#x98;The#x9C; originality of Jesus a critical discussion and a comparative attempt

"For the first time in the history of modern Jesus research Per Bilde aims his scholarly interest at the originality of the historical Jesus. Accordingly he examines the historical Jesus and 14 contemporary Jewish Palestinian figures who, in one or more respects, can be argued to be comparable to Jesus. He comes to the conclusion that Jesus can be regarded as similar to a number of these figures, however, some more than others, and that he appears to be unique in some other respects."--Publisher website. Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 1.1 Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 1.2 Why a new contribution on Jesus’ originality? . . . . . . . . . 23 1.3 A definition of the “historical Jesus” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 1.4 The existing sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 1.5 How is it possible to reconstruct the historical Jesus? . . . . . 31 1.6 What can we understand by “originality”? . . . . . . . . . . . 36 1.7 Difficulties and benefits by comparing Jesus with related figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 1.8 Approach and outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 2. A critical survey of modern Jesus research from Reimarus to 2012 . 47 2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 2.2 Major positions in the first and second periods of modern Jesus research (from Reimarus to ca. 1970) . . . . . . . . . . . 49 2.3 Main positions in the third period of modern Jesus research (ca. 1970– 2012) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 2.4 Recent unhistorical interpretations of Jesus and contemporary popular literature and films about Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 2.5 A critical presentation of modern Danish research on the historical Jesus from Georg Brandes (1925) to Mogens Müller (2008a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 2.5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 2.5.2 Selected Danish Jesus monographs . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 2.5.3 The negative or ambiguous attitude of leading Danish New Testament scholars to the issue of the historical Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 2.5.4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 2.6 General conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 3. A critical examination of previous proposals on the originality of the historical Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 3.2 A preliminary overview of earlier interpretations of Jesus’ originality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 3.3 The traditional Christian answer : Jesus’ unique effort was to bring Christianity into this world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 3.4 A new and higher ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 3.5 Jesus’ parables and other formal features of the Jesus tradition 107 3.6 Liberation and emancipation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 3.7 The eschatological proclamation of the imminent coming of god’s kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 3.8 Healings and other miracles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 3.9 Jesus’ authority and status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 3.10 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 4. A revised reconstruction of the eschatological project of the historical Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 4.2 The appointment of the twelve selected envoys . . . . . . . . . 132 4.3 The chosen “remnant” of the Jewish people . . . . . . . . . . . 134 4.4 The Mosaic Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 4.5 The temple in Jerusalem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 4.6 The journey to Jerusalem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 4.7 Jesus’ possible predictions and interpretations of his impending death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 4.8 The institution of a new covenant between the Jewish god and the Jewish people . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 4.9 Jews and gentiles in Jesus’ eschatological project . . . . . . . . 162 4.10 Jesus and the Jewish ideas of the Messiah . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 4.11 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 5. The comparative Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 5.2 A brief critical presentation of earlier comparative attempts . . 176 5.2.1 The traditional Christian interpretation of the originality of Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 5.2.2 A comparative version of the traditional Christian interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 5.2.3 Random comparisons between Jesus and related figures in various regions and periods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 5.2.4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 5.3 Jesus compared to related Jewish figures . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 5.3.1 Jesus compared with ancient (mythical) Jewish characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 5.3.2 Jesus compared to contemporary Jewish figures . . . . . 181 5.3.2.1 The Hasmonean Prince Simon . . . . . . . . . 182 5.3.2.2 The Teacher of Righteousness . . . . . . . . . . 183 5.3.2.3 Rabbi Hillel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 5.3.2.4 Judas the Galilean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 5.3.2.5 John the Baptist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 5.3.2.6 Jesus Barabbas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 5.3.2.7 Theudas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 5.3.2.8 Paul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 5.3.2.9 The Egyptian Prophet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 5.3.2.10 Jesus Son of Ananiah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 5.3.2.11 Josephus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 5.3.2.12 Rabbi Jochanan Ben-Zakkai . . . . . . . . . . . 234 5.3.2.13 Rabbi Akiba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 5.3.2.14 Simon Bar Kochba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 5.3.3 Jesus compared with related Jewish figures in later times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 5.3.3.1 Jehudah ha-nasi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 5.3.3.2 Sabbatai Zvi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 5.3.3.3 Menachem Mendel Schneersohn . . . . . . . . 244 5.3.3.4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 5.4 Jesus compared with contemporary related Hellenistic-Roman figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 5.5 Jesus compared with later related Christian figures . . . . . . 251 5.6 Jesus compared to other related religio-historical figures . . . 252 5.7 Jesus compared with related “secular prophets” in modern times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 5.8 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 5.8.1 Main Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 5.8.2 Jesus compared to contemporary Jewish figures . . . . . 257 5.8.2.1 Similarities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257 5.8.2.2. Differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 6. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 6.2 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 6.3 The concept of “originality” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 6.4 The term “comparison” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263 6.5 Modern Jesus research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263 6.6 A Summary sketch of the historical Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 6.7 How original was Jesus? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 For the first time in the history of modern Jesus research Per Bilde aims his scholarly interest at the originality of the historical Jesus. Accordingly he examines the historical Jesus and 14 contemporary Jewish Palestinian figures who, in one or more respects, can be argued to be comparable to Jesus. He comes to the conclusion that Jesus can be regarded as similar to a number of these figures, however, some more than others, and that he appears to be unique in some other respects. For the first time in the history of modern Jesus research Per Bilde aims ..

For the first time in the history of modern Jesus research Per Bilde aims his scholarly interest at the originality of the historical Jesus. Accordingly he examines the historical Jesus and 14 contemporary Jewish Palestinian figures who, in one or more respects, can be argued to be comparable to Jesus. He comes to the conclusion that Jesus can be regarded as similar to a number of these figures, however, some more than others, and that he appears to be unique in some other respects.