WEBVTT

00:11.210 --> 00:11.610
Welcome!

00:12.490 --> 00:16.390
A rainy night, football game at nine,
we'll have you out of here in time for

00:16.390 --> 00:16.670
that.

00:16.810 --> 00:18.210
We're glad that you have come.

00:19.370 --> 00:22.550
I was just amused yesterday, I heard the
announcement about this and said,

00:23.270 --> 00:26.790
you know, this year as a church we're
going to focus on Jesus.

00:27.250 --> 00:31.950
That seemed like a great idea for a
church.

00:32.010 --> 00:33.630
We're going to do that, we're going to
talk about Jesus.

00:34.650 --> 00:38.810
And we have a series of programs,
the emails that I send out, or this

00:38.810 --> 00:41.150
careful walk-through mark, I'm really
excited about that.

00:41.790 --> 00:45.390
We have other programs coming up next
Tuesday, eight days from tonight,

00:45.470 --> 00:49.510
Rabbi Murray Esring and I are going to
stand up here and we're going to have a

00:49.510 --> 00:51.790
little debate over who is the Messiah.

00:52.550 --> 00:53.550
This is going to be great fun.

00:55.690 --> 00:57.010
As you can only imagine.

00:58.110 --> 01:01.130
And so plan to be here for that and other
things we have coming up.

01:01.250 --> 01:05.210
Tonight we're just fortunate again to have
with us Ben Witherington.

01:05.690 --> 01:07.530
We claim Ben, we take credit for Ben.

01:07.530 --> 01:09.750
And Ben wouldn't be who he is without
Myers Park Church.

01:11.790 --> 01:16.210
And the University of North Carolina,
which he proudly, oddly claims.

01:17.850 --> 01:20.010
And Ben's mother Joyce is here.

01:20.810 --> 01:21.770
Ben is...

01:21.770 --> 01:22.390
I could go on and on.

01:22.450 --> 01:23.910
Ben is a world-renowned scholar.

01:24.210 --> 01:30.650
He has published 719 books and really...
and he's a poet and he's a novelist and

01:30.650 --> 01:31.830
he's many things.

01:32.490 --> 01:37.630
But what I like best about Ben is that he
not only is my friend, but even more

01:37.630 --> 01:39.550
important than that, he is a faithful
Christian.

01:39.850 --> 01:45.330
He's a humble, devoted servant of Jesus
and has given his entire life to that in

01:45.330 --> 01:46.990
really exemplary ways.

01:47.510 --> 01:49.090
So we are glad that he is here.

01:49.270 --> 01:54.970
We somehow right 20 minutes ago managed to
delete his PowerPoint presentation.

01:56.650 --> 02:01.750
And let me suggest, as another PowerPoint
presenter, it's not the worst thing in the

02:01.750 --> 02:02.030
world.

02:02.050 --> 02:04.950
You start gawking at the screen,
you get to pay attention to Ben,

02:05.230 --> 02:08.570
who's handsome and brilliant and it'll be
great.

02:08.630 --> 02:09.890
So Ben, we welcome you.

02:19.320 --> 02:24.240
What do we mean by the phrase,
the historical Jesus?

02:24.940 --> 02:29.340
Ten years ago, you may remember a little
novel called The Da Vinci Code.

02:30.240 --> 02:36.280
What you got in that novel was not the
historical Jesus, you got the hysterical

02:36.280 --> 02:36.800
Jesus.

02:37.800 --> 02:41.920
A non-historical figment of Dan Brown's
imagination.

02:43.080 --> 02:50.440
Even the first page in that novel was
fiction, where it said, all facts about

02:50.440 --> 02:56.360
art, archaeology and artifacts in this
novel are historically accurate.

02:57.060 --> 03:00.960
Actually, that page of the novel was part
of the fiction.

03:01.740 --> 03:02.960
How many got snookered?

03:04.120 --> 03:04.920
Millions.

03:05.740 --> 03:06.980
All over the world.

03:07.700 --> 03:11.600
So when we talk about the historical
Jesus, let me tell you that this is,

03:11.660 --> 03:17.780
to begin with, a technical phrase if
you're reading stuffy, scholarly,

03:18.280 --> 03:19.820
academic monographs.

03:20.360 --> 03:22.640
Here's what the phrase means.

03:23.300 --> 03:27.300
It does not mean the Jesus of history.

03:28.180 --> 03:32.380
Jesus as he actually was and we'd all like
to know about.

03:32.960 --> 03:37.480
No, that's not what the phrase the
historical Jesus means.

03:37.860 --> 03:45.320
In New Testament studies, the phrase the
historical Jesus refers to the historian's

03:45.320 --> 03:45.740
Jesus.

03:46.480 --> 03:54.200
The Jesus that can be reasonably
reconstructed using historical methods of

03:54.200 --> 04:02.740
inquiry and coming up with what is most
probably the case about the Jesus of

04:02.740 --> 04:03.220
history.

04:03.940 --> 04:10.900
In other words, the phrase historical
Jesus refers to a scholarly reconstruction

04:11.840 --> 04:13.780
of what Jesus was like.

04:13.860 --> 04:18.720
What he said, what he did, what he thought
about himself, how about the end of his

04:18.720 --> 04:19.180
life.

04:19.940 --> 04:29.820
So at best, the historical Jesus in
technical lingua refers to a subset of

04:29.820 --> 04:31.860
whoever the real Jesus was.

04:32.240 --> 04:38.000
Now, if you've read any of the even the
popularized versions of monographs on the

04:38.000 --> 04:44.760
historical Jesus, you're bound to have
come away going, huh, well, that was a

04:44.760 --> 04:46.160
little unsatisfying.

04:46.860 --> 04:49.880
I was really hoping they would be more
forthcoming.

04:50.260 --> 04:55.500
Now, of course, there are documentaries on
the History Channel and Nat Geo Discovery

04:55.500 --> 05:02.680
Channel, etc, etc, where you get a picture
of Jesus with his hair on fire from not

05:02.680 --> 05:06.260
very reputable scholars, but nonetheless
titillating and entertaining.

05:07.340 --> 05:10.460
That's not the historical Jesus either.

05:11.100 --> 05:17.360
Okay, so let me tell you a little bit
first about the historical method and how

05:17.360 --> 05:18.000
it works.

05:18.800 --> 05:24.620
The first thing to tell you is you have to
deal with the primary sources.

05:25.340 --> 05:29.760
I like to tell, ask my students a question
in their very first New Testament entry

05:29.760 --> 05:30.220
class.

05:30.720 --> 05:32.580
I show them something that looks like
this.

05:32.660 --> 05:33.940
I say, what is this?

05:34.360 --> 05:38.300
They raise their hand very eagerly and
say, oh, that's the Bible.

05:38.300 --> 05:40.360
I say, wrong.

05:41.140 --> 05:42.420
Let's try again.

05:42.780 --> 05:43.820
What is this?

05:44.900 --> 05:45.860
Silence.

05:46.680 --> 05:55.000
Somebody tentatively raises their hand and
says, well, it looks like it's an English

05:55.000 --> 05:57.180
translation of the Bible.

05:58.020 --> 05:59.680
I said, right.

06:00.520 --> 06:01.580
And guess what?

06:01.720 --> 06:06.120
Every translation is already an
interpretation.

06:06.680 --> 06:11.580
Every translation is already an
interpretation.

06:12.020 --> 06:17.300
I'm sure you've all heard the phrase,
something gets lost in translation.

06:17.940 --> 06:18.740
Right?

06:19.180 --> 06:24.460
Well, that's all the more true when you're
dealing with an ancient language like

06:24.460 --> 06:26.200
Koine Greek.

06:27.220 --> 06:29.380
Now, here's another fast fact.

06:30.220 --> 06:38.080
Though the New Testament is entirely
written in Greek, Jesus spoke almost

06:38.080 --> 06:40.820
entirely in another language.

06:41.540 --> 06:42.960
Not King James English.

06:43.680 --> 06:44.660
Not Greek.

06:45.120 --> 06:50.720
But Aramaic, a Semitic language that's the
cousin of Hebrew.

06:51.320 --> 06:51.560
Okay?

06:52.480 --> 06:57.820
So now, how many linguistic steps removed
are we from the historical Jesus?

06:58.740 --> 07:01.760
Not one, but two.

07:03.140 --> 07:05.540
Jesus spoke Aramaic.

07:05.940 --> 07:07.520
Well, how do we know this?

07:08.120 --> 07:11.460
Well, it's right there in our earliest
gospel, the Gospel of Mark.

07:11.560 --> 07:18.920
When Jesus goes to heal and raise from the
dead the daughter of Jairus, what he says

07:18.920 --> 07:25.060
to the corpse is Talitha cumi,
which means, in translation from Aramaic,

07:25.680 --> 07:27.220
little girl arise.

07:27.870 --> 07:33.620
There are a whole bunch of little Aramaic
McNuggets in the gospel that let us know

07:33.620 --> 07:37.700
that Jesus's primary spoken language was
Aramaic.

07:38.000 --> 07:38.660
Not Greek.

07:39.340 --> 07:41.720
And definitely not English.

07:42.300 --> 07:48.340
So when historians are trying to
reconstruct what the historical Jesus was

07:48.340 --> 07:55.060
like, you have to go back ad fontes to the
original sources as best we can.

07:55.060 --> 07:59.680
And the best we can do with that is
dealing with the Greek New Testament

07:59.680 --> 08:04.660
itself and the Aramaic fragments in the
Greek New Testament itself.

08:05.420 --> 08:07.700
So primary source documents.

08:07.860 --> 08:13.980
That means, friends, not Wikipedia
articles, not the Jesus that you Googled

08:13.980 --> 08:20.500
this morning in five seconds flat,
not the Facebook Jesus, the Jesus that is

08:20.500 --> 08:27.260
discerned through diligent, careful study
of original language manuscripts.

08:28.460 --> 08:29.740
That's point number one.

08:30.380 --> 08:36.400
Now, the second thing that the historian
has to know is not just the original

08:36.400 --> 08:37.000
languages.

08:37.480 --> 08:39.980
He's got to know the context.

08:40.500 --> 08:41.940
I like to put it this way.

08:42.540 --> 08:50.040
A text without a context is just a pretext
for whatever you want it to mean.

08:51.780 --> 08:55.480
You see this all the time, all the time.

08:55.760 --> 09:00.020
I had a parishioner in my very first
charge up in Randolph County.

09:00.220 --> 09:03.240
I was serving four churches at once.

09:03.320 --> 09:06.520
So the fourth time around, the sermon was
reasonably good.

09:09.220 --> 09:11.680
My parishioner, Glen Ray Smith,
was a new Christian.

09:11.820 --> 09:12.460
He was a cartender.

09:12.560 --> 09:16.940
He called me up and said, Dr. Ben,
I have a dilemma.

09:17.780 --> 09:19.920
I said, well, Glen Ray, what is that?

09:19.920 --> 09:24.560
He said, well, my friend, who's another
carpenter, well, he knows his King James

09:24.560 --> 09:26.480
better than I know any Bible.

09:26.940 --> 09:32.680
We were talking about breeding hunting
dogs, and he told me it says in the Bible

09:32.680 --> 09:34.600
you can't breed hunting dogs.

09:36.380 --> 09:43.360
I said, Glen Ray, I don't think there's
anywhere in the Bible that it says that,

09:43.920 --> 09:48.240
but I'll look up every pee pee in
reference to dog and I'll get right back

09:48.240 --> 09:48.680
to you.

09:48.680 --> 09:50.480
So I got out my lexicon.

09:50.720 --> 09:53.100
I looked up all the references to dog in
the New Testament.

09:53.900 --> 09:56.920
Nothing even remotely relevant.

09:57.820 --> 10:02.000
I knew that his friend read the King
James, so I went and looked at the King

10:02.000 --> 10:07.620
James lexicon for Old Testament references
to D-O-G, right?

10:08.320 --> 10:11.400
I went through and through, and finally I
found this.

10:11.900 --> 10:18.120
I found a verse that in the King James
read, Thou shalt not breed with the dogs.

10:20.800 --> 10:22.380
I called up Glen Ray.

10:24.140 --> 10:27.040
I said, Glen Ray, I got good news.

10:27.660 --> 10:29.280
I got bad news.

10:29.900 --> 10:31.280
Which would you like first?

10:31.840 --> 10:33.540
Oh, give me the good news first.

10:34.540 --> 10:35.920
You're a good news kind of preacher.

10:36.060 --> 10:37.500
Give me the good news first.

10:37.880 --> 10:41.940
I said, those furry little four-footed
tail wagging critters, you can breed all

10:41.940 --> 10:43.120
those that you want.

10:44.020 --> 10:46.780
Okay, Dr. Ben, what's the bad news?

10:47.200 --> 10:50.860
The bad news is there is this verse in the
Old Testament that says, Thou shalt not

10:50.860 --> 10:52.380
breed with the dogs.

10:52.720 --> 10:57.840
What it means is that true Israelites
should not sexually fraternize with women

10:57.840 --> 11:00.680
who were not Jews and were from another
country.

11:02.100 --> 11:04.120
He processed that for a minute.

11:04.760 --> 11:08.420
He said, I'm feeling ever so much better
now, Dr. Ben.

11:08.500 --> 11:10.920
My wife Betty Sue's just from Chatham
County.

11:11.640 --> 11:22.670
A text without a context is just a pretext
for whatever you want it to mean.

11:23.210 --> 11:30.310
And it is crucial to understand the
context in which Jesus operated.

11:30.990 --> 11:36.290
You cannot understand the Bible just by
reading an English translation of it very

11:36.290 --> 11:36.710
well.

11:36.950 --> 11:41.190
And especially if you're trying to do the
Sherlock Holmes thing and get back to the

11:41.190 --> 11:43.530
real nub of who the historical Jesus was.

11:43.670 --> 11:48.450
You just can't get there from here with
nothing but an English Bible in your hand.

11:48.690 --> 11:51.710
You need to know context as well as text.

11:52.050 --> 11:58.730
Well, that's the second thing historians
are tremendously keen about, understanding

11:58.730 --> 11:59.910
the context.

12:00.850 --> 12:06.410
Now, they have a certain method of
reconstruction of a historical subject.

12:06.410 --> 12:14.110
But one of the things they want is they
want multiple sources on their historical

12:14.110 --> 12:14.670
subject.

12:14.950 --> 12:21.770
The more sources you have, the more likely
that you're going to have more evidence

12:22.330 --> 12:27.670
that leads to some kind of deduction about
what Jesus was really like.

12:27.790 --> 12:29.370
How many sources do we have?

12:29.770 --> 12:33.850
You may say Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John stick with those and can't go

12:33.850 --> 12:34.210
wrong.

12:34.210 --> 12:36.570
You may say, well, we got four.

12:37.190 --> 12:41.270
Well, no, we've got lots more than four.

12:42.670 --> 12:45.610
And there's problems with the sources.

12:46.510 --> 12:49.750
For one thing, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are
interdependent.

12:50.930 --> 12:55.150
Did you know that both Matthew and Luke
used Mark?

12:56.190 --> 13:02.250
Indeed, did you know that 95% of the
Gospel of Mark is also in the Gospel of

13:02.250 --> 13:02.590
Matthew?

13:02.590 --> 13:10.790
And of that 95% of Mark that shows up also
in Matthew, there is a 52% verbatim rate.

13:11.530 --> 13:17.990
Now, if I have two student term papers at
Asbury Seminary, and I find 95% of one

13:17.990 --> 13:25.550
term paper in another with a 52% exact
verbatim equivalent, I'm going to know

13:25.550 --> 13:28.090
there's some kind of literary relationship
there.

13:28.490 --> 13:29.770
Don't you think?

13:30.970 --> 13:33.550
Matthew, Mark, and Luke are not
independent sources.

13:34.450 --> 13:38.530
There's Mark used by Matthew and Luke.

13:39.070 --> 13:40.210
But here's the good news.

13:40.410 --> 13:45.170
Matthew and Luke also had additional
information besides using Mark.

13:45.830 --> 13:51.310
So they have extra stuff that you don't
find in Mark, and they had to have gotten

13:51.310 --> 13:52.310
from somewhere else.

13:53.190 --> 14:00.370
Most scholars will say that we have
basically five sources of information that

14:00.370 --> 14:03.050
relate to the New Testament about Jesus.

14:03.210 --> 14:05.370
I'd actually say we have about seven.

14:06.630 --> 14:08.490
Guess which one is the earliest?

14:09.230 --> 14:11.210
It's not any of the Gospels.

14:11.750 --> 14:17.070
The earliest information chronologically
we have about Jesus is Paul's letters.

14:17.770 --> 14:18.250
Why?

14:18.750 --> 14:21.610
Because they were written before all the
Gospels were written.

14:22.410 --> 14:27.670
Paul's letters were written somewhere
between 49 and about 60-something AD.

14:28.810 --> 14:32.110
None of the Gospels were written by then,
so far as we can tell.

14:32.910 --> 14:38.250
So Paul is an independent witness,
so far as he talks about the historical

14:38.250 --> 14:40.510
Jesus, to the Gospel writers.

14:40.910 --> 14:46.630
But within the Gospels themselves,
we have Mark, we have special M,

14:46.770 --> 14:51.050
that's the unique material in Matthew,
we have special L, that's the unique

14:51.050 --> 14:57.370
material in Luke, we have the Gospel of
John, and we have what is called Q,

14:58.110 --> 15:00.850
which is the saying source of material.

15:02.750 --> 15:07.770
When a historian looks at sources then,
he will look at those five sources of

15:07.770 --> 15:15.710
information about Jesus and try to compare
and corroborate sources and do a process

15:15.710 --> 15:20.270
of critical thinking about what would be
earliest and what's a later version of

15:20.270 --> 15:24.850
this saying or that deed or whatever to
come to conclusions about the historical

15:24.850 --> 15:25.290
Jesus.

15:25.910 --> 15:30.750
If he's a good scholar, he will also look
at Paul and he will look at other places

15:30.750 --> 15:31.550
in the New Testament.

15:31.730 --> 15:38.730
For example, did you know there are 25
examples in James, the letter of James,

15:39.030 --> 15:43.150
that are versions of sayings from the
Sermon on the Mount?

15:44.070 --> 15:48.450
There are 25 echoes of the Sermon on the
Mount in the letter called James.

15:48.690 --> 15:51.730
Similar phrases, almost whole sentences.

15:52.890 --> 15:55.510
James uses the Sermon on the Mount.

15:56.790 --> 16:02.150
Not entirely surprising since James's
brother was, wait for it, Jesus.

16:03.410 --> 16:09.310
So we have a variety of sources right in
our New Testament for studying the

16:09.310 --> 16:10.250
historical Jesus.

16:11.150 --> 16:14.550
Here's something else historians are keen
on telling you.

16:15.150 --> 16:21.610
The earliest part of the Gospels that was
probably written down first is the passion

16:21.610 --> 16:22.270
narratives.

16:23.190 --> 16:27.270
That is the story of the last week of
Jesus's life.

16:27.970 --> 16:32.970
Now what I want to do now is I want to
show you a little bit about that.

16:33.130 --> 16:37.410
So what we're going to do is see a clip
from the BBC show that Tom Wright and

16:37.410 --> 16:39.590
several of us did called The Story of
Jesus.

16:48.780 --> 16:55.060
2000 years ago, in a remote part of the
Roman Empire, someone was born who would

16:55.060 --> 16:56.880
change the history of the world.

16:58.020 --> 16:58.540
Jesus.

16:59.620 --> 17:06.600
He was seen from the very beginning as
this extremely radical, revolutionary

17:06.600 --> 17:13.200
figure that was going to bring more change
than they had seen since the time of the

17:13.200 --> 17:13.580
prophets.

17:14.640 --> 17:19.260
After a life of wandering through the
hills and villages of Galilee and Judea,

17:19.640 --> 17:25.860
preaching and healing, Jesus was betrayed,
arrested and brutally put to death.

17:27.120 --> 17:32.020
Jesus's death on the cross was hugely
difficult for the early Christians.

17:32.540 --> 17:36.800
It was extremely embarrassing to say that
they were followers of a leader who had

17:36.800 --> 17:37.340
been crucified.

17:39.080 --> 17:44.500
But in the years after his crucifixion,
Jesus's story was written down by his

17:44.500 --> 17:48.460
followers to explain his extraordinary
life and death.

17:49.280 --> 17:54.260
These four gospels would later form a
major part of the Christian Bible and

17:54.260 --> 17:57.100
enable his message to be spread all over
the world.

17:59.620 --> 18:05.180
It's just extraordinary to come here now
and see these crowds who've come from all

18:05.180 --> 18:11.160
over the world still being drawn by the
power of that moment that would change

18:11.160 --> 18:12.040
everything.

18:12.340 --> 18:13.800
This is a very exciting time.

18:13.920 --> 18:18.480
We have people who are still so skeptical
that they claim there's no Nazareth in the

18:18.480 --> 18:19.080
first century.

18:20.140 --> 18:24.900
But for hundreds of years, scholars have
been trying to look behind the Jesus of

18:24.900 --> 18:29.640
the Gospels, the divine Christ of faith,
to uncover the historical figure,

18:30.000 --> 18:35.200
a Mediterranean Jew who lived and died as
a man, and according to his followers,

18:35.500 --> 18:37.300
was resurrected from the dead.

18:38.080 --> 18:39.400
This is absolutely mind-blowing.

18:39.880 --> 18:42.860
I mean, they knew what we call the laws of
nature just as much as we do.

18:42.960 --> 18:44.860
They knew that dead people stay dead.

18:46.120 --> 18:52.640
In this series, nine top biblical experts
will re-examine the gospel accounts to

18:52.640 --> 18:57.500
uncover the original meaning of the story
of Jesus through the eyes of the people

18:57.500 --> 19:01.920
for whom it was first written almost 2,000
years ago.

19:04.140 --> 19:08.060
This is a story too improbable not to be
true.

19:08.500 --> 19:11.680
It's because it's not what you'd make up
if you're starting a new world religion.

19:23.620 --> 19:28.980
The climax of Jesus's life took place
during one of the most important and

19:28.980 --> 19:31.600
highly charged times of the Jewish year.

19:32.540 --> 19:37.800
It was the holy festival of the Passover,
when Jews celebrated the exodus,

19:38.560 --> 19:43.880
in which, according to the Hebrew Bible,
they had been freed from slavery in Egypt

19:43.880 --> 19:45.620
thousands of years before.

19:50.120 --> 19:56.320
According to the four gospel accounts of
his life, Jesus was a Jew who grew up with

19:56.320 --> 19:59.680
his parents in Galilee, a province in the
Roman Empire.

20:00.480 --> 20:05.520
As a young adult, he joined the movement
of John the Baptist and was baptized by

20:05.520 --> 20:10.320
him in the River Jordan, where he had an
extraordinary visionary experience.

20:11.100 --> 20:17.180
After John's arrest, Jesus formed his own
movement and quickly gained a reputation

20:17.180 --> 20:21.120
as a healer and performer of spectacular
miracles.

20:23.480 --> 20:29.220
Jesus was also a teacher, a Jewish rabbi
with a mission to reform the world in

20:29.220 --> 20:29.920
which he lived.

20:30.760 --> 20:36.060
Based in a small fishing village on the
shores of Lake Galilee, he wandered the

20:36.060 --> 20:41.380
land preaching a particular message that
challenged the status quo and brought him

20:41.380 --> 20:43.860
into direct conflict with the ruling
powers.

20:45.700 --> 20:51.680
These gospel accounts of his life were
full of references to events and

20:51.680 --> 20:57.620
prophecies in the Old Testament that gave
Jesus' story a greater meaning for their

20:57.620 --> 20:59.580
original first-century audience.

21:00.520 --> 21:06.200
That he was the Messiah they had been
waiting for, the Savior who would liberate

21:06.200 --> 21:07.760
them from all their troubles.

21:10.060 --> 21:15.580
According to three of the gospels,
the final 24 hours of Jesus' life began

21:15.580 --> 21:20.600
when, like thousands of other Jews,
he and his disciples sat down for a

21:20.600 --> 21:21.460
Passover meal.

21:26.330 --> 21:30.490
The normal Passover meal had a variety of
symbolic elements.

21:30.690 --> 21:35.030
There is the bitter herbs that helped you
remember the bitterness of bondage in

21:35.030 --> 21:35.270
Egypt.

21:35.470 --> 21:41.050
There was the unleavened bread or bread of
haste, which reminded what haste they had

21:41.050 --> 21:43.170
to leave the land once they were set free.

21:43.310 --> 21:47.450
But most importantly, there was the
Passover lamb, because it was the blood of

21:47.450 --> 21:52.990
the lamb that led to the sparing of them
from the judgment that fell on Egypt.

21:54.190 --> 21:59.710
This meal is now one of the most iconic
Christian events, commemorated in

21:59.710 --> 22:06.030
countless famous paintings as Jesus' last
supper with his disciples before his

22:06.030 --> 22:06.410
death.

22:06.970 --> 22:12.410
It also provided a ritual that symbolized
how the gospel writers believed true

22:12.410 --> 22:17.130
redemption could now come only through
Jesus, through his death on the cross,

22:17.710 --> 22:23.210
and what would later become the central
act of Christian worship, the Eucharist.

22:24.630 --> 22:29.410
Jesus reinterprets several of the elements
of the Passover.

22:29.730 --> 22:34.430
The bread, which would have been
unleavened bread, and one of the cups of

22:34.430 --> 22:37.390
wine, in terms of his own body and his own
blood.

22:37.650 --> 22:44.390
And what is most incredible about this is
that Jesus is offering his disciples the

22:44.390 --> 22:49.030
benefits of his passion, of his death,
in advance of dying.

22:54.130 --> 22:58.550
One of the things scholars are in general
agreement on is that the first part of the

22:58.550 --> 23:02.270
Gospels to be written down were the
passion narratives.

23:02.530 --> 23:08.470
At least 33% of the Gospel focuses just on
that last week of Jesus' life.

23:12.070 --> 23:17.470
The Gospel writers knew the part of the
story they absolutely had to explain and

23:17.470 --> 23:21.410
get straight was this unexpected ending to
the story of Jesus.

23:21.610 --> 23:25.930
For ancient peoples, including Jews,
believed that how a person died most

23:25.930 --> 23:27.030
revealed their character.

23:29.470 --> 23:34.550
After saying these things, Jesus was
troubled in his spirit and testified,

23:35.730 --> 23:39.650
truly, truly, I say to you, one of you
will betray me.

23:41.370 --> 23:46.630
Among other things, it's on this night
that Jesus himself says, someone who's

23:46.630 --> 23:51.330
sitting here and supping with us this
night, my intimate band of friends,

23:51.850 --> 23:53.390
is going to betray me.

23:53.550 --> 23:56.950
And the disciples are asking, surely it's
not I, surely it's not I.

23:57.090 --> 24:01.730
And so, what was intended to be a joyful
celebration turns into a very somber

24:01.730 --> 24:02.790
occasion.

24:03.390 --> 24:09.130
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke
agree closely on the events of the Last

24:09.130 --> 24:09.430
Supper.

24:09.910 --> 24:13.350
But the Gospel of John includes a ritual
of foot washing.

24:14.050 --> 24:19.070
And then has Jesus making a long and
passionate farewell speech to his

24:19.070 --> 24:19.590
disciples.

24:21.450 --> 24:23.950
This required a lot of explanation.

24:24.530 --> 24:28.050
Crucified Messiah would have been seen as
a contradiction in terms.

24:28.490 --> 24:33.330
They weren't looking for a hero who would
become a zero by dying on a cross,

24:33.430 --> 24:36.330
the most shameful way and humiliating way
to die.

24:38.070 --> 24:43.190
Historians believe the more difficult the
story becomes, the more likely it has

24:43.190 --> 24:47.410
profound historical substance because it's
not what you'd make up if you're starting

24:47.410 --> 24:48.370
a new world religion.

24:54.010 --> 24:58.290
Now, I hope you heard that last thing I
said in the documentary.

24:59.410 --> 25:06.570
The more difficult the tradition,
the more likely it has profound historical

25:06.570 --> 25:07.470
substance.

25:08.570 --> 25:15.930
It's especially the last week of Jesus's
life that required a lot of explanation.

25:16.230 --> 25:21.350
And the reason is that so far as we can
tell from the historical evidence,

25:21.970 --> 25:26.210
early Jews were not looking for a
crucified Messiah.

25:27.310 --> 25:33.230
Crucified Messiah was about as much of an
oxymoron as Microsoft Works.

25:35.290 --> 25:37.630
A contradiction in terms.

25:39.290 --> 25:46.070
So, if you look at the Gospels that we
have, they have rightly been called

25:46.070 --> 25:49.030
passion narratives with a long
introduction.

25:49.350 --> 25:56.630
That is, up to 33 percent of any of these
Gospels focuses on the last week of

25:56.630 --> 25:57.550
Jesus's life.

25:57.950 --> 26:03.050
Now, if this were a modern biography,
it would be wildly out of proportion.

26:05.290 --> 26:12.350
A third of the whole story on the last
week of somebody's life, even the

26:12.350 --> 26:15.910
biography of JFK doesn't read like that.

26:16.570 --> 26:21.310
But you see, here's the thing you need to
understand in reading the story of Jesus

26:21.310 --> 26:23.310
in historical context.

26:24.170 --> 26:31.610
People in antiquity believed that how a
person died most revealed their character.

26:33.030 --> 26:37.330
How a person died most revealed their
character.

26:38.190 --> 26:43.930
Indeed, there were two bits that most
revealed character according to ancients.

26:44.570 --> 26:50.390
One is how a person was born and the other
is how a person died.

26:51.550 --> 26:56.590
Both of these bits of the story required
extra explanation.

26:57.250 --> 27:02.150
And so it is that when you read the
passion narratives and the crucifixion

27:02.150 --> 27:07.550
narratives and the resurrection
narratives, there are all of these

27:07.550 --> 27:13.090
scripture references tagged to what
happens to Jesus from the moment he rides

27:13.090 --> 27:18.030
into Jerusalem on a donkey to when he
appears to the disciples on Easter

27:18.030 --> 27:18.510
morning.

27:19.030 --> 27:19.550
Why?

27:20.390 --> 27:24.470
Because nobody expected it to go down like
this.

27:25.090 --> 27:27.650
And here's the other part you need to
understand.

27:28.270 --> 27:33.490
The culture in which Jesus lived in was an
honor and shame culture.

27:34.450 --> 27:37.830
Guess which was the most shameful way to
die in antiquity?

27:38.690 --> 27:44.970
Being crucified naked on a cross,
which is the story of Jesus.

27:46.650 --> 27:50.650
First century Christians would have
thought it very odd that people have

27:50.650 --> 27:55.530
turned the cross into jewelry and gold and
wear it around their neck.

27:55.590 --> 27:58.670
I mean, that would be the ancient
equivalent of wearing little electric

27:58.670 --> 28:00.110
chairs around your neck.

28:00.910 --> 28:04.550
That's just bizarre by first century
standards.

28:04.890 --> 28:05.470
Strange.

28:06.650 --> 28:12.090
This is the part of the story that
required the most theological explanation

28:12.090 --> 28:13.510
and elaboration.

28:14.270 --> 28:18.930
And we know that they were doing this
right from the beginning because if you

28:18.930 --> 28:24.330
turn to the end of first Corinthians,
Paul at the beginning of first Corinthians

28:24.330 --> 28:30.190
15 in which he's going to give us a little
discourse on resurrection, says this,

28:32.150 --> 28:37.470
for what I have received, that's technical
language for the passing on of sacred

28:37.470 --> 28:42.050
tradition, for what I have received I have
passed on to you Corinthians.

28:42.270 --> 28:48.350
He's writing this in the early 50s A.D.,
about 30 some years after Jesus' death,

28:48.610 --> 28:50.370
20 some years after Jesus' death.

28:50.870 --> 28:56.350
For what I received I passed on to you of
first importance, that Christ died for our

28:56.350 --> 28:58.950
sins according to the scriptures.

29:00.210 --> 29:00.890
Aha!

29:01.990 --> 29:08.450
If he died on the cross according to the
scriptures, then this has an explanation.

29:09.950 --> 29:12.250
God must have been in that death.

29:13.090 --> 29:16.670
It must have been part of God's plan.

29:17.450 --> 29:22.330
It was not just a holy unholy mess on
Golgotha.

29:23.110 --> 29:27.150
For what I received I passed on to you as
of first importance that Christ died for

29:27.150 --> 29:31.490
our sins according to the scriptures,
that he was buried, that is he was truly

29:31.490 --> 29:37.490
dead, he didn't merely swoon, and that he
was raised on the third day according to

29:37.490 --> 29:43.790
the scriptures and that he appeared to
Cephas and then the twelve and etc.

29:45.430 --> 29:55.050
There, in very minute form, is the essence
of the last third of the Gospels.

29:55.490 --> 30:04.690
The story of the death, burial,
and resurrection of Jesus, given detailed

30:04.690 --> 30:10.190
scripture references to explain it and
theological elaboration to make it clear.

30:10.930 --> 30:17.010
One thing most scholars are agreed on is
you can't ignore the last week of Jesus's

30:17.010 --> 30:19.910
life if you want to understand the
historical Jesus.

30:20.790 --> 30:26.290
And it's also clear that the earliest
Christians didn't try to hide the fact

30:26.290 --> 30:27.610
that Jesus was crucified.

30:28.670 --> 30:34.990
In the catacombs in Rome, in one of the
pagan catacombs, not Christian catacombs,

30:35.170 --> 30:42.230
there is an interesting graffito which is
a carving of a cross and on the cross is

30:42.230 --> 30:43.330
nailed a donkey.

30:44.590 --> 30:51.290
And beneath the cross there is a Roman
kneeling before this image of a cross with

30:51.290 --> 30:58.830
a donkey on it and then there's a Latin
inscription which reads, Publius worships

30:58.830 --> 30:59.970
his god.

31:01.690 --> 31:07.810
To an ancient pagan, the idea that a god
could get himself crucified and then be

31:07.810 --> 31:10.350
worshiped was a non-starter.

31:11.810 --> 31:17.110
This is why Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 1,
I'd resolve to preach nothing but Christ

31:17.110 --> 31:25.850
and him crucified, which is a scandal,
stumbling block to the Jews, and folly to

31:25.850 --> 31:26.670
the Gentiles.

31:27.410 --> 31:32.410
And yet this is the heart of the message
that was preached from Jerusalem to Rome

31:32.410 --> 31:33.250
and beyond.

31:33.710 --> 31:40.390
That this Jesus, who taught parables,
did miracles, performed exorcisms,

31:40.730 --> 31:46.350
and died violently at the end of only
about the 30th year of his life,

31:46.590 --> 31:53.110
should be proclaimed as the savior of the
world, not in spite of his death,

31:53.750 --> 31:57.210
but precisely because of his death.

31:58.310 --> 32:02.070
This is what you call a historical
conundrum.

32:02.610 --> 32:08.190
If you're simply a secular historian,
you have a hard time explaining all of

32:08.190 --> 32:08.410
that.

32:09.110 --> 32:14.870
Now, if we were to do a survey of
historical Jesus research from about 1988

32:14.870 --> 32:20.510
to now, what has been going on in the
scholarly world has been called the third

32:20.510 --> 32:22.250
quest for the historical Jesus.

32:23.210 --> 32:25.330
And you have all kinds of major players.

32:26.030 --> 32:27.410
Some of these names you will know.

32:27.670 --> 32:32.430
Let me name some of you, those who have
written big-selling books on the

32:32.430 --> 32:33.290
historical Jesus.

32:33.570 --> 32:35.130
John Dominic Croson, heard of him?

32:36.130 --> 32:38.010
Marcus Borg, heard of him?

32:38.930 --> 32:39.330
N.T.

32:39.410 --> 32:41.470
Wright, Tom Wright, who was in this film.

32:42.250 --> 32:46.570
There are lots of these books written on
the historical Jesus.

32:47.070 --> 32:52.610
There has been a renaissance of study of
the historical Jesus in the last 30 or so

32:52.610 --> 32:56.870
years, and it's even come to be called the
third quest for the historical Jesus.

32:57.590 --> 33:02.030
And some of this has been fertile,
and some of it's been futile.

33:02.970 --> 33:08.870
And one of the things that has happened in
this so-called third quest is there has

33:08.870 --> 33:12.290
been an attempt to expand the database of
sources.

33:13.410 --> 33:18.690
So, some scholars have branched out into
studying Gnostic Gospels.

33:19.230 --> 33:23.970
The Gospel of Judas, the Gospel of Mary,
the Gospel of Philip.

33:24.870 --> 33:28.970
Now, the thing about all these Gospels are
they were not written in the first century

33:28.970 --> 33:29.330
A.D.

33:29.330 --> 33:30.750
We know this for a fact.

33:30.750 --> 33:34.130
There was no Gnostic movement in the first
century A.D.

33:34.130 --> 33:38.690
Indeed, Gnosticism is a movement that
arose in the second century of church

33:38.690 --> 33:41.370
history and continued for about two
centuries.

33:42.430 --> 33:44.950
None of those Gospels are original.

33:45.730 --> 33:47.970
None of them were written by eyewitnesses.

33:48.390 --> 33:52.910
The Gospel of Judas was certainly not
written posthumously by Judas.

33:53.650 --> 33:54.870
Are you with me now?

33:55.630 --> 33:59.610
The Gospel of Mary was not written
posthumously by Mary.

34:00.270 --> 34:04.050
And the Gospel of Philip was not written
posthumously by Philip.

34:04.530 --> 34:11.330
These are later pseudonymous, that is,
falsely attributed names that were applied

34:11.330 --> 34:13.490
to documents written by Gnostics.

34:14.350 --> 34:16.710
The database has been expanded.

34:17.530 --> 34:18.590
But here's the thing.

34:19.170 --> 34:23.390
Even when you study these documents
closely, if you ask the historical

34:23.390 --> 34:28.570
question, is there anything in this book
that we don't already know from the first

34:28.570 --> 34:33.870
century Gospels that goes back to the
historical Jesus, the answer is basically

34:33.870 --> 34:34.370
no.

34:35.690 --> 34:40.910
In other words, all of this hoo-ha on the
National Geographic channel and the

34:40.910 --> 34:45.550
Discovery Channel and the History Channel
about the Gnostic Gospels and aren't they

34:45.550 --> 34:50.050
exciting and maybe Jesus married Mary
Magdalene and she was Mrs. Jesus.

34:50.870 --> 34:57.230
The truth of the matter is that these
Gospels are later fiction.

34:58.110 --> 35:00.270
They are fractured fairy tales.

35:01.150 --> 35:04.570
They are not historically serious
documents.

35:04.710 --> 35:09.810
In fact, they are documents meant to
propound a certain kind of theology,

35:10.490 --> 35:14.410
not really explorations of the historical
Jesus at all.

35:14.910 --> 35:19.470
And so at the end of the day, the serious
critical historian will say about such

35:19.470 --> 35:25.070
later sources, they are later,
B, they add nothing to our pool of

35:25.070 --> 35:32.390
knowledge about the historical Jesus,
and C, the way they interpret Jesus is at

35:32.390 --> 35:37.090
odds with the way Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John interpret the historical

35:37.090 --> 35:37.490
Jesus.

35:37.890 --> 35:44.470
Indeed, there are flat contradictions to
what we find in the historical Gospels,

35:44.650 --> 35:45.950
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

35:46.750 --> 35:47.970
Let me give you one example.

35:48.730 --> 35:51.990
Let's take the example of Mary Magdalene
and women.

35:52.170 --> 35:58.230
There is no question that Jesus had female
disciples and so far as I can see as a

35:58.230 --> 36:03.450
historian, he was probably the first
Jewish teacher to have any significant

36:03.450 --> 36:04.970
quotient of female disciples.

36:05.590 --> 36:09.570
Maybe James will debate this with the
rabbi next week, but I think that's true.

36:09.570 --> 36:12.590
I think the historical evidence is pretty
clear on that point.

36:13.090 --> 36:17.010
You have Mary Magdalene, you have Joanna,
the wife of Chusa, you have Susanna,

36:17.150 --> 36:22.410
and other women who were on the road again
with Jesus according to Luke 8,

36:22.470 --> 36:23.210
1 through 3.

36:23.790 --> 36:29.710
And not only so, they were last at the
cross, first at the empty tomb,

36:30.030 --> 36:31.630
and first to see the risen Jesus.

36:32.130 --> 36:37.970
Now this is something that no first
century person who wanted to start a new

36:37.970 --> 36:39.350
religion would make up.

36:39.710 --> 36:40.270
Why not?

36:40.970 --> 36:46.230
These are very patriarchal cultures and
the testimony of women was not even valid

36:46.230 --> 36:47.390
in most ancient courts.

36:48.330 --> 36:52.570
You don't start a new world religion by
saying, well we had these women,

36:53.350 --> 36:57.430
they saw Jesus die, then they thought they
saw the tomb empty, and they thought they

36:57.430 --> 36:58.650
saw him risen from the dead.

36:58.910 --> 37:00.310
So you should believe this.

37:01.930 --> 37:06.170
In the first century the normal reaction
to that would be, say what?

37:08.550 --> 37:11.470
That's the fantasies of women was the
normal reaction.

37:11.710 --> 37:18.610
Indeed, that's exactly what Luke 24 says
was the reaction of the dirty dozen.

37:19.410 --> 37:25.310
That is the twelve, when the women came to
them and said, he lives, he lives,

37:25.410 --> 37:26.970
Christ Jesus lives today.

37:27.590 --> 37:30.910
And the twelve went, women's fantasies.

37:31.050 --> 37:32.490
It's right there in Luke 24.

37:34.850 --> 37:36.630
Women's fantasies.

37:37.190 --> 37:42.650
This is not how you start a new world
religion, by telling tales that only women

37:42.650 --> 37:44.510
were the first witnesses of.

37:45.290 --> 37:47.550
Now we're at historical bedrock.

37:49.810 --> 37:55.110
The historical Jesus had both female and
male disciples.

37:57.010 --> 38:00.310
And the female disciples were with him to
the end.

38:00.650 --> 38:05.430
Last at the cross, first at the tomb,
first to see the risen Jesus.

38:06.370 --> 38:11.690
So let's take a little snapshot for just a
moment of that scene at the tomb.

38:12.710 --> 38:15.650
Mary Magdalene is there, she's weeping,
she looks in the tomb.

38:15.790 --> 38:21.530
According to John 20, she sees a vision of
two angels in the tomb at either end of

38:21.530 --> 38:23.710
the slab where Jesus' body had been.

38:24.190 --> 38:27.070
There's a void between them, but it's not
devoid of meaning.

38:27.610 --> 38:32.170
Whenever you have angels in the Bible,
they're like God's blinking neon sign.

38:32.570 --> 38:34.030
Something important happened here.

38:34.130 --> 38:36.710
Note, blink, blink, blink, pay attention.

38:38.450 --> 38:39.370
What happened here?

38:40.210 --> 38:43.750
The empty tomb does not convince Mary
Magdalene that Jesus has risen from the

38:43.750 --> 38:44.010
dead.

38:45.310 --> 38:51.410
She is still weeping later in the story,
and then what happens?

38:52.110 --> 38:55.230
Jesus calls her by name.

38:55.970 --> 38:58.010
Miriam, he says.

38:59.410 --> 39:06.030
Footnote, all of the Marys in Gospels,
their Aramaic name is Miriam, from which

39:06.030 --> 39:07.230
we get the name Miriam.

39:07.350 --> 39:09.530
They're named after the Old Testament
prophetess.

39:10.270 --> 39:12.910
All of the Marys are actually Miriams,
okay?

