Scholarly Consensuses Regarding the Historical

Jesus

Initially Posted: January 29, 2007

E.P. Sanders:

“I shall first offer a list of statements about Jesus that meet two standards: they are almost beyond dispute; and they belong to the framework of his life, and especially of his public career. (A list of everything that we know about Jesus would be appreciably longer.)” (THFJ:10-11).

• Jesus was born c. 4 BCE, