TEP428: History in the Secondary School II History Extension Presentation Rosie Dickson, 41473124 Please note that in a real class situation, I would ask

TEP428: History in the Secondary School II

History Extension Presentation

Rosie Dickson, 41473124

Please note that in a real class situation, I would ask students to discuss each question raised in the powerpoint,

before clicking through to show some suggestion answers.

Extension History Case Study:

The Historicity ofJesus Christ

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Extension History• REVISION: What is ‘History’?– What happened in the past?

– What someone recorded about the past?

– What someone recorded about what someone recorded about the past?

– Someone’s interpretation of someone’s interpretation of what may or may not have happened in the past?• purpose, aim, bias, background, education,

philosophy/religion/politics/culture/time/gender/class

• sources available and used, method

• connection to the even/person: involved in the events? a contemporary of the events? how much time later? 3

What would Affect

the Reliability of

Primary & Secondary

Sources Relating to

Jesus Christ?4

What would Affect the Reliability of Primary and Secondary Sources

Relating to Jesus Christ?

• The usual issues of purpose, bias, background, sources, method, connection to the event etc.

PLUS What if the historian is a…

• A Practicing Christian…?• An Anti-Christian…?• Non-Religious…?• A Pluralist…?• Another religion…? 5

What would Affect the Reliability of Primary and Secondary Sources Relating to Jesus Christ?

• Practicing Christians… What Sort?

–Traditional? • Definition…

–Liberal? • Definition…

–Catholic?–Protestant?–Orthodox?–Which century?

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• Practicing Christians… Evangelical Protestants…– want the Bible to be ‘true’ and Jesus to be the perfect

Son of God, Son of Man, Messiah, Saviour etc– perhaps less rigorous historians and bend the sources

to fit their purposes?– perhaps more rigorous as they expect the Bible to be

perfect & want to prove this to themselves & others?


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• Anti-Christians…– Just as biased! May want to disprove…

• Non-Religious…– But doesn’t everyone have a bias? A ‘worldview’?– What is their purpose?– Is a lack of commitment to a clear religious cause a

pro or con in history writing about Jesus?

• Pluralists…– Is this a religious bias too?


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• Other Religions…

– Jews: • Persecuted in the name of Christianity for centuries• Jesus was a Jew• Their Holy Scripture is the Christian ‘Old Testament’

– Muslims:• See Jesus as a prophet who was not God, has less

authority than Mohammed, did not die on the cross• Are meant to revere the Jewish and Christian Scriptures


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• So much is at stake!

– Is Jesus God? Human? Messiah? Saviour? Radical?• What did he think he was?• Was he lying?• Were the writers of the New Testament lying?• What was the social and religious context of Jesus’ life?

– Is the Bible reliable?


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• So much is at stake!

– Is Jesus God? Human? Messiah? Saviour? Radical?

– Is the Bible reliable?• Is is a ‘good’ historical source?• Is is a deliberate distortion of the ‘truth’?• Is it the perfect Word of God?• What other evidence is there? Does it confirm or

dispute the Bible? How reliable is it?


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Areas of DebateOption 7: The Historicity of Jesus Christ• Principal focus: students investigate changing

interpretations of the evidence relating to Jesus Christ.• Students examine the approaches to history and

interpretations (including recent historiography) that have resulted in historical debate in the areas of:i. biblical presentations of Jesus Christii. other historical and archaeological evidence relating to Jesus

Christiii. the Messiah figureiv. the radical figurev. social and religious context of his life.

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Areas of Debate:(5) Social & Religious Context of His

Life

• Roman Empire.• Hellenisation of the Jews vs Maccabees Hasmoneans and Herods.

• Schools of Judaism:Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, Essenes, Qumran, Dead Sea Scrolls, John the Baptist.

• Jewish Scriptures: Messiah of King David’s line, Israel/Kingdom of God, Prophets, Eschatology.

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Areas of Debate: (4) Radical Figure vs (3) Messiah

Figure

• The relationship between Jesus & the Jewish Law.• Messiah: ‘Anointed One’ – the deliverer promised

in the Jewish Scriptures; a saviour, prophet, priest, king.

• ‘The Jesus Seminar’: Funk & Crossan established this in 1985. 150 Biblical scholars and laymen. Reconstructed Jesus as an itinerant Hellenistic Jewish faith healer and sage– Methods and conclusions dismissed by many

scholars, historians and clergy. 14

Areas of Debate:(2) Historical and Archaeological

Evidence

• Canonical Gospels (‘Mark’, ‘M’, ‘L’, ‘Q’, ‘John’) and other New Testament writings.