39:13.450 --> 39:15.370
Jesus in Aramaic says, Miriam.

39:16.050 --> 39:20.330
She replies, Rabbouni, which does not mean
husband.

39:21.250 --> 39:23.270
It means my teacher.

39:24.290 --> 39:26.170
It means my master, my teacher.

39:27.030 --> 39:31.510
You will notice in John 20, Mary Magdalene
doesn't say, honey, I'm so glad you're

39:31.510 --> 39:31.810
back.

39:32.270 --> 39:35.110
Let's read a Dobson book and jumpstart our
marriage.

39:35.110 --> 39:43.870
All of this later stuff from the Gospel of
Philip and the Gospel of Mary about Jesus

39:43.870 --> 39:49.510
having some kind of intimate relationship
with Mary Magdalene is false.

39:49.810 --> 39:53.170
Jesus was more than a little busy bringing
in the kingdom of God.

39:53.670 --> 39:57.830
He didn't have time for wife and family,
and he didn't have one.

39:58.870 --> 40:02.890
So, do we get much out of reading the
Gnostic Gospels?

40:02.910 --> 40:05.550
If the question is, what was the
historical Jesus like?

40:05.990 --> 40:10.350
No, we get no new information from those
kind of sources.

40:11.790 --> 40:16.490
But when you then look at some of the
other things that have been discovered in

40:16.490 --> 40:21.410
the third quest for the historical Jesus,
we actually have learned a lot.

40:22.010 --> 40:25.610
For one thing, we have learned something
that's often neglected.

40:25.810 --> 40:27.770
We've learned that Jesus is a sage.

40:28.290 --> 40:29.570
Now, what's a sage?

40:30.910 --> 40:32.610
Somebody give me a definition of a sage.

40:32.690 --> 40:33.610
What's a sage?

40:35.130 --> 40:36.850
A wise person.

40:37.030 --> 40:37.610
That's right.

40:37.910 --> 40:42.130
Have you noticed that Jesus speaks on his
own authority?

40:43.250 --> 40:45.970
You have heard it said, but I say to you.

40:46.190 --> 40:50.290
Now, we in our radical, late, Western
individualistic culture take that as

40:50.290 --> 40:50.810
normal.

40:51.650 --> 40:53.230
People speak on their own authority.

40:54.210 --> 40:56.130
That's not how early Jews spoke.

40:56.690 --> 40:57.970
Early Jews spoke like this.

40:58.050 --> 41:02.130
I say on the authority of Rabbi Hillel who
says on the authority of Rabbi Shammai,

41:02.330 --> 41:09.430
who says on the authority of Rabbi
Eliezer, quote, Jesus never does that.

41:10.430 --> 41:12.710
He doesn't use footnotes.

41:13.730 --> 41:14.970
He's not like my students.

41:15.950 --> 41:19.530
He speaks with his own authority.

41:19.890 --> 41:22.510
He speaks in the first person.

41:23.810 --> 41:26.570
And he doesn't teach like a prophet.

41:27.410 --> 41:29.750
Remember how the prophet spoke in the Old
Testament?

41:30.430 --> 41:37.210
Thus saith the Lord, quote, says Hosea and
Amos and Isaiah and et cetera and et

41:37.210 --> 41:37.450
cetera.

41:38.490 --> 41:40.790
Jesus never quotes God.

41:41.790 --> 41:43.650
Have you noticed that too?

41:43.850 --> 41:47.330
Not only does he not quote the rabbis,
he never quotes God.

41:48.190 --> 41:51.110
He simply speaks with his own authority.

41:51.910 --> 41:56.410
Well, if you look carefully at his
teaching, one of the things that explains

41:56.410 --> 41:59.030
this is that he is speaking as a sage.

41:59.970 --> 42:05.150
He's speaking as a wise person and he's
speaking in forms of wisdom literature.

42:05.750 --> 42:14.570
He did his public teaching in the forms of
parables, aphorisms, riddles, one-liners.

42:14.870 --> 42:23.390
It's easier for a camel to go through the
eye of a needle than for a member of Myers

42:23.390 --> 42:29.530
Park United Methodist Church to get into
the kingdom of God or something like that.

42:31.070 --> 42:33.410
It's a metaphorical saying.

42:34.370 --> 42:39.770
The whole thing about wisdom teaching is
it's meant to tease the mind into active

42:39.770 --> 42:43.970
thought, but it uses dramatic metaphors.

42:45.310 --> 42:54.010
Jesus spoke in wisdom language,
proverbs, aphorisms, riddles, one-liners,

42:54.310 --> 42:56.590
and of course, above all, parables.

42:57.390 --> 43:03.150
Now, other early Jews also used parables,
but according to the Gospel of Mark,

43:03.850 --> 43:08.430
he never said anything in public without
using parables.

43:09.250 --> 43:12.090
Jesus was Mr. Parabler Supreme.

43:13.730 --> 43:19.930
He used more parables than any other early
Jewish teacher we know anything about.

43:20.070 --> 43:28.410
Indeed, there are at least 43 different
parables in the Gospels.

43:28.910 --> 43:33.510
Some short, some short stories,
some almost one-liners.

43:34.230 --> 43:35.510
There's a bunch.

43:37.190 --> 43:40.470
Jesus was a sage, and he would have come
across as a sage.

43:40.890 --> 43:43.830
He doesn't speak like most Old Testament
prophets.

43:45.690 --> 43:47.590
There's an exception to that.

43:48.190 --> 43:54.590
If you've studied Elijah and Elisha,
you will discover that Jesus does come

43:54.590 --> 43:58.410
across very much like those folks
repeatedly.

43:58.790 --> 44:00.730
First of all, he speaks truth to power.

44:00.930 --> 44:04.150
You remember Elijah's encounter with Ahab,
the Arab?

44:05.070 --> 44:08.790
Remember Elijah and Ahab and Jezebel?

44:10.090 --> 44:14.990
Jesus does speak to religious and
political authorities and speaks truth to

44:14.990 --> 44:15.370
power.

44:16.310 --> 44:18.930
Jesus does miracles like Elijah did.

44:19.450 --> 44:27.410
When Jesus raised people from the dead in
Galilee, people said, a great prophet.

44:28.130 --> 44:31.830
It's like Elijah, part two, the sequel.

44:32.510 --> 44:33.550
He's back.

44:34.290 --> 44:39.150
Now, one of the reasons people in Galilee
would say that is Elijah was a northern

44:39.150 --> 44:41.990
prophet, not a southern prophet.

44:42.570 --> 44:44.470
Isaiah, southern prophet.

44:44.890 --> 44:46.550
Amos, southern prophet.

44:46.690 --> 44:48.170
We could keep going down that line.

44:48.590 --> 44:51.510
But Elijah and Elisha were northern
prophets.

44:52.250 --> 44:58.450
And Jesus and John the Baptist both came
across as rather like northern prophets in

44:58.450 --> 44:59.510
various ways.

45:00.410 --> 45:06.350
So has there been some fruit to the study
of the historical Jesus in regard to the

45:06.350 --> 45:09.090
nature of his teaching and the character
of his teaching?

45:09.450 --> 45:10.150
Oh, yes.

45:10.250 --> 45:12.810
We've learned a lot in the last 30 years
in various ways.

45:13.390 --> 45:17.830
And we've learned to emphasize,
put the emphasis on the right syllable.

45:17.990 --> 45:19.350
That's the way I'll put it.

45:19.750 --> 45:23.590
We've learned to take Jesus's teaching for
what it is.

45:23.830 --> 45:26.350
It's not chicken soup for the soul.

45:27.390 --> 45:34.590
It is, in fact, radical eschatological
teaching in the form of wisdom literature.

45:34.770 --> 45:36.630
That's mainly what it is.

45:37.570 --> 45:45.650
The bigger question, the so-called $24,000
question is, did Jesus have an exalted

45:45.650 --> 45:46.990
view of himself?

45:48.310 --> 45:52.030
Did Jesus think that he was the Messiah?

45:52.570 --> 45:55.710
Did Jesus think that he was the divine son
of God?

45:55.850 --> 45:57.450
Did he think he was God?

45:59.370 --> 46:02.230
This is the $24,000 question.

46:02.590 --> 46:04.790
How did Jesus view himself?

46:05.530 --> 46:09.390
Well, I think we've had some breakthroughs
on that front, too.

46:09.550 --> 46:14.070
We want to see another clip, brief clip
from the story of Jesus, and then we'll

46:14.070 --> 46:16.570
talk about that just for a few minutes.

46:20.710 --> 46:26.230
The Gospels tell us that Jesus continued
to preach his revolutionary message all

46:26.230 --> 46:31.430
over Galilee and that his movement grew as
he traveled from village to village and

46:31.430 --> 46:32.470
town to town.

46:33.850 --> 46:36.930
Historians disagree as to how long his
ministry lasted.

46:37.730 --> 46:42.630
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke
suggest a period of up to one year,

46:43.110 --> 46:47.510
but the Gospel of John implies it lasted
three years or more.

46:48.230 --> 46:53.490
All of them agree that its climax was
reached when Jesus decided to go to the

46:53.490 --> 46:55.330
Jewish capital, Jerusalem.

46:57.310 --> 47:02.790
If we ask the question why Jerusalem is so
important to Jesus, there are a host of

47:02.790 --> 47:03.930
reasons we could give.

47:04.670 --> 47:10.010
It's the place of festival that Jewish
people from all over the world would come

47:10.010 --> 47:17.970
to in order to celebrate Passover,
Sukkot, Hanukkah, Yom Kippur, the major

47:17.970 --> 47:18.930
Jewish festivals.

47:20.230 --> 47:24.770
But why at the climax of his ministry
would he take his disciples deliberately

47:24.770 --> 47:26.090
up to Jerusalem?

47:26.550 --> 47:32.590
Well, he's told them before, the son of
man must suffer many things and he warns

47:32.590 --> 47:38.990
them in advance that he, the son of man,
is destined for a sudden drastic end.

47:39.570 --> 47:43.030
He is what Dorothy Sayers calls the man
born to die.

47:45.430 --> 47:51.150
Right at the heart of Jerusalem was the
Jewish temple, the holiest site for Jews.

47:54.810 --> 47:59.670
Although almost all of it was later
destroyed by the Romans, its remains are

47:59.670 --> 48:01.550
still sacred for Jews today.

48:05.510 --> 48:08.950
Dr. Ben Witherington is an expert in the
life of Jesus.

48:09.530 --> 48:13.850
He believes that because Jerusalem was
regarded as the center of the world by

48:13.850 --> 48:19.290
first century Jews, it is key to
understanding the meaning of Jesus's life

48:19.290 --> 48:19.730
story.

48:25.330 --> 48:29.790
One of the things that seems clear is that
Jesus is not doing, there's nothing that's

48:29.790 --> 48:30.750
happening by accident.

48:31.170 --> 48:32.670
He does seem to have a plan.

48:33.250 --> 48:35.250
There's an intentionality to what he's
doing.

48:35.750 --> 48:39.410
And one of the things that's very clear
about this is there's a series of

48:39.410 --> 48:40.570
prophetic sign acts.

