Recurring Traditions and the Historical Christ | Discussion with Dr. Dale Allison Jr.

What was at the heart of Jesus’ teachings? Apocalypticism? The Torah? Pacifism? Radical love? And what did he think of himself? Did he see himself as a prophet, even one like the great Moses? A King of Israel? A divine figure, even perhaps the God of the Jewish scriptures? Who was the historical Christ?

Dr. Dale Allison Jr. is an eminent New Testament scholar whom I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing once before. He is neither an apologist nor a skeptic. In contrast to most historical Jesus scholars, he does not make much use of the "criteria of authenticity" (eg. the criterion of embarrassment). Rather, his methodology emphasizes recurrent attestation: what are the themes/motifs we see throughout our sources? That's the main question to be asked in attempting to reconstruct the historical Jesus.

In our discussion together, I offer some questions and objections: what do the recurrently attested traditions reveal about Jesus? Regarding the Gospels as historical sources, are there any such themes throughout the Gospels that are actually not authentic? What's wrong with rejecting everything in the Gospels as inauthentic? Conversely, what's wrong with accepting everything in the Gospels as historical? How do we, as Christ-followers, balance open truth-seeking with the critical quest for the historical Jesus? We discuss all this and more in the eleventh episode of The Life Discussion.

#historicaljesus #interview #truth #newtestament #daleallison #jesus #history #bible #theology

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RESOURCES

The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus (book by Dr. Allison) --
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0802862624/

Jesus as a Figure in History: How Modern Historians View the Man from Galilee (book by Mark Allan Powell) --
https://www.amazon.com/dp/066423447X/

The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide (book by Annette Merz and Gerd Theissen) --
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0800631226/

"Pursuing the Historical Jesus" (lecture series delivered at Yale) --
   • Dr. Dale Allison: Pursuing the Histor...