Tracing the Historical Life of Jesus Ave Maria

Tracing the Historical Life of Jesus ©Ave Maria Press

One Solitary Life While he did not do or have any of the things on which modern society measures success, no human being has ever affected the world as much as Jesus Christ.

Even so, there are people today who doubt that Jesus ever existed, and others who say that, after two thousand years, we can have almost no reliable information about Jesus’ life. These are serious charges, because the value of Christianity depends on the historical reality of Jesus Christ and the reliability of the Gospels.

Ancient Testimony About Jesus Since the Gospels clearly make statements of faith about Jesus, they are often rejected as objective sources of information. Are there any historical sources outside the Bible for Jesus’ existence ?

In fact, there are impartial ancient sources that establish the historical reality of Jesus. Ancient historians like Tacitus, Josephus, Pliny the Younger, Suetonius, and others, as well as texts such as the Babylonian Talmud – many of which were actually opposed to Christianity – record information that helps us conclude that Jesus was, indeed a real person.

Many of these ancient sources verify that the beliefs and traditions of the Christian community are consistent with historical reality. Even though the writers of this material were not Christian themselves, they lend credibility to the oral traditions handed down within the Church.

One aspect of the history of Christianity that is verified by these writers is that Christians were persecuted for practicing their religion. Some of the Roman emperors required their subjects to worship them, and punished those who refused with torture and death. We continue even today to be faced with the temptation to place worldly things at the top of our list of priorities—where only God should be. Whether it is money, pleasure, drugs, sex, popularity, or any other attractive thing—we must resist those temptations and give only to God the honor that belongs to him.

The Gospels and the Historical It is from the Jesus writings of the Four Evangelists that we receive the most useful written information about Jesus.

The word gospel means “good news, ” and the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote the four versions of the story of Jesus that we have in the New Testament. While not strict biographies, the Gospels present biographical information about Jesus combined with the authors’ beliefs about the Son of God to convey that the Kingdom of God is active in the world.

Following the style of ancient biographies, the Gospels present brief accounts of Jesus’ life, without the exhaustive detail we see in modern biographies. Like other ancient biographies, the Gospels do not tell us much about Jesus’ youth or physical appearance. They all focus on key events that tell us about the true character of Jesus Christ. One aspect of a person’s life that ancient biographies usually pay attention to is how a person died—and this is certainly what we see in the Gospels.

Certain aspects of the Gospels, however, are unique. Jesus himself, is in the Gospels— Because the Good News proclaimed by the Evangelists IS Jesus Christ.

The process that brought about the written Gospels took place in three stages: 1. The Historical Jesus (4 -6 BC – AD 30 -33) 2. Oral Tradition (AD 30 -50) 3. New Testament Writings (AD 50 – ca. 120)

Jesus of Nazareth Jesus the Carpenter Jesus, son of Joseph The Jesus proclaimed in the Gospels is identified by a few different “surnames. ” In the ancient world, people with the same first name were identified by things like where they came from, who their father was, or what they did for a living.

During the historical life of Jesus, his actions formed the basis for his disciples’ later proclamation about him. Recognition Jesus’ earlythat life was Jesusspent is at in the center Galilee ofas human the son history, of a humble caused Christians carpenter. to use the abbreviation A. D. , for Anno Domini, meaning “In During his public ministry, he the Year of Our Lord, ” to designate traveled the countryside teaching, years from the time of Christ’s birth healing, and proclaiming God’s onward. Kingdom. B. C. , meaning “Before Christ, ” At thetoend of his public life, Jesus to came refer to any year thought was arrested to be before the and birthcrucified—only of Christ. rise again after three days.

Over the next twenty years, the apostles obeyed Jesus’ command to go out to all the world and spread the Good News. Approaching their audience as people who did not yet possess faith in Christ, the apostles preached an outline of basic truths about Jesus called the kerygma.

Over the next twenty years, the apostles obeyed Jesus’ command to go out to all the world and spread the Good News. They put together an oral set of essential teachings about Jesus known as the didache, which means “teaching. ”

Over the next twenty years, the apostles obeyed Jesus’ command to go out to all the world and spread the Good News. Early Christians also came to reflect their beliefs about Jesus in public worship, or the liturgy. Celebration of the Eucharist came to be the focal point of the early Church’s worship.

The final stage in the development of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ was the actual writing of the New Testament. Three things caused the early Christians to finally commit the Good News to writing: 1. The End of the World did not come as soon as they had first expected it to. 2. Distortions to the apostles’ message needed to be addressed and clarified. 3. Early Christians realized that people needed to be instructed about the faith, and written Gospels provided a good teaching tool.

The final stage in the development of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ was the actual writing of the New Testament. The earliest New Testament writings are the letters of St. Paul.

The final stage in the development of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ was the actual writing of the New Testament. Next came the four canonical Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were recognized as Scripture based on the fact that they were connected to the apostles, they had widespread acceptance in the early Church, and they reflected what the early Church truly believed about Jesus.

The final stage in the development of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ was the actual writing of the New Testament. Writings about Jesus that did not meet these requirements were called apocryphal gospels, “Apocryphal” means “hidden. ” An example is the Protoevangelium of James, which attempted to fill in some details about Jesus’ early life, but was neither historically accurate nor true to Christian belief.

The final stage in the development of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ was the actual writing of the New Testament. Certain writings in early Christianity reflected various heresies, or false beliefs. One such belief was Gnosticism, which claimed that there is some secret knowledge that is necessary for salvation. The presence of heretical ideas is a reason that some books were not included in the Bible.

The four canonical Gospels present different perspectives, and address their writings to different audiences. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are so similar, they are called the Synoptic Gospels. “Synoptic” comes from the Greek word meaning “to see together. ” John’s Gospel is different. It was the last one written and only about 10% of the material in the Synoptics appears in John.

Each Gospel stands on its own, but all four share the same Good News about Jesus Christ. It is important to realize that the picture of Jesus is incomplete until you have all four Gospels together.

The Reliability of the Gospels Scripture scholars have developed various ways of investigating the Gospels so that we may have a better understanding of the Biblical texts.

Biblical “criticism” refers to the analysis, judgment, and investigation of the written texts. Textual Criticism analyzes the Gospels by comparing various early texts of the same passages. Source Criticism tries to determine what sources the Gospel writers used to compose their works. Form Criticism looks at the different literary forms used in the Gospels.

Historical Criticism uses our knowledge of ancient history, language, archaeology, etc. to determine the historical accuracy of the Biblical texts. Redaction Criticism studies how the author edited his material for a particular audience.

Through these various types of criticism of the Gospel texts, we can conclude that certain important concepts are original to Jesus. By “original, ” scholars mean that Jesus was the first to convey these ideas—that he did not borrow them from earlier thinkers or teachers.

Abba Jesus was the first to invite us to refer to God with this Hebrew term that means “Daddy. ” By this invitation, he dramatically changed the way human beings viewed God.

Amen Rather than using the word “Amen” at the end of a phrase to indicate assent with the previous statement, Jesus used it as an introduction—indicating that he spoke with unusual authority without quoting some other teacher.

Parables Jesus told stories that were unlike anything heard before or since. They were memorable, unique, and contained important insights into the Kingdom of God. Their existence proves that there was a remarkable person who created them.

Consistency There are no contradictions in the words, stories, or actions of Jesus. Everything Jesus said and did is also consistent with the larger picture that arises from the Gospels. Love Forgiveness of Sin Sacrifice

Linguistic Analysis Through studying the language Jesus used, scholars have found a unique and poetic quality to his words. Jesus was clearly more than just another teacher.

The Church and Martyrs People who deny the historical existence of Jesus have a difficult time explaining how the Catholic Church came to be.

The earliest disciples of Jesus were so convinced about his being the Son of God that they gave up their lives to proclaim him and his message. Most of the apostles died as martyrs. People who do not truly believe what they are saying will not die to defend a lie. The martyrs of the early Church provide us a strong witness to the truth of the Gospel.

Witness of the Martyrs The martyrs of the Church had nothing to gain when they proclaimed Jesus as the Savior of the world. Nothing but eternal life.