Crowds and Power in the Early Palestinian Tradition

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-140
Author(s):  
Robert J. Myles
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Historical Change ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
Crowd Theory

This article draws on critical crowd theory to explore how historical Jesus research can benefit from a more robust understanding of the crowds that engulf Jesus as subjects of historical change. Conventional approaches to the crowds within New Testament scholarship are complicit in heightening Jesus’ individual exceptionalism. Rather than envisaging the crowds as part of the anonymous background to Jesus’ ministry, or as a literary invention by the Gospel authors, we should instead regard the crowds as a collective expression of underlying social, political, and economic antagonisms.

scholarly journals Historical understanding and rethinking the foundations

2007 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jurie Le Roux
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
Historical Understanding ◽  
History Writing ◽  
The University ◽  
Point Of Departure

This article contributes to the fundamental rethinking of New Testament scholarship being undertaken by New Testament scholars attached to the University of South Africa (UNISA), Pretoria, South Africa. The thrust of the article holds that the historical Jesus research is of the utmost importance and it puts the emphasis on the individuality of an event and the contribution of nineteenth century reflection on history. As point of departure and further elaboration it accentuates the notion that history writing must be a form of homecoming.

‘The Duty of Discontent’: Some Remarks on Pieter F. Craffert’s The Life of a Galilean Shaman: Jesus of Nazareth in Anthropological-Historical Perspective

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-280
Author(s):  
Christian Strecker
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
Critical Scholarship ◽  
Western Discourse ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Scholarly Attention

This essay commends Pieter Craffert’s book “The Life of a Galilean shaman” as an important contribution in the field of Jesus studies. At the same time it reveals that Crafferts attempt to identify Jesus as a Galilean shaman is problematic, particularly considering the enigmatic nature of the category “shaman.” Western discourse on shamanism tends to contain an unwelcome mix of exoticism, alienation, and fascination; transferring this model to the life of Jesus is in danger of applying anachronistic and ethnocentric notions to the historical Jesus, not to mention the difficulties involved in verifying the supposed treatment of shamanic ASC-experiences in the New Testament texts. Although Crafferts new methodological approach of “anthropological historiography”, independent of the shamanism thesis, deserves scholarly attention, his employment of it shows an all too rigid, and ultimately counterproductive, rejection of classic historical-critical scholarship.

scholarly journals Medical anthropology as an antidote for ethnocentrism in Jesus research? Putting the illness–disease distinction into perspective

2011 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter F. Craffert
Keyword(s):  
Side Effects ◽  
Medical Anthropology ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
The World ◽  
The New Testament

Medicine often has side-effects or unintended consequences that are more harmful than the original disease. Medical anthropology in general and the illness–disease distinction in particular has been introduced into historical Jesus research with the intent to protect it from medicocentrism and thus to offer ways of comprehending sickness and healing in the world of Jesus and his first followers without distorting these phenomena by imposing the biomedical framework onto the texts. In particular the illness–disease distinction is used for making sense of healing accounts whilst claiming to cross the cultural gap. Based on an analysis of the illness–disease distinction in medical anthropology and its use in historical Jesus research this article suggests that instead of protecting from ethnocentrism this distinction actually increases the risk of ethnocentrism and consequently distorts in many instances the healing accounts of the New Testament.

The New Testament Gospels and the Gospel of Thomas: A New Direction

2005 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 579-595 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN HALSEY WOOD
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
Gospel Of Thomas ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Christian Literature

After surveying the debate over the relation of the Gospel of Thomas to the NT gospels, this essay argues that Gos. Thom. merits comparison with second-century Christian literature, in order to discern the similarity or dissimilarity with regard to the use of NT material. The second-century sources considered are found to manifest various types of literary dependence on the canonical gospels. A comparison suggests that Gos. Thom. does show many of the characteristics of this Christian literature known to depend on NT material, and, moreover, that Gos. Thom. appears to draw from all four of the canonical gospels. In fact, the significance of Gos. Thom. may not be as a witness to the historical Jesus, as some have hoped, but as one of the earliest witnesses to a four-gospel collection.

The Ascetic Jesus

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Joseph
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
First Century ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
Future Work

AbstractNew Testament scholars have long been divided on the question of Jesus' asceticism. This study will argue that the historical Jesus should be identified as a first-century Jewish ascetic. Here, asceticism is conceptualized as a sociological, cross-cultural and comparative lens through which a range of behaviors can be understood. Consequently, by comparing the early Jesus tradition with other contemporary manifestations of ascetic practice in antiquity, this study will illustrate that an ascetic model for the historical Jesus is not only compatible with(in) first-century Judaism but has the explanatory power to reconcile conflicting portraits of Jesus and advance a theoretical lens through which additional future work on the historical Jesus can be conducted.

Religious Experience in New Testament Research

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Batluck
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Religious Experience ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
New Information ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
To Come

Initiated by Gunkel in 1888, and again by Dunn in 1970, research on religious experience in the New Testament has developed into four distinct streams, all of which address the matter from a different vantage point. Mystical/revelatory experience examines early Christian texts that are ecstatic or disclose new information to the recipient. A second group equates religious experience with encounters of the Holy Spirit.Thirdly, historical Jesus studies investigates historical dimensions of the religious experience described in the Gospels. Fourthly, others address religious experience categorically, trying to account for the grand scope and effect of religious experience recorded in the writings of the New Testament. Each approach offers a great deal to scholars and will be a fruitful line of inquiry in studies to come.

‘More Ingenious than Learned’? Examining the Quest for the Non-Historical Jesus

2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 443-460
Author(s):  
Justin J. Meggitt
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
New Testament Studies

This paper seeks to scrutinise the debate about the historicity of Jesus and identify aspects that merit critical reflection by New Testament scholars. Although the question is regularly dismissed, it is a salient one that was formative in the development of the discipline, and has become increasingly visible since the turn of the century. However, the terminology employed by the protagonists is problematic, and the conventional historiography of the debate misleading. The characteristic tropes evident in the contributions are also indicative of substantive issues within the discipline of New Testament studies itself.

scholarly journals Andries van Aarde se vaderlose Jesus

2002 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jurie H. Le Roux
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
Presence Of God ◽  
The People ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Temple

Andries van Aarde’s fatherless JesusThis article focuses on Andries Van Aarde’s book, “Fatherless in Galilee”, is an important contribution to the historical Jesus study in South Africa. Van Aarde depicted Jesus as someone who grew up fatherless. For Jesus this meant a lifelong struggle against slander and the exclusion from the temple and the presence of God. Jesus nevertheless trusted God who filled Jesus’ emptiness. Jesus was baptized and then started a ministry, focusing on the outcasts of society. He preached that the kingdom of God has come and that the people of this kingdom can experience God, as well as forgiveness of sins. Jesus died but arose in the kerygma. The article also refers to the struggle of the authors of the New Testament writings to understand and express the Jesus event.

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