• Non-Canonical Gospels e.g. Thomas.• Christian writers: e.g. Tertullian, Cyprian,

Eusebius, Justin Martyr, Augustine, Origen.• Roman and Jewish writers e.g. Tacitus, Pliny,

Fronto, Celsus, Josephus.• Date & place of writing; purpose; bias etc• Archeology of Jerusalem, Nazareth, ossuary etc

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Areas of Debate:(1) Biblical Presentations of Jesus

• Virginal conception?• Miracle worker &

healer?• Teacher?• Prophet?• ‘Kingdom of God’?

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• Son of Man?• God & Son of God?• Saviour?• Death on the cross &

bodily resurrection?• Ascension

and other topics…

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• For each of the following extracts, consider:– Who wrote it? – When did they write it?– What might be their bias & assumptions?– What sorts of evidence do they use?– How do they use this evidence?

Areas of Debate:Biblical Presentations of Jesus


Raymond E. Brown (1973), pp.66-68 (a Catholic scholar, at times quite ‘liberal’)

On the virginal birth:

• ‘My judgement, in conclusion, is that the totality of the scientifically controllable evidence leaves an unresolved problem… Past discussions have often been conducted by people who were interpreting ambiguous evidence to favour positions already taken… The idea that through the power of the Holy Spirit Jesus was conceived of Mary a virgin… has given a woman a central role in Christianity… Discuss it we must, for Christianity can never seek refuge in anything except the truth.’ 18


J. Oswald Sanders (1971), p.53 (an Evangelical Protestant theologian & missionary)

On the deity of Jesus:

• ‘The deity of Christ is the key doctrine of Scripture. Reject it, and the Bible becomes a confused jumble of words devoid of any unifying theme… Our belief in the deity of Christ is, in the final analysis, based on our faith in the Scriptures… The very basis of Christianity is that Jesus was God, manifest in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16). If that assertion can be overthrown, then the whole superstructure of Christianity crashes to the ground, and we are bound to assume that Jesus was either a shameless imposter or that he suffered from a delusion. In either case He is disqualified from being our Saviour.’

• Sanders then examines (in an uncritical fashion) the New Testament, Creeds, a small number of scholars and the history of the spread of Christianity, to conclude that Jesus is God. 19


Barbara Thiering (1992), pp.116-117 (an original historian of the Dead Sea Scrolls, who began a trend in

the 90s of writing popular histories on the subject of Jesus) On the death and resurrection of Jesus:

• ‘Jesus did not die on the cross. He recovered from the effects of the poison, was helped to escape from the tomb by friends, and stayed with them until he reached Rome, where he was present in AD 64…

• ‘The evidence for a real resurrection has been seen many times to be very weak. An empty tomb does not prove a resurrection; it only proves that the tomb was empty, and there could be many explanations for that. The excitement on the Day of Pentecost, sometimes cited as a psychological argument, proves nothing more than the disciples believed in a resurrection. 20


Barbara Thiering (1992), pp.116-117On the death and resurrection of Jesus (continued):

• ‘Mark’s gospel, in its original version, ended at Chapter 16, verse 8, with the women running away from the empty tomb. It contained no appearances of Jesus; these were added in a later appendix. The “appearances” seem to vary in each of the gospel, not, apparently, giving unanimous testimony such as would obviously be required for proof of such an event…

• ‘In the newly discovered gospel of Philip is a passage that can be seen to deny it: “Those who say that the lord died first and then rose up are in error, for he rose up first and then died”.’ 21

Bibliography• Achtemeier, P. J.; Green, J. B. & Thompson, M. M.

(2001). Introducing the New Testament: Its Literature and Theology. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

• Dickson, J. (2004). A Spectator’s Guide to World Religions: An Introduction to the Big Five. Sydney South: Blue Bottle Books. (Note: no relation of mine.)

• Lewis, C. S. (1960). Mere Christianity. New York: The MacMillan Company.

• Robinson, J. A. T. (1976). Redating the New Testament. London: SCM Press Ltd.

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Bibliography• Sanders, J. O. (1971). The Incomparable Christ: The

Person & Work of Jesus Christ. Chicago: Moody Press.• The King’s School. (2011). History Extension: The

Historicity of Jesus Christ. • Thiering, B. (1992). Jesus the Man: A New Interpretation

of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Sydney: Doubleday.• Webb, K. (2006). Extension History: The Historians.

Annandale, History Teachers’ Association of NSW.• William, C. M. (1996). Chronicles: Investigating the

Ancient World, Book 2. Sydney: McGraw-Hill Book Co.• Wright, N. T. (1992). Who Was Jesus? London: SPCK.

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Documents

TEP428: History in the Secondary School II History Extension Presentation Rosie Dickson, 41473124 Please note that in a real class situation, I would ask