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IntroductionThe gospels as Literature and Historymoving from studying them as literature to studying them as historyup to this point, looking at Gospels in order to see what they can tell us about their views of jesus-studying them as pieces of literature and what is there message; focusing on book b/c want to know what authors want to say about Jesushaven’t talked about historical Jesushaven’t talked about what he really said/did/experiencedhaven’t talked about him in History; just what the Gospels say about himstart talking about NT as historical documentsimportant point: if you want to know anything about someone in the past, have to have sources of info; obvious-for some reason people think that you don’t need to for jesus Our Need for sourceswhat kind of sources do you want: ancient, near time of events they are describing, lots of sources about the timeeye witness sources (lots of them) that agree in what they have to say (corroborated one another without having collaborated) *what you would want for everybodywhat are our sources? What sources do we have if what we are interested in is what really happened.Sources Outside the New TestamentRoman/Pagan-anything not Jewish or ChristianJesus is never mentioned in any Roman source of the first centurydon’t have any birth records, any accounts from people who knew him, any trial records, death certificates-his name never appearshave lots of sources from first roman century: medical doctors, poets, philosephors, letters, enscriptions; lots of sources, no Jesusthese will not helpPliny the Younger (ca. 112 CE; Book 10, letter 96, to Trajan)(the Christians) were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sayng a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath not to commit any fraudfirst time Jesus is mentioned in any Roman source 80 years after deathas important as he is for western civilization, but may not have been that important in first centurySuetonius (ca. 115 CE; Life of Claudius, 25) 20 years after Jesus death(Claudius) expelled the Jews from Rome for creating a tumult at the instigation of Chrestus (supposed to be Christ??)if reference, would be second referenceTacitus (ca. 115; Annals, 15) book called Annals of Rometalking about something that happened about 50 years earlier in 64 when emporer was NeroNero, who was a bad emperor, decided he wanted to redesign the city of Rome (problem it was already built). He arranged the city to be torched by Arsons, so they burnt down a chunk of the city. Nero was at fault-tried to shift blame off himself and did so by picking on the ChristiansNero falsely accused those whom… the populace called Christians. The author of this name, Christ, was put to death by the procurator, Pontius Pilate, while Tiberius was emperor; but the dangerous superstition, though suppressed for the moment, broke out again not only in Judea the origin of this evil, but even in the city of Rome, where all atrocious and shameful things flow together from all sides and are practicedinline with the gospesl that he was put to death by Pilate the governor of Judea during the rain of Tiberiusif you limited your self to Roman sources, the three here is all there isJewish: not as many Jewish sources for the first century as we have Roman sourcesfamous philosopher from 20 years, Philo-wrote many books but never mentioned JesusJosephus was a prominent historian in first century. Wrote number of books (still have several). Wrote 20 volume history of the Jewish people (adam and eve to his own day)also wrote 6 volume people of uprising of Jewish uprising to get rid of Romans out of Palestine (66) lasted 3 years till Jeruselum was destroyed in 70General for Jews, was captured by Romanswrote book while he was a court historian. Still have both bookswhat does he tell us about Jesus; 2 passages from his 20 volumeThe high Priest Ananus called a meeting of judges and brought into it the brother of Jesus, who is called Messiah, James by name, and some others. He made the accusation that they had transgressed the law, and he handed them over to be stoned (Antiquities, 20.9.1) *consistent from gospelssecond passage in reading*maybe not what Josephus saidtells us important things about Jesusis a wise teacher who does amazing deedshas followersaccused by Jewish leaders by Pontius Pilotcondemmed to the cross93 CE-60 years after he diedjewish historian knows something about his life *only two passages that mention Jesus within 100 years of his deathChristian-do have Christian sources outside new testament-other gospelsgospel of peter-portrays Jesus as giant Jesus coming out of tombgospel of Thomas-114 saying of Jesus sound similar to Gospels and some sound weirdGnostic GospelsInfancy Gospel of Thomasproblem: all later than gospels of NT and seem highly legendary; seem to be filled with legends about Jesusdon’t appear to be historically all that usefulpretty much restriced to NT if we want to know about Historical Jesus whether you are a Christian or not; best sources for knowing what he said/did/experienced are the NT. Sources Within the New TestamentOutside the Gospels-23 sources not the Gospelsdon’t tell us much about the Historical Jesusexample-Paul-doesn’t say much about Jesustells us that Jesus was Jewishsays he had Brothers-one named James (friends with bros)had 12 discipleshe had a last supper in which he took the bread and said this is my body and took a cup and said this is the new covenant and my bloodmentions two teachings of Jesuspay your preachershould not get a divorceknows he got crucifiedPaul is interested in death and resurrection of Jesus. There is very little to indicated hes interested in life of Jesus. This may seem weird-contrast to gospel of Thomas (saying number 1)-ask yourself how does a person have salvation for this gospel? Is it by believing in death and resurrectionThe Gospelsbasically have the four Gospels; four biographies written about Jesus; so much more than most people in ancient worlddownside: the problems with the Gospels as Historical sourcesproblemsdates-like to have eyewitness accounts; don’t know who wrote these books; attributed to two Jesus’ campanions and two companions of apostles. Jesus and followers were lower class and uneducated (Aramaic). Gospel written by highly educated Greek