WHO DO MEN SAY THAT I AM?
A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE PERSON AND TEACHING OF JESUS CHRIST
Traditional orthodox Christianity presents Jesus as the Messiah/ Redeemer, God’s supreme sacrificial offering paying the price for the sin and transgression of the believer. Jesus is declared to be eternally co- equal with God, the second Person of the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but humbled in time and space to come to us in the likeness of flesh, born of a virgin, and at about thirty five years of age, crucified, but raised up from the dead as a guarantee of the future resurrection of hu- manity to the Final Judgment and the restoration of all things. Having completed his task, he ascended to heaven from which he will return at the end of the age. Is this really what Jesus was like? Are these historical facts? Can we find out how genuine this picture of Jesus is after all these centuries?
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
If we want to explore who Jesus really is and what he taught, that is, if we want to know something of the historical Jesus, then of course we want to try and look at any writings that Jesus might have left us and at any writings of his immediate followers in order to try and gain as much first hand knowledge of the life and teachings of Jesus as we can. Unfortunately, Jesus himself did not write any letters, or any essays or dissertations explaining his teaching; and neither did he write his own bio- graphy. So straight away we are left with having to search for accounts of Jesus and his teaching by consulting any writings of his immediate followers and subsequent to them, the leaders of the early church.
THE BIBLE: DATE AND AUTHORSHIP OF NEW TESTAMENT DOCUMENTS
Of course, one source that we have to look at are the gospels and let- ters that make up the New Testament in our Bibles. However, this matter is not as straightforward as it may seem. Theories as to the dates of the writing of the letters and gospels that make up the New Testament, and just who their authors are, vary. So it is necessary for us to take an aside for a moment in order to explore what modern scholarship says about these issues and also to see why the Bible has come down to us in its present form and order, which means that we must also spend a little time exploring the very early history of the Christian church. Once we have done this, we may be then able to return to our main theme and have a better understanding of the views of the early church and also have a better understanding of which New Testament documents are reliable.
DIFFERENT OPINIONS OF BIBLE SCHOLARS
Once again it is unfortunate to note that not all scholars agree on these issues. Different scholars have different interests: the conservative schol- ar is keen to maintain the view of the Bible and the New Testament as God’s Word, written by the Apostles as commissioned by Jesus and in- spired by the Holy Spirit, so they want all these documents to be written in the first century. Needless to say, secular scholars have a different agenda. Various methods and approaches are used – too complex to go into here – and all together, this results in different opinions with re- gards to the date of writing of these documents.
DATE OF WRITING
Below are three lists of the New Testament books, arranged in order of date according to three different sources – conservative scholars writing for the N.I.V. Study Bible, then a list from the Encyclopedia Britannica and finally a list drawn from research on the web from various sites. Thus, if we were to look again at these New Testament writings and order them according to the date of writing, we would have a New Testa- ment that would look like this:
Date of writing - Title
N.I.V. Study Bible:
48-49 or 51-53 or 53-57 Galatians
51 I Thessalonians
51-52 II Thessalonians
50’s or 60’s Mark
50’s 60’s or 70’s Matthew
53-55 or 57-59 or 61 Philippians
55 I Corinthians
55 II Corinthians
57 Romans
60 Ephesians
60 Colossians
60 Philemon
Early 60’s or before 50 James
63-65 I Timothy
63-65 Titus
66-67 II Timothy
60-68 I Peter
65-68 II Peter
Prior to 70 Hebrews
70’s or 80’s Luke
63 or 70-> Acts
65 or 80 Jude
50’s 60’s or 85 John
85-95 I John
85-95 II John
85-95 III John
95 Revelation
Or like this: Encyclopedia Britannica:
I Thessalonians.
