RUTGERS UNIVERSITY  RELIGION DEPARTMENT

840:307 Jesus

Professor: Mahlon H. Smith

Introduction to the Quest of the historical Jesus. Methodological training in the use of criteria & primary sources to identify reliable historical data on the central figure in the Christian gospels.

Upper level course. Prerequisite or co-requisite: 840:202 New Testament or another college-level course that puts the Bible into historical perspective such as:

• 840:201 Old Testament
• 840:212 Religions of Western World
• 840:112 Death & After Life

Jesus is probably the most controversial figure in history. More has been written about him than any figure who ever lived. He is the focal point of a major world religion that, from the beginning, has stressed human unity. Yet, the history of the Christian movement bears the scars of often virulent debate about the character of the person who inspired it. The historic debates that produced the great confessional creeds also left a legacy of ill will that has divided Christian communities or worse. It is a regretable historical fact that Christians have often cursed or even killed each other & outsiders for the sake of Jesus.

With the rise of modern biblical scholarship more than two centuries ago neutral standards were introduced to clarify & correct interpretation of Christian scripture to transcend confessional divisions. An inevitable corollary of historical analysis of the gospel texts was the question of the historical person of Jesus himself. This historical "quest" focuses on Jesus' relation to his contemporaries -- what he said & did till his death -- rather than Jesus' relation to later believers. Since the primary sources of information about Jesus were all written by others a generation or more after his death, the question that has dominated NT scholarship for the past 200 years is how much of the infomation in the gospels can reliably be traced to Jesus himself.

This course is designed to introduce students to the issues, resources & conclusions of current Jesus research.

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This page was revised 6 May 1998