48:41.230 --> 48:46.150
According to the Gospels, Jesus performed
a series of deliberate and provocative

48:46.150 --> 48:50.990
acts in Jerusalem that would help his
followers understand who he believed he

48:50.990 --> 48:51.410
was.

48:51.610 --> 48:54.990
The first occurred as he approached the
city with his disciples.

48:55.910 --> 49:00.390
Go into the village in front of you,
where on entering you will find a colt

49:00.390 --> 49:02.970
tied, on which no one has ever sat.

49:03.370 --> 49:05.010
Untie it and bring it here.

49:10.600 --> 49:14.960
This is the only place in the Gospels
where he elevates himself above the crowd.

49:15.480 --> 49:20.240
He sits on a donkey, he rides into town,
in the middle of them already singing the

49:20.240 --> 49:21.720
hallelujahs and hosannas.

49:22.360 --> 49:26.740
And right at the beginning again,
they see this as a royal gesture about the

49:26.740 --> 49:31.760
king of peace, coming into his city to
bring peace to the city of Jerusalem,

49:32.220 --> 49:35.120
to return the land to its original owners.

49:35.300 --> 49:38.900
Because Judea is an occupied province,
it's run by Rome directly.

49:39.460 --> 49:44.420
First century Jews would have known that
this act of entering Jerusalem on a donkey

49:44.420 --> 49:49.840
referred to an Old Testament prophecy
about a Jewish messiah coming to free

49:49.840 --> 49:54.280
Israel from its current misery,
a concept that was central to Jewish

49:54.280 --> 49:55.320
thinking at the time.

49:58.780 --> 50:03.640
At that time, you had a lot of groups who
weren't quite satisfied with what was

50:03.640 --> 50:04.680
going on at the temple.

50:04.900 --> 50:07.780
A lot of groups who weren't happy with the
Roman rule.

50:08.020 --> 50:13.620
And those people were looking forward to
the anointed one and started talking about

50:13.620 --> 50:14.800
the anointed one.

50:14.940 --> 50:19.440
This is the one that we really believe
will come and do the job right.

50:19.980 --> 50:26.340
And so it was one of the hot potatoes that
was being passed around, defining exactly

50:26.340 --> 50:30.420
who this messiah should be and who he will
be.

50:32.500 --> 50:37.460
Jesus next entered the holiest place for
Jews, the temple.

50:38.700 --> 50:43.760
Ben Witherington believes the gospel
writers saw what Jesus did there as

50:43.760 --> 50:48.280
prophesying God's coming judgment on the
corrupt temple leadership.

50:49.460 --> 50:58.320
And he entered the temple and began to
drive out those who sold, saying to them,

50:59.000 --> 51:05.020
it is written, my house shall be a house
of prayer, but you have made it a den of

51:05.020 --> 51:05.640
robbers.

51:08.560 --> 51:14.440
Jesus sees this as a violation of the
presence of God in the midst of God's

51:14.440 --> 51:14.760
people.

51:15.100 --> 51:21.140
So this is a warning, if you will,
that the temple of Herod is the temple of

51:21.140 --> 51:23.480
doom and it's going down for the count.

51:24.520 --> 51:28.860
What we really have here is a
foreshadowing of judgment that's going to

51:28.860 --> 51:33.240
fall on the whole temple mechanism
altogether.

51:35.320 --> 51:40.740
At the very time the first gospels were
being written, just 40 years after Jesus's

51:40.740 --> 51:46.380
death, when the temple was destroyed by
the Romans, this prophecy appeared to be

51:46.380 --> 51:46.660
fulfilled.

51:51.820 --> 51:57.620
The gospels tell us over the next few
days, Jesus continued to visit the temple,

51:58.060 --> 52:03.460
teaching and debating in the courtyards in
full view of the temple authorities who

52:03.460 --> 52:06.320
were becoming increasingly anxious about
his presence.

52:08.240 --> 52:13.320
For them to picture this Jesus coming
across and ideas that he was going to take

52:13.320 --> 52:18.940
this temple down to its foundations and
that after three days raise it up was a

52:18.940 --> 52:22.240
big threat to them because this is the
place where God dwells.

52:22.380 --> 52:28.760
For him to go inside and to upset the
carts and to create the big scene that he

52:28.760 --> 52:34.880
did there was something that would be
tantamount to treason and perhaps to some

52:34.880 --> 52:38.600
would be the prelude to his death.

52:38.960 --> 52:44.580
From the perspective of the disciples,
obviously the tension is ratcheting up.

52:44.700 --> 52:48.780
They're thinking we are heading for a
dramatic climax, here we go.

52:49.280 --> 52:54.060
And any of them who had tendencies to
think in sort of zealot-like directions

52:54.060 --> 52:56.660
were expecting, let's get ready to rumble.

52:57.560 --> 53:03.140
In the gospel accounts, the temple
authorities then send a spy to try and

53:03.140 --> 53:08.820
trick Jesus into publicly denying the
Roman Emperor Caesar's right to tax them,

53:09.620 --> 53:11.360
a crime punishable by death.

53:12.240 --> 53:17.660
But Jesus demands a Roman coin with
Caesar's face on it and utters one of his

53:17.660 --> 53:19.360
most famous sayings.

53:21.500 --> 53:26.680
Render to Caesar the things that are
Caesar's and to God the things that are

53:26.680 --> 53:27.220
God's.

53:27.980 --> 53:29.560
And they marveled at him.

53:32.100 --> 53:37.120
Now this is a tremendously ironic saying
because of course from the biblical point

53:37.120 --> 53:38.540
of view everything is God's.

53:38.960 --> 53:41.460
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness
thereof.

53:41.880 --> 53:46.320
So thinking that God has a sphere and
Caesar has a sphere and they're sort of

53:46.320 --> 53:49.500
neatly divided or separatable is
laughable.

53:49.980 --> 53:54.480
And anybody who heard this saying would
know that this is a riddle, a deliberate

53:54.480 --> 53:54.960
riddle.

53:55.360 --> 54:01.160
And it stumps the inquisitors instead of
Jesus being stumped, it stumps them.

54:05.190 --> 54:10.650
To fully understand what Jesus was doing
in Jerusalem, Ben Witherington believes

54:10.650 --> 54:16.470
that we need to examine an event earlier
in his life, before he came to the city,

54:17.030 --> 54:20.950
when he revealed who he was to his
disciples in secret.

54:25.480 --> 54:31.020
According to the Gospels, while he was
still in Galilee, Jesus took his disciples

54:31.020 --> 54:37.560
north to a pagan city called Caesarea
Philippi, a place full of ancient temples

54:37.560 --> 54:40.980
where sacrifices would have been made to
pagan gods.

54:42.080 --> 54:47.740
It was also a center for the newly created
emperor cult, in which the Roman emperor

54:47.740 --> 54:51.040
Augustus was worshiped as a son of the
gods.

54:54.260 --> 54:59.760
And then Jesus looks directly at the
disciples and says, but who do you say

54:59.760 --> 55:01.120
that I am?

55:02.300 --> 55:07.640
Simon raises his hand and says,
I know you're the Messiah, the Jewish

55:07.640 --> 55:09.880
Messiah, the son of the living God.

55:10.300 --> 55:15.960
So what Jesus is saying is that if you
identify me in that way, but recognize the

55:15.960 --> 55:22.520
larger cosmopolitan context, I'm not just
the Jewish Messiah, I am the son of God,

55:22.600 --> 55:26.280
not a son of the gods like Augustus,
the son of God.

55:26.620 --> 55:30.940
And my community will be built on
confessions like you have just made.

55:31.300 --> 55:35.340
And the gates of death of Hades will not
prevail against it.

55:36.120 --> 55:42.080
It's a fantastic location to help them
reorient their thinking, understanding

55:42.080 --> 55:45.080
that it's too little to say he's the
Jewish Messiah.

55:45.760 --> 55:50.820
No, he is the reality of which Caesar and
these other gods are only a parody.

55:51.340 --> 55:57.200
And he chose precisely this spot outside
of the Holy Land to reveal to them and to

55:57.200 --> 55:59.080
answer for them the who question.

56:00.160 --> 56:07.620
But Jesus then ends the story with a
mysterious plea for his disciples not to

56:07.620 --> 56:08.240
tell anyone.

56:10.080 --> 56:13.500
Jesus wants to reveal himself on his own
terms.

56:13.980 --> 56:18.660
And there were lots of pre-existing
expectations about what a son of David or

56:18.660 --> 56:20.280
a messianic figure would look like.

56:20.620 --> 56:25.500
He wants to fill that category with his
own content on his own terms.

56:25.820 --> 56:32.700
He doesn't want his story resolved
prematurely before he's able to conclude

56:32.700 --> 56:35.020
it in the way he thinks God wants it
concluded.

56:35.660 --> 56:41.880
But more importantly, what we've got here
that sets up that last week is Jesus not

56:41.880 --> 56:46.820
only answers the who question for the
disciples, he forewarns them that as son

56:46.820 --> 56:53.300
of man, he must face execution at the
hands of those who ought to most

56:53.300 --> 56:55.160
appreciate him, the Jewish authorities.

56:58.950 --> 57:05.530
Now, what I have showed you is the two
bits of the story where Jesus is most

57:05.530 --> 57:07.690
revealing of his own identity.

57:08.450 --> 57:14.190
One is, of course, in the last week of his
life during the Passion and Resurrection

57:14.190 --> 57:14.770
events.

57:15.150 --> 57:19.310
And the other is this very interesting
story at Caesarea Philippi.

57:20.030 --> 57:27.170
Not part of the Holy Land, part of the
domain of Herod Philip, not Herod Antipas,

57:27.970 --> 57:34.910
and at a city that was called Banias,
after the Greek god Pan, and then renamed

57:34.910 --> 57:43.050
for both Caesar, hence Caesarea,
and Philip, the son of Herod the Great.

57:43.950 --> 57:51.010
Now, why exactly would Jesus take his
disciples on a hike outside of the Holy

57:51.010 --> 57:56.210
Land to a pagan city to reveal who he was?

57:56.930 --> 57:59.130
Here's my theory about that.

57:59.730 --> 58:05.430
I think the reason is because there were
so many different visions of what the

58:05.430 --> 58:10.770
Messiah should be like, and Jesus does not
want to be pigeonholed.

58:11.130 --> 58:16.910
He wants to reveal himself on his own
terms, and one of the ways to do that is

58:16.910 --> 58:17.830
the via negativa.

58:18.510 --> 58:22.350
That is, telling people who he is by
explaining who he is not.

58:23.030 --> 58:26.150
He's not like the Emperor Augustus.

58:26.650 --> 58:29.770
He's not like these pagan deities.

58:30.030 --> 58:35.710
No, he's a very different kind of
messianic and divine figure.

58:36.430 --> 58:40.670
But here's another clue that is so
important about this.

58:41.590 --> 58:47.210
Whenever Jesus is said, are you the Son of
God, the Son of the Blessed, as the high

58:47.210 --> 58:54.090
priest Caiaphas is reported to have said
in Mark 14, Jesus doesn't reject that

58:54.090 --> 59:00.910
suggestion, but he then turns it around
and says, I'm the Son of Man.

