Jesus’ Story in the Gospels
Jesus’ Story in the Gospels
In this section we will examine aspects of Jesus’ teaching and story in our most reliable sources, the Gospels. A maximalist approach to the sources grants as evidence whatever is possible; a mediating approach looks for whatever is most probable historically. “Historical Jesus” research sometimes, however, seeks to identify a critical minimum, the least that all scholars “should” be willing to accept in view of historical evidence.1 There is nothing wrong with looking for a critical minimum, as long as it is clear that this is what we are doing. Yet some scholars speak as if they are looking for whatever is probable, when in fact they are seeking only a critical “minimum.”
The danger of a minimum is that, if defined too narrowly, it can exclude so much evidence as to offer a skewed picture that is certainly distorted and easily manipulated. For some, a minimalist reconstruction of what we can know about Jesus is very little indeed, when they define the minimum in terms of historically proved certainty. This is an unfair standard, since historical reconstruction by its nature never reaches the levels of certainty possible in, say, theoretical mathematics. Most scholars accept a larger working framework, however, and admit in their “minimum” what is “almost certain” or even add what is “very probable.”
Approaches vary partly on whether scholars’ goal is whatever is historically probable or what is the critical minimum. Approaches also vary based on how particular scholars define “minimum,” and they also vary depending on the value one assigns to various lines of evidence. We have already worked to establish that we can expect a high degree of reliable evidence for the substance of Jesus’ life and ministry from the sources of the Synoptic Gospels. Our objective will be to build on this approach to note some of what is probable, rather than simply a minimum.
Nevertheless, because we focused more on Luke’s approach earlier, we will focus more often on Mark, “Q,” and to a lesser extent Matthew here. In reconstructing what we can know about Jesus to a great degree of probability by purely historical means, I depend heavily on Mark and “Q” material in this final section. It should be understood that I do not regard this material as the only potentially reliable material; I have already argued that we should expect otherwise based on the nature of our sources. But I am giving preference to these sources because I am appealing to a consensus of scholarship regarding the most accepted sources for reconstructing Jesus’ life.
When we combine elements about Jesus for which the Gospels provide us much evidence, much of the picture that emerges becomes coherent, fitting a cohesive whole.2 Jesus prophetically summoned his people to prepare for the kingdom, offering radical ethical demands to prepare them for it. But Jesus himself had a mission that would involve confronting the ruling elite, as the powerful figures of this present age, and lead to his martyrdom. This, too, was connected to the coming kingdom, a connection understood by his followers in terms of the resurrection.