratives of when, where, and under what circumstances these words had been uttered. The sayings likely existed before the gospels themselves were written, but they were not confirmed until the discovery of the Gospel of Thomas at Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945. In the twentieth century it became increasingly clear that Jesus did not intend to be the Messiah, that he interpreted and observed the Torah, was a characteristic Rabbi, i.e. teacher of the time, intended his message for the lost sheep of the family of Israel, and had no intention of founding a new religion or splitting from Judaism. He was willing to include Samaritans, Galileans, servants of the colonial power, and other sinners within his circle and within the faith. He was a careful and competent student of the Torah, a serious scholar and sage. It was the Roman power, not the Jewish priests who considered him dangerous and were his executioners. "Christian faith does not go back to Jesus, but to Paul and the other apostles of the first days. They founded the Christian church. This had not been Jesus' aim at all." (p. 116) He was a human being, a man of flesh and blood, he liked to eat and drink, he had human emotions of irritation, sorrow, and joy. Ultimately it is a controversy between historians who search for fact and theologians who examine the Jesus of faith. In the last chapter den Heyer sums up what is known with some certainty and in principle about the Jesus of history. This mini-biography occupies all of three pages. The book is packed with data about the history of research and an excellent reference on who wrote what when.
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