59:01.530 --> 59:06.630
He prefers to call himself the Son of Man.

59:08.590 --> 59:09.070
Why?

59:09.070 --> 59:14.170
Even in that story in Mark 8, that's what
happens.

59:14.750 --> 59:17.630
Peter says, you're the Christ,
the Son of the Blessed.

59:17.910 --> 59:20.070
Jesus says, blessed are you, Simon
Bar-Jonah.

59:21.070 --> 59:25.010
Flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you,
and good on you.

59:25.710 --> 59:29.030
And then immediately Jesus says,
but now I need to tell you that the Son of

59:29.030 --> 59:33.370
Man must suffer many things and be killed,
and on the third day rise.

59:33.730 --> 59:38.610
And Peter says, no way, Jose, is that
going to happen to you, Jesus?

59:38.930 --> 59:43.010
And Jesus then says to Simon, get behind
me, Satan.

59:43.230 --> 59:49.170
So in this same story, Peter goes from the
penthouse to the outhouse, just like that.

59:49.810 --> 59:54.430
He gets it right, and then he gets it
wrong, almost in the same breath.

59:55.310 --> 01:00:00.190
And the reason is because early Jews were
not looking for a crucified Messiah.

01:00:01.490 --> 01:00:04.410
Who is this Son of Man figure?

01:00:05.850 --> 01:00:09.890
There were two phrases on the lips of
Jesus that occurred more frequently than

01:00:09.890 --> 01:00:12.350
all others, according to almost all
scholars.

01:00:12.790 --> 01:00:14.830
Son of Man and Kingdom of God.

01:00:15.150 --> 01:00:22.830
Those are the two phrases that recur over
and over and over again on Jesus's lips.

01:00:23.250 --> 01:00:23.670
Why?

01:00:24.770 --> 01:00:29.870
Well, I think it's because Jesus
interpreted himself out of the Old

01:00:29.870 --> 01:00:30.710
Testament scriptures.

01:00:31.770 --> 01:00:32.750
And guess what?

01:00:32.950 --> 01:00:39.370
There is only one Old Testament scripture
that refers to both Son of Man and Kingdom

01:00:39.370 --> 01:00:41.630
of God at the same time.

01:00:41.970 --> 01:00:47.470
And that scripture is found in the
apocalyptic book known as Daniel.

01:00:47.730 --> 01:00:52.630
So I want to share just a couple of verses
for you from the book of Daniel.

01:00:54.110 --> 01:00:59.150
This is from Daniel chapter 7,
and I'm going to be reading to you.

01:01:00.670 --> 01:01:07.470
I'm going to start at the 9th verse and
then read through to about the 13th verse.

01:01:08.670 --> 01:01:11.210
Now as I look, thrones were set in place.

01:01:11.910 --> 01:01:14.090
This is a vision of the prophet Daniel.

01:01:14.730 --> 01:01:16.410
And the ancient of days took his seat.

01:01:17.310 --> 01:01:18.750
His clothing was white as snow.

01:01:18.870 --> 01:01:20.710
The hair of his head was white like wool.

01:01:21.130 --> 01:01:23.050
His throne was flaming with fire.

01:01:23.170 --> 01:01:24.710
His wheels were all ablaze.

01:01:24.790 --> 01:01:27.710
A river of fire was flowing, coming out
from before him.

01:01:28.270 --> 01:01:30.690
Thousands upon thousands attended him.

01:01:30.810 --> 01:01:33.410
Ten thousand times ten thousand stood
before him.

01:01:33.850 --> 01:01:36.890
The court was seated and the books were
open.

01:01:36.930 --> 01:01:39.150
This is a judgment scene.

01:01:40.090 --> 01:01:43.390
The court was seated and the books were
open.

01:01:43.930 --> 01:01:48.070
Then I continued to watch because of the
boastful words of the horn that had been

01:01:48.070 --> 01:01:49.050
speaking earlier.

01:01:49.810 --> 01:01:55.770
And then in beginning in verse 13 he says,
and in my vision at night I looked and

01:01:55.770 --> 01:02:02.010
there before me was one like a son of man
coming with the clouds of heaven.

01:02:02.510 --> 01:02:06.810
He approached the ancient of days and was
led into his presence.

01:02:07.830 --> 01:02:16.190
And this son of man was given authority
and glory and sovereign power and all

01:02:16.190 --> 01:02:20.350
nations and peoples of every language
worshipped him.

01:02:20.930 --> 01:02:27.270
And his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom
that will never pass away.

01:02:27.970 --> 01:02:32.250
His kingdom is one that will never be
destroyed.

01:02:32.810 --> 01:02:36.010
Now again, context is everything about
this.

01:02:36.370 --> 01:02:42.610
Because before this portion in Daniel 7,
you have had the story of four beastly

01:02:42.610 --> 01:02:43.250
empires.

01:02:44.290 --> 01:02:46.710
Four inhumane empires.

01:02:47.550 --> 01:02:53.090
Four evil empires that have persecuted and
prosecuted and executed God's people.

01:02:53.770 --> 01:03:00.550
But the story climaxes in this vision
where you have an empire led not by a head

01:03:00.550 --> 01:03:07.810
of a beast or a beast, but by a human and
humane figure called the son of man.

01:03:08.770 --> 01:03:16.090
And unlike these previous kingdoms,
this last kingdom of the son of man is

01:03:16.090 --> 01:03:17.530
going to last how long?

01:03:18.310 --> 01:03:24.250
The text says olam, olam, olam,
olam.

01:03:24.610 --> 01:03:29.610
Or as Handel put it, forever and ever,
hallelujah, hallelujah.

01:03:30.530 --> 01:03:37.250
A human kingdom led by a humane person who
rules forever.

01:03:39.180 --> 01:03:44.350
Now this is a very different promise than
the promise that God made to David in 2

01:03:44.350 --> 01:03:45.190
Samuel 7.

01:03:45.190 --> 01:03:50.610
He says, I will put you on the throne,
and your son, and your son's descendants,

01:03:51.110 --> 01:03:51.770
and etc.

01:03:52.170 --> 01:04:01.330
That's a dynastic series of royal subjects
of the heavenly king ruling in the holy

01:04:01.330 --> 01:04:01.850
land.

01:04:03.250 --> 01:04:10.590
But this last vision in Daniel 7 is not
about a series of kings ruling,

01:04:11.010 --> 01:04:13.590
father, son, grandson, so on.

01:04:14.150 --> 01:04:18.470
It's about one person ruling forever.

01:04:19.130 --> 01:04:26.230
What kind of person, friend, can rule
forever and ever?

01:04:28.190 --> 01:04:32.470
Did you notice as well what the text said
that all the nations would do?

01:04:33.930 --> 01:04:35.390
They will all what?

01:04:35.790 --> 01:04:37.850
Worship Him.

01:04:38.570 --> 01:04:44.250
Now if you know anything about Judaism,
there is only one object of worship and it

01:04:44.250 --> 01:04:45.070
is whom?

01:04:46.470 --> 01:04:47.010
God.

01:04:48.230 --> 01:04:56.370
Here is a vision of the Son of Man being
worshiped as God and reigning forever and

01:04:56.370 --> 01:04:57.890
judging the world.

01:04:59.110 --> 01:05:06.990
This, I submit to you, is the story,
the vision out of which Jesus exegeted and

01:05:06.990 --> 01:05:11.010
interpreted Himself and His own ministry.

01:05:11.950 --> 01:05:17.630
As it turns out, the most exalted title
that Jesus could have used was not Son of

01:05:17.630 --> 01:05:18.030
God.

01:05:19.330 --> 01:05:22.450
Even kings in antiquity were called sons
of the gods.

01:05:23.370 --> 01:05:28.650
No, the most exalted title He could have
used is Son of Man.

01:05:30.350 --> 01:05:37.750
John Donne put it this way, "'Twas much
that we were made like God long before,

01:05:38.370 --> 01:05:47.510
but that God should be made like us much
more.'" "'Twas much that we were made like

01:05:47.510 --> 01:05:54.170
God long before, created in God's image,
but that God would be made like us and

01:05:54.170 --> 01:06:01.570
take on flesh and dwell in our midst much
more.'" I have a good friend at Vanderbilt

01:06:01.570 --> 01:06:02.710
named Amy Jill Levine.

01:06:02.890 --> 01:06:05.310
She is a Jewish woman, New Testament
scholars.

01:06:05.990 --> 01:06:08.190
No, there's not a lot of those in the
world.

01:06:08.710 --> 01:06:12.730
She's a good friend of mine and we often
do a seminar together on the historical

01:06:12.730 --> 01:06:14.570
Jesus, so I will leave you with this.

01:06:15.230 --> 01:06:19.090
What's interesting about this seminar when
we talk about the historical Jesus and

01:06:19.090 --> 01:06:24.210
debate this and dialogue about that and
kibbutz about this, is that we start with

01:06:24.210 --> 01:06:27.710
three propositions that are givens that we
both accept.

01:06:28.230 --> 01:06:32.010
A, a non-Jewish Jesus doesn't work.

01:06:33.050 --> 01:06:38.230
B, a non-eschatological Jesus,
a Jesus that was not concerned about the

01:06:38.230 --> 01:06:43.890
end of the world, not concerned about the
end things, not concerned about God's

01:06:43.890 --> 01:06:47.590
final kingdom coming on earth,
is also a non-starter.

01:06:48.150 --> 01:06:54.150
And thirdly, we both agree a non-messianic
Jesus is a non-starter.

01:06:54.990 --> 01:06:58.550
This is not because she's a believing
Christian, it's because she's an honest

01:06:58.550 --> 01:06:59.110
historian.

01:07:00.130 --> 01:07:04.850
The truth of the matter is, at the bottom
of the well of history, that there is no

01:07:04.850 --> 01:07:10.930
non-Jewish, non-eschatological,
non-messianic Jesus to be found at the

01:07:10.930 --> 01:07:12.130
bottom of the well of history.

01:07:12.830 --> 01:07:15.690
And that's also what the Gospels say.

01:07:15.690 --> 01:07:17.430
Thank you very much.

01:07:32.430 --> 01:07:38.090
If you want to ask a few questions,
we've got time and there's still time for

01:07:38.090 --> 01:07:41.010
the tide to roll and other things to
happen.

01:07:49.030 --> 01:07:52.750
Sure, but they did not see Messiah as a
divine figure.

01:07:53.770 --> 01:07:56.490
No, they did not view the coming Messiah.

01:07:56.630 --> 01:08:01.670
They saw him as an anointed one of God,
like a Davidic king.

01:08:02.010 --> 01:08:05.850
They saw him as a royal, anointed figure,
like King David would be.

01:08:06.110 --> 01:08:09.130
But they did not anticipate a divine
Messiah.

01:08:09.250 --> 01:08:13.610
So what Jesus was actually telling them
was more radical than anything they had

01:08:13.610 --> 01:08:14.110
expected.

01:08:14.590 --> 01:08:18.850
And you know, one of the things I love
about the Gospels is that Jesus doesn't

01:08:18.850 --> 01:08:20.510
come to meet our expectations.