53-54 Philemon
53-54 Galatians
53-54 I Corinthians
55 II Corinthians circa 56 Romans
64-70 Mark
70-80 Matthew
80-85 Luke
80-90 Acts
80-90 Hebrews
80-90 Revelation
90-100 II Thessalonians spurious
90-100 John
90-100 Jude
95-105 James
100-120 Colossians
100-120 I John
100-120 II John
100-120 III John
100-125 I Peter
Possibly 2nd century I
Timothy Possibly 2nd century II
Timothy Possibly 2nd century Titus
Circa 150 II Peter
Ephesians spurious
Or like this:
From a web site on early Christian writings:
40-80 Lost sayings of Gospel Q
50-60 1 Thessalonians
50-60 Philippians
50-60 Galatians
50-60 1 Corinthians
50-60 2 Corinthians
50-60 Romans
50-60 Philemon
50-80 Colossians
50-90 Signs Gospel
50-95 Book of Hebrews
50-120 Didache
50-140 Gospel of Thomas
50-140 Oxyrhynchus 1224 Gospel
50-200 Sophia of Jesus Christ
65-80 Gospel of Mark
70-100 Epistle of James
70-120 Egerton Gospel
70-160 Gospel of Peter
70-160 Secret Mark
70-200 Fayyum Fragment
70-200 Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
80-100 2 Thessalonians
80-100 Ephesians
80-100 Gospel of Matthew
80-110 1 Peter
80-120 Epistle of Barnabas
80-130 Gospel of Luke
80-130 Acts of the Apostles
80-1401 Clement
80-150 Gospel of the Egyptians
80-150 Gospel of the Hebrews
90-95 Apocalypse of John
90-120 Gospel of John
90-120 1 John
90-120 2 John
90-120 3 John
90-120 Epistle of Jude
100-150 1 Timothy
100-150 2 Timothy
100-150 Titus
100-150 Apocalypse of Peter
100-150 Secret Book of James
100-150 Preaching of Peter
100-160 Gospel of the Ebionites
100-160 Gospel of the Nazoreans
100-160 Shepherd of Hermas
100-160 2 Peter
We can note that in the third list, I have also included other Christian documents that did not make it into the Bible, for reasons that we shall see in a moment. So the New Testament is not our only source of information about Jesus and the early church, but it is the Bible documents that we considered authoritative, as we shall see.
AUTHORSHIP OF THESE DOCUMENTS
There is also debate concerning who wrote some of these documents. So, if we average out these various dates and add some of the known au- thors, we end up with a list that looks something like this:
Lost sayings of Gospel Q (Hypothetical). Circa 40 - 70
I Thessalonians (Apostle Paul).. Circa 50 A.D.
Galatians (Apostle Paul).. Circa 50-60 A.D.
I Corinthians (Apostle Paul).. Circa 50-60 A.D.
II Corinthians (Apostle Paul).. Circa 50-60 A.D.
II Thessalonians (spurious - no consensus as to authorship) Circa
50–100 A.D
Gospel of Thomas (spurious – esoteric – may include sayings of Jesus not in gospels) Circa 50 –100 or 110-150
Philemon (Apostle Paul).. Circa 55-60 A.D.
Romans (Apostle Paul).. Circa 55-60 A.D.
Philippians (Apostle Paul).. Circa 62 A.D.
Hebrews (not by Apostle Paul - anonymous). Circa 63-64 A.D.
James (No consensus as to authorship). Circa 45-100 A.D.
Mark (written by John Mark, or anonymous, based on Apostle Peter)
Circa70-75
I Timothy (falsely attributed work). Circa 63–100A.D.
Matthew (written by an anonymous Jewish Christian) Circa 70–100A.D.
Jude (No consensus as to authorship). Circa 70–125 A.D Eph- esians (spurious - no consensus as to authorship)
Circa 70–170A.D.
Colossians (No consensus as to authorship). Circa 60–160A.D.
Gospel of Peter (spurious)... Circa 150 - 200
Revelation (No consensus as to authorship). Circa 80–95 A.D.
Luke (written by Luke the evangelist, or an anonymous associate of Paul) Circa 80-90
Acts (written by Luke the evangelist, or an anonymous associate of Paul)Circa 80-90
I Peter (Apostle peter or Unknown author) Circa 75-112 A.D.
1 Clement (Sometime canonical – proto-orthodox) - concerns division and removal of elders by church at Corinth c. 96 A.D.
John (written by Johannine community based on John the apostle)
Circa 90-100
Gospel of the Ebionites (Written to Jewish Christians). Circa 100
Gospel of the Nazareans (Possible original document based on oral traditions) Circa 100
I John (written by John the apostle) Circa 100-110 A.D
II John (written by poss. follower of John the apostle) Circa 100-110
A.D
II Timothy (falsely attributed work, follower of Paul). Circa
100-125 A.D.
III John (written by poss. follower of John the apostle)..Circa
100-110 A.D
Didache (Proto-orthodox – on the borders of the canon – church manu- al) Circa 100 – 120
Preaching of Peter (Apologetic – not canonical- proto apologetic) Circa 100 - 130
Gospel of the Egyptians (Proto- Gnostic) Circa 100 - 150
Gospel of the Hebrews (Proto- Gnostic) Circa 100 - 150
Shepherd of Hermas (Sometime canonical but not Apostolic) Circa
100-150
Gospel of Thomas (spurious – esoteric – may include sayings of Jesus not in gospels) Circa 50 –100 or 110-150
Epistle of Barnabas (Sometime canonical – proto-orthodox) Circa 130
II Peter (Spurious. No consensus as to authorship). Circa 65 –
160 A.D.
Titus (falsely attributed work). Circa 80-200 A.D. Apocalypse of Peter (spurious). Circa 110 - 150
Gospel of Truth (Gnostic/esoteric) Circa 150 - 180
Once again, scholars vary in their opinions concerning the authorship of these documents, so the above list can only be an approximation to give us a flavour of the issues and debate.
