Quest for the Historical Jesus Begins Anew

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Contact: Nathan Bupp

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Quest for the Historical Jesus Begins Anew

Amherst, New York (December 08, 2008)—Scholars gathered this past weekend, December 5-7, in Amherst, New York, for the inaugural meeting of The Jesus Project in a renewed quest for the historical Jesus. The project, sponsored by the secular think tank Center for Inquiry and its Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER), is an effort by historians, biblical scholars, and theologians to determine what can be reliably recovered about the historical figure of Jesus, his life, his teachings, and his activities, utilizing the highest standards of scientific and scholarly objectivity.

An earlier inquiry, "The Jesus Seminar," founded by Professor Robert Funk in 1985, concerned itself primarily with the sayings attributed to Jesus in the Gospels and related sources. Dr. R. Joseph Hoffmann, chair of the Project and CSER, said that the "The Jesus Seminar had difficulty separating itself from the faith commitments of its members. Its agenda was not exclusively, but in large measure theologically driven. Its conclusions and methods raised more questions than they answered."

The project has drawn together a diverse and rich group of scholars, including, among others Gerd Lüdemann, Paul Kurtz, Robert Price, James Tabor, Robert Eisenman, David Trobisch, Bruce Chilton, Dennis MacDonald, and R. Joseph Hoffmann.

At the session this past weekend, participants agreed that a rigorous scientific inquiry was needed, and that the Project would be committed to a position of neutrality towards the sources used as "evidence" for the Jesus tradition. Participants represent a wide variety of perspectives, ranging from Tabor's argument that there is substantial evidence that the tomb of the family of Jesus has been located, to the view that the evidence for the existence of Jesus as an historical figure is not persuasive. "Jesus remains after 2,000 years the most fascinating figure of Western civilization," said James Tabor, author of The Jesus Dynasty: A New Historical Investigation of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity. "Scholars now at the beginning of the twenty-first century are able to take advantage of a plethora of new texts, sources, and methods, including the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, various lost Gospels that are not in our New Testament, and a rich archaeological record." Tabor says that scholars today find themselves uniquely positioned to examine the issue of who Jesus was in new and challenging ways. During the closing conference round-table, Tabor was quick to emphasize that "the Jesus Project repudiates any theological agendas, special pleading, or dogmatic presuppositions." All members of the project share a common commitment to the importance of applying scientific methodologies to the sources used to construct the Jesus tradition.

The Project has outlined a set of priorities for its next meetings, including a "consistent" translation of the Gospels, an inquiry into the causes of the canonization of the existing New Testament documents, parallels between Islam and early Christianity in delineating its sacred books, and the need to carve a middle path between what Hoffmann describes as "Da Vinci Code sensationalism and the truly fascinating story that underlies the history of Christianity."

Papers delivered at the conference will be published under the title "Sources of the Jesus Tradition: An Inquiry," by Prometheus Books in 2009. The Project's next conference is scheduled tentatively for May 2009 in Chicago.

*Listen to Robert Price interview about The Jesus Project on WBFO, Buffalo's NPR affiliate.
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wbfo/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1432152


CSER was founded in 1983 and is now a research committee of the Religion and Science division of the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, New York. It encourages the use of the historical and applied sciences in the study of religion and provides educational programs for the public as part of its religious-literacy initiatives. The Center for Inquiry/Transnational is a nonprofit, educational, advocacy, and scientific-research think tank based in Amherst, New York. Their research and educational projects focus on three broad areas: religion, ethics, and society; paranormal and fringe-science claims; and medicine and health. The Center's Web site is www.centerforinquiry.net .

The article has a lot of emphasis on reliance on using scientific methodologies. I'd bet that they aren't able to find any conclusive evidence that Jesus existed when he was 'supposed to' and leave the whole thing up in the air as "well, we can't prove anything one way or another."

Hinting at the implicit problem that many of the "documents" of the era of Christ were left out of the New Testament. There is probably some historical record of "proceedings" leading to those decisions.

I visited Mesa Verde National Monument, which is a preserve of North American pueblo ruins. One of the ranger/archaeologists did the presentation when we toured "the chapter house". He made an emphatic point that a lot of what is written in history books is lies. I wish that I had time to follow up with him on that point.

"Jesus remains after 2,000 years the most fascinating figure of Western civilization," said James Tabor, author of The Jesus Dynasty: A New Historical Investigation of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity.

Well, maybe if you're trying to sell books about him. But...most fascinating figure of Western civilization?

Huh? More fascinating than Socrates? Alexander The Great? Julius Caesar? Augustus Caesar? Galileo? Louis XIV? Napoleon? Hitler?