01:08:21.750 --> 01:08:24.390
Nor did he come to meet the early Jews'
expectations.

01:08:24.390 --> 01:08:25.970
He came to meet their needs.

01:08:26.730 --> 01:08:28.450
There is a difference.

01:08:29.530 --> 01:08:30.190
Good question.

01:08:30.330 --> 01:08:30.770
Next question.

01:08:30.830 --> 01:08:32.790
I will repeat the questions so you can
hear them.

01:08:33.470 --> 01:08:34.290
Yes, back here.

01:08:34.870 --> 01:08:35.350
The

01:08:41.520 --> 01:08:47.860
question is, how much overlap is there
between the teachings of Jesus and other

01:08:47.860 --> 01:08:48.780
early Jewish teachings?

01:08:49.960 --> 01:08:51.080
There is some.

01:08:51.540 --> 01:08:56.180
There are two early Jewish teachers that
were contemporaries of Jesus that he does

01:08:56.180 --> 01:08:56.860
sound like.

01:08:57.100 --> 01:09:03.480
He doesn't sound like rabbinic figures
like Rabbi Hillel or Shammai or Eliezer.

01:09:03.840 --> 01:09:10.700
He does sound like a couple of the Jewish
sages, Honi the Circle Drawer and Hosni.

01:09:12.620 --> 01:09:14.560
They also taught in parables.

01:09:15.440 --> 01:09:22.140
And Honi the Circle Drawer also called God
Abba, which is very frequent on the

01:09:22.140 --> 01:09:22.860
tongues of Jesus.

01:09:23.100 --> 01:09:26.100
It's an Aramaic way of referring to God as
Father, okay?

01:09:26.480 --> 01:09:29.520
So there is some overlap, but not a lot.

01:09:30.020 --> 01:09:34.960
Neither Honi nor Hosni presented
themselves as any kind of messianic figure

01:09:34.960 --> 01:09:37.920
and wouldn't want to have been seen that
way.

01:09:38.560 --> 01:09:39.780
But did they use parables?

01:09:40.080 --> 01:09:40.420
Yes.

01:09:40.720 --> 01:09:42.440
Did they use extended metaphors?

01:09:42.620 --> 01:09:42.840
Yes.

01:09:42.880 --> 01:09:45.080
Did they use colorful images in their
teaching?

01:09:45.800 --> 01:09:46.780
Yes, they did.

01:09:47.080 --> 01:09:48.220
So there are some similarities.

01:09:50.120 --> 01:09:50.360
Yes?

01:09:50.940 --> 01:09:57.740
You mentioned Paul in Corinthians,
having spoken to the Jesus who died,

01:09:57.840 --> 01:10:01.680
was buried, and rose again according to
Scripture.

01:10:02.040 --> 01:10:08.060
Are you referring that Paul was looking at
Daniel, was looking at other scriptures

01:10:08.060 --> 01:10:10.120
that were told?

01:10:10.520 --> 01:10:10.700
Yes.

01:10:12.360 --> 01:10:15.560
You notice where he puts the emphasis.

01:10:15.820 --> 01:10:22.000
He says he died according to the
scriptures, and it also says he rose

01:10:22.000 --> 01:10:23.080
according to the scriptures.

01:10:23.800 --> 01:10:28.280
That little phrase is not tagged on to the
burial, which is interesting, okay?

01:10:28.600 --> 01:10:34.180
I think he's thinking of Isaiah 53,
honestly, which is the most clear

01:10:34.180 --> 01:10:39.440
depiction of a suffering messianic figure
in the Old Testament.

01:10:39.680 --> 01:10:45.540
I think it's probably maybe a combination
of Psalm 22, which also talks about a

01:10:45.540 --> 01:10:50.300
suffering figure that may have been
crucified, and Isaiah 53.

01:10:50.460 --> 01:10:55.860
So yes, I don't think he's reading that in
light of the Son of Man material.

01:10:55.940 --> 01:10:59.380
I think he's reading it in light of Isaiah
and other texts.

01:10:59.880 --> 01:11:06.940
When Jesus ascended and the scriptures
said he would come in like fashion,

01:11:07.380 --> 01:11:09.140
again, how do you interpret that?

01:11:09.340 --> 01:11:16.380
Our question is, how do I interpret the
texts that refer to Jesus coming back from

01:11:16.380 --> 01:11:17.900
heaven to a theater near you?

01:11:19.400 --> 01:11:26.180
I take it to mean exactly what the church
historically has said it would mean.

01:11:26.780 --> 01:11:32.520
It's talking about Christ coming at the
end of human history to judge,

01:11:32.840 --> 01:11:36.300
to raise the dead, and to judge the world.

01:11:36.840 --> 01:11:41.180
And in fact, that's part of that vision in
Daniel 7, isn't it?

01:11:41.360 --> 01:11:47.360
Because as I said to you about Daniel 7,
the Son of Man is given the authority and

01:11:47.360 --> 01:11:52.120
plenipotentiary power from the Ancient of
Days, a.k.a.

01:11:52.240 --> 01:11:57.140
God, to judge the world, to judge the
nations of the world.

01:11:57.360 --> 01:11:58.820
Well, that hasn't happened yet.

01:11:59.760 --> 01:12:05.580
If you read your newspapers or watch the
news, the world has not yet gotten the

01:12:05.580 --> 01:12:07.260
memo that they're going to be judged.

01:12:07.840 --> 01:12:11.860
But someday, Jesus will come and take care
of that.

01:12:12.500 --> 01:12:17.800
Is Albert Schweitzer insisting in the
quest of the historical Jesus that Jesus

01:12:17.800 --> 01:12:22.040
will be coming back quickly, like within
the possible lifetime?

01:12:22.360 --> 01:12:22.580
Right.

01:12:22.880 --> 01:12:24.280
His question is a very good one.

01:12:24.380 --> 01:12:30.580
One of the first books to study Jesus as a
historical figure in the early 20th

01:12:30.580 --> 01:12:34.100
century was by Albert Schweitzer,
later a missionary to Africa.

01:12:34.560 --> 01:12:38.000
And the name of his book was The Quest for
the Historical Jesus.

01:12:38.640 --> 01:12:40.740
That's an English translation of the
German title.

01:12:41.700 --> 01:12:44.740
What he asks about is something that
Schweitzer said.

01:12:45.880 --> 01:12:53.800
Schweitzer said Jesus predicted that he'd
be back really soon after his death.

01:12:54.280 --> 01:12:57.180
And he wasn't referring to the
resurrection, he was referring to what we

01:12:57.180 --> 01:12:58.120
call the second coming.

01:12:58.580 --> 01:13:00.320
And bless his heart, Jesus was wrong.

01:13:00.520 --> 01:13:05.140
Schweitzer said that Jesus wrongly
predicted the timing of his second coming.

01:13:05.140 --> 01:13:07.440
I don't think he did that at all.

01:13:07.600 --> 01:13:11.240
In fact, in the gospels, we have clear
evidence he didn't do that.

01:13:11.560 --> 01:13:18.820
Mark 13, 32 says, of that day or hour,
no one knows, not even the angels in

01:13:18.820 --> 01:13:24.380
heaven, not even the Son knows,
only the Father knows the timing of the

01:13:24.380 --> 01:13:24.900
second coming.

01:13:25.220 --> 01:13:29.360
So I think Schweitzer was simply wrong in
the way he read the Jesus tradition.

01:13:30.040 --> 01:13:36.740
And by the way, if Jesus says nobody knows
on earth when he's coming back,

01:13:37.220 --> 01:13:42.680
please don't pay any attention to these
theological weather forecasts that you

01:13:42.680 --> 01:13:44.640
hear from time to time.

01:13:45.480 --> 01:13:47.560
Here's what I would want to say to you.

01:13:47.840 --> 01:13:54.800
God reveals enough of the future to give
you hope, but he doesn't reveal so much

01:13:54.800 --> 01:13:58.300
that you don't have to live by faith every
single day.

01:13:59.360 --> 01:14:04.720
The prophecies about the future do not
come with a timetable.

01:14:05.640 --> 01:14:07.600
That's about as simple as I can put it.

01:14:08.060 --> 01:14:13.360
The prophecies about the future are about
the certainty that in the end,

01:14:13.900 --> 01:14:15.460
God's way will win.

01:14:15.900 --> 01:14:16.840
That's what it's about.

01:14:17.340 --> 01:14:18.360
Justice will be done.

01:14:18.800 --> 01:14:19.820
Mercy will be had.

01:14:20.560 --> 01:14:21.800
Resurrection will appear.

01:14:22.320 --> 01:14:23.940
Reconciliation will take place.

01:14:23.940 --> 01:14:25.840
New creation, new heaven, new earth.

01:14:26.240 --> 01:14:31.920
All these images reassure us that in the
end, God is going to have the last word

01:14:31.920 --> 01:14:33.560
just like he had the first word.

01:14:34.360 --> 01:14:38.020
But it tells us nothing about the timing
of these events.

01:14:38.640 --> 01:14:45.700
You see, what I think prognostication and
calculation is about is about us trying to

01:14:45.700 --> 01:14:49.500
get a hold of and control of the future.

01:14:49.780 --> 01:14:54.400
Because if we knew for sure that Jesus was
coming on December 4th according to the

01:14:54.400 --> 01:14:59.640
Mayan calendar in 2012, maybe you've heard
about this, right?

01:14:59.920 --> 01:15:05.040
If we knew that for sure, do you think
that would change human behavior if

01:15:05.040 --> 01:15:09.760
everybody suddenly believed that was the
case between now and the end of this year?

01:15:10.140 --> 01:15:11.460
Oh, I think it would.

01:15:11.960 --> 01:15:15.600
This is precisely why God is not going to
give us this kind of information.

01:15:16.380 --> 01:15:19.880
He wants us to live by faith and live in
hope.

01:15:22.950 --> 01:15:26.150
And Ben just referred to the last word,
and so it shall be.

01:15:27.710 --> 01:15:30.170
What a blessing this has been,
Ben.

01:15:30.250 --> 01:15:31.950
Thank you so very much.

01:15:32.030 --> 01:15:32.390
Join me.

01:15:45.290 --> 01:15:48.770
Before you disappear, somebody did ask me
about this DVD.

01:15:49.070 --> 01:15:50.710
It is now available on Amazon.

01:15:51.510 --> 01:15:53.090
It's called The Story of Jesus.

01:15:53.550 --> 01:15:56.950
For my money, it's the best documentary
ever done on the life of Jesus.

01:15:56.950 --> 01:16:02.850
And it is the first one that ever stars a
Jew playing Jesus.

01:16:03.090 --> 01:16:07.670
The Jewish man who plays Jesus,
who can speak Hebrew and speak Aramaic,

01:16:07.710 --> 01:16:10.650
is named Salva Washington from London.

01:16:11.070 --> 01:16:14.050
And his first name means saved.

01:16:14.410 --> 01:16:15.950
Salva is his name.

01:16:16.390 --> 01:16:19.790
How appropriate, a Jew playing Jesus named
saved.