One of the books that really taught me a lot is the book “A Marginal Jew” by John P. Meier. The subtitle for the book is “rethinking the historical Jesus”. He attempts a ‘fragmentary hypothetical reconstruction of him by modern means of research’. He goes through a number of sources on information about Jesus starting with the classic gospels but including other historical writings as well.
The thing that I most liked about his book was his criteria for how to decide what comes from the historical Jesus. He lays out 5 primary criteria which would reinforce that a story or saying in the Gospels was actually from Jesus as opposed to possible editorial work by the evangelists or oral traditions from the first century church. The more of these criteria that are met, the more likely the story came from the ‘historical’ Jesus. The primary criteria are:
1. The criterion of embarrassment. If you were writing a book about someone you loved and admired, you would probably leave out stories that might be embarrassing. The only reason you would leave them in would be if you couldn’t leave it out without losing your credibility. Examples might be: Jesus’ baptism by His inferior John the Baptist, Jesus saying that only the Father knows when the world will end, …
2. The criterion of discontinuity. This includes teachings that are so different from prevailing thought at the time that they are likely to come from Jesus. Examples – Jesus’ prohibition of all oaths, and His rejection of fasting for His disciples while He was on earth.
3. The criterion of multiple attestation. The more independent sources that tell the same story, the more likely it is to have come from the historical Jesus.
4. The criterion of coherence or consistency. If the story is consistent with the rest of Jesus’ teachings, it is more likely to have come directly from Him.
5. The criterion of rejection and execution. Clearly Jesus’ words and deeds alienated powerful people and this must be taken into account.
About this time, you’re saying ‘interesting (or not) but so what?’. More on this next time but this point of view has really helped me understand more about the institution of the Sacraments
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Hello,
I linked to your post on theolounge.org.
Yours Marc from Germany
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