‘Q’ – A HYPOTHETICAL SOURCE DOCUMENT
What we have then is a gradation of writings emerging from a Jewish background and context. Jesus himself leaves no written documents, but within ten to forty years after his death there is a hypothetical document in circulation, one which is now lost to us - a document that scholars have called ‘Q’, for ‘Quelle’ meaning ‘source’. This ‘Q’ document seems to be the source document for the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. They are called synoptic because they are three gospels which are very similar in content. Nevertheless there are also some significant variations between them. The gospels are written about thirty to forty years after the death of Jesus. It would seem that Mark was written first with Matthew being written within the next decade or so and Luke about a decade later. Luke is the first of two books by the same author, the second book being the Acts of the Apostles written it would seem about fifty years after the death of Jesus at the earliest.
THE EARLY JEWISH CHRISTIAN TRADITION
Aside from ‘Q’ and the variants that emerge from it, there is the early Jewish Christian tradition. Initially, Christianity was a Jewish sect with the Holy Spirit being poured out on Jews at Pentecost. This sect was based in Jerusalem and was headed by the disciples of Jesus, particularly Peter. It is regarded that there are some fragments of what this group taught that can be found in the book of Acts of the Apostles. Two sec- tions in particular are cited: Peter preaching in the temple in Acts Ch 3; and Stephen addressing the council in Acts Ch 7.
Acts Ch 3 v 12 – 26 - Peter Preaches in the Temple
Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd. “People of Is- rael,” he said, “what is so surprising about this? And why stare at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or godliness? For it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the God of all our ancest- ors—who has brought glory to his servant Jesus by doing this. This is the same Jesus whom you handed over and rejected before Pilate, despite Pilate’s decision to release him. You rejected this holy, righteous one and instead demanded the release of a murderer. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. And we are witnesses of this fact! “Through faith in the name of Jesus, this man was healed—and you know how crippled he was before. Faith in Jesus’ name has healed him before your very eyes.
“Friends, I realize that what you and your leaders did to Jesus was done in ignorance. But God was fulfilling what all the prophets had fore- told about the Messiah—that he must suffer these things. Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah. For he must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his holy prophets. Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own people. Listen carefully to everything he tells you.’ Then Moses said,
‘Anyone who will not listen to that Prophet will be completely cut off from God’s people.’
“Starting with Samuel, every prophet spoke about what is happening today. You are the children of those prophets, and you are included in the covenant God promised to your ancestors. For God said to Abraham,
‘Through your descendants all the families on earth will be blessed.’ When God raised up his servant, Jesus, he sent him first to you people of Israel, to bless you by turning each of you back from your sin- ful ways.”
Acts Ch 7 v 1 – 60 - Stephen Addresses the Council
Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these accusations true?”
This was Stephen’s reply: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran. God told him, ‘Leave your native land and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’ So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran until his father died. Then God brought him here to the land where you now live. But God gave him no inheritance here, not even one square foot of land. God did promise, however, that eventually the whole land would belong to Abraham and his descendants—even though he had no children yet. God also told him that his descendants would live in a foreign land, where they would be oppressed as slaves for 400 years.
‘But I will punish the nation that enslaves them,’ God said, ‘and in the end they will come out and worship me here in this place.’
“God also gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision at that time. So when Abraham became the father of Isaac, he circumcised him on the eighth day. And the practice was continued when Isaac became the father of Jacob, and when Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs of the Israelite nation. These patriarchs were jealous of their brother Joseph, and they sold him to be a slave in Egypt. But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles. And God gave him favour before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. God also gave Joseph unusual wisdom, so that Pharaoh appointed him governor over all of Egypt and put him in charge of the palace. But a famine came upon Egypt and Canaan. There was great misery, and our ancestors ran out of food. Jacob heard that there was still grain in Egypt, so he sent his sons—our ancestors—to buy some. The second time they went, Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers, and they were introduced to Pharaoh. Then Joseph sent for his father, Jacob, and all his relatives to come to Egypt, seventy-five persons in all. So Jacob went to Egypt. He died there, as did our ancestors. Their bodies were taken to Shechem and buried in the tomb Abraham had bought for a certain price from Hamor’s sons in Shechem. As the time drew near when God would fulfil his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt greatly increased. But then a new king came to the throne of Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph. This king exploited our people and oppressed them, forcing parents to abandon their new- born babies so they would die.
At that time Moses was born—a beautiful child in God’s eyes. His parents cared for him at home for three months. When they had to abandon him, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and raised him as her own son. Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in both speech and action.
One day when Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his relatives, the people of Israel. He saw an Egyptian mistreating an Israelite. So Moses came to the man’s defence and avenged him, killing the Egyptian. Moses assumed his fellow Israelites would realize that God had sent him to rescue them, but they didn’t. The next day he visited them again and saw two men of Israel fighting. He tried to be a peacemaker. ‘Men,’ he said, ‘you are brothers. Why are you fighting each other?’
But the man in the wrong pushed Moses aside.
‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us?’ he asked. ‘Are you going to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?’
When Moses heard that, he fled the country and lived as a foreigner in the land of Midian. There his two sons were born. Forty years later, in the desert near Mount Sinai, an angel appeared to Moses in the flame of a burning bush. When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. As he went to take a closer look, the voice of the Lord called out to him,
‘I am the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob.’
Moses shook with terror and did not dare to look. Then the Lord said to him,
‘Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groans and have come down to rescue them. Now go, for I am sending you back to Egypt.’
So God sent back the same man his people had previously rejected when they demanded, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us?’ Through the angel who appeared to him in the burning bush, God sent Moses to be their ruler and saviour. And by means of many wonders and miraculous signs, he led them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and through the wilderness for forty years. Moses himself told the people of Israel,
‘God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own people.’
Moses was with our ancestors, the assembly of God’s people in the wilderness, when the angel spoke to him at Mount Sinai. And there Moses received life-giving words to pass on to us. But our ancestors re- fused to listen to Moses. They rejected him and wanted to return to Egypt. They told Aaron,
‘Make us some gods who can lead us, for we don’t know what has be- come of this Moses, who brought us out of Egypt.’
So they made an idol shaped like a calf, and they sacrificed to it and celebrated over this thing they had made. Then God turned away from them and abandoned them to serve the stars of heaven as their gods! In the book of the prophets it is written,
‘Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices and offerings during those forty years in the wilderness, Israel? No, you carried your pagan gods—the shrine of Molech, the star of your god Rephan, and the images you made to worship them. So I will send you into exile as far away as Babylon.’
Our ancestors carried the Tabernacle with them through the wilder- ness. It was constructed according to the plan God had shown to Moses. Years later, when Joshua led our ancestors in battle against the nations that God drove out of this land, the Tabernacle was taken with them into their new territory. And it stayed there until the time of King David. David found favour with God and asked for the privilege of building a permanent Temple for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who actu- ally built it. However, the Most High doesn’t live in temples made by human hands. As the prophet says,
‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Could you build me a temple as good as that?’ asks the Lord. ‘Could you build me such a resting place? Didn’t my hands make both heaven and earth?’
You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That’s what your ancestors did, and so do you! Name one prophet your ancestors didn’t persecute! They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the Righteous One—the Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered. You deliberately disobeyed God’s law, even though you received it from the hands of angels.”
The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen’s accusation, and they shook their fists at him in rage. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus stand- ing in the place of honour at God’s right hand. And he told them,
“Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honour at God’s right hand!”
Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they stoned him, Stephen prayed,
“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
He fell to his knees, shouting,
“Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!”
And with that, he died.
THE EARLY GENTILE CHRISTIAN TRADITION
I will look a little at the content of these passages with regard to Jesus in a moment. But before I do, I want to note the establishment of the Gentile or non-Jewish Christian tradition, which is established by the Apostle Paul, or Saul as he was initially known.
JEWISH PERSECUTION OF THE JEWISH/CHRISTIAN SECT - SAUL
It is the upstart, troublesome Jewish Christian sect that Saul, a Jewish
Pharisee and purist trained in Jewish religious law, begins to persecute in an attempt to stamp it out, because it is what he sees as a deviant, heretical, troublesome group within Judaism.
SAUL’S DAMSACUS ROAD EXPERIENCE
Even as Saul is busy on this mission to purge Judaism of this trouble- some group, he is stopped in his tracks on one particular day. Three times we have an account of this event in Acts of the Apostles. So we should note that this is not Paul speaking or writing here in Acts, but someone else in the early church. The passages in Acts are as follows:
Acts 9 v 1 – 12
Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s dis- ciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the syn- agogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerus- alem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven [the vaulted expanse of the sky with all things visible in it] flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him,
“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"
"Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
The men travelling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.
In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, [a sight divinely granted in an ecstasy or in a sleep, a vision]
“Ananias!”
“Yes, Lord,” he answered.
The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to re- store his sight.”
And again in Acts 22 v 2 - 13
Paul said: “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prison- ers to Jerusalem to be punished. About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’
‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked.
‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied.
My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me.
‘What shall I do, Lord?’ I asked.
‘Get up,’ the Lord said, ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.’
My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me. A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ and at that very moment I was able to see him. And finally in Acts 26 v 9 - 20
“I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the Lord’s people in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them pun- ished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was so obsessed with per- secuting them that I even hunted them down in foreign cities. On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic,
‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’
‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared [to allow one's self to be seen, to appear] to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. I will rescue you