Interpretive Methods for the Life of Jesus

• Dogmatism
• Naive historicism
• Bultmann's "de-mythologization" (and, for him, an existentialist re-mythologization)
• Charlesworth's interplay of archaeological and literary data
• Crossan's "triple triadic" method

1. Data generation

• cross-cultural social anthropology (ancient & modern)
• Greco-Roman & Hellenistic history
• literature concerning Jesus

2. Textual problem of the Jesus tradition

• inventory
• chronological stratification
• level of independent attestation

3. Manipulation of inventory

• sequence of strata (earliest to latest)
• hierarchy of attestation (date & number)
• bracketing of singularity
• Sanders' historical reconstruction -- the search for the Sitz im leben Jesu (matching content & context)

Discussion:

• Which of these models do you think is best? Why?
• How should we apply these models?
• How stringent should we be in applying the criteria for historicity?

9:10 Short written response:

• What is the most valuable thing you learned in this session?
• What exercise was the most helpful in learning and/or integrating the material?
• What is one question you have concerning this material/topic?

• Which of these criteria do you see as the most important to an historical reconstruction of the life of Jesus?
• What is your sketch of the life of Jesus?
• How do you know it? (sources & reliability)
• How does this sketch fit (or not fit) with the criteria outlined in the lecture?