Not to me.

He's only "fascinating" because the vague, minimal scribblings about Jesus make him a tabula rosa wherein anybody can fill in the blanks pretty much as they wish.

We see that every day here in R&T. "Jesus was a liberal." Unless you go to Free Republic, where he was the original right-wing conservative.

Sorry to repeat myself. I rant about this all the time. To me, in the only source material available, the New Testament, Jesus just comes across as a garden-variety, egomaniacal religious fanatic. A First Century version of David Koresh or Rev. Jim Jones.

He certainly wasn't all that "fascinating" until Constantine decided to use his followers for purely secular and political purposes. At which point, as Edward Gibbon and a few thousand others have pointed out, the Xians said to hell with turning the other cheek, and eagerly took up the persecution of anyone who disagreed with them.

Agamemnon or any of the human main characters of the Iliad and Odyssey. Heck Homer himself.

They dragged Helen thru Egypt twice. Right in my 'hood (near Alexandria).

Helen and Paris supposedly stopped in Egypt, probably near modern Damietta (the eastern outlet of the Nile into the Mediterranean). But the Egyptians deported them as undesirable aliens. Probably a smart move, considering the way things turned out. IIRC, one version says Egyptian Customs temporarily confiscated all of Paris' loot--including Helen.

Then according to Homer, on the return trip Menelaus and Helen stopped near Alexandria (which unfortunately didn't exist yet). They landed on Pharos Island, to take on fresh water from nearby Lake Mareotis. (Nowadays known as Lake Mariut, shrunk to one-quarter its former size and a sink of sewage and chemical pollution.)

E.M. Forster made up a pretty funny yarn about that visit, with Menelaus asking an Egyptian where the hell they were. The Egyptian thought he was asking who owned the island. And the answer to that was the guy who owned everything in Egypt--the Pharoah. So it was, obviously "the Pharoah's Island." Or Pharos. I think Forster was just having fun with that whole idea.

After the Greeks/Macedonians set up shop, "Pharos" became the name of the famous lighthouse on the island, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. And pharos is still the word for "lighthouse" in several European languages.

Michael Wood and the Cypria.

It's really fascinating stuff. And fun, I always enjoyed the ancient Greek myths to the Christian myths. :)

And the novel "Black Ships" by Jo Graham makes an interesting, smart and fun story by using the Aeneid as a bases and some of the characters from Homer's tales and trying to fit it all into, by twisting the story a bit, but also using little tidbits like the visit to Egypt that most people aren't familiar with, a realistic historical story.

:hi:

It is fascinating. In E.M. Forster's put-on, he has Menelaus and Helen bickering like any married couple. And Helen being annoyed because the only residents of Pharos Island are seals.

His book is Alexandria: A History and a Guide, written when he lived here during WWI. The "guide" part is based around the city's tram lines and, for the most part, would still work to get a tourist around the city.

Some of the "history" part is dated, but still good reading because he's such a great writer.

The section on Theocritus' Fifteenth Idyll really makes the ancient citizens of Alexandria come alive. Two society women and their maid go out during a big religious festival, to see the parade and new decorations in the temple. Just like anybody today, they gripe about the crowds and the rude behavior. A horse steps on the maid's foot. (Which can still happen to the unwary today in Alexandria. Though you're most likely to get flattened by an ancient Lada taxicab with no brakes...)

:)

But thanks that sounds excellent.

Christianity. I'm reading Misquoting Jesus, by Prof. Bart Ehrman at this moment. What I don't understand is I thought the Bible Scholars have already ready EVERYTHING there has been written on Jesus and studies like this one has already been done. Why are they attempting to do this again? Are the other studies biased towards there being a "Jesus" so they want to do another one with Scholars who are not biased? If so, why isn't Prof. Erhman's name listed since he is considered to be one of the top New Testament Scholars today, who has claimed to have read and studied every Christian antiquity that was written? Thanks.

Not to be confused with RandAl Helms--he's an evangelist asshat.

RandEl McCraw Helms is the author of Gospel Fictions and Who Wrote The Gospels?, among others. In the latter book, he suggests that the author of Luke's gospel was probably a woman. One of the many reasons Fundies hate him!

I heard Helms speak once, at the Skeptics Society in Los Angeles. He passed along this invaluable advice for reading the New Testament:

"Always remember, with the New Testament, you are not reading biography or history. You are reading propaganda, written to help launch a new religion."

Oh, and I'm late with this, but welcome to the group. I enjoy reading your posts.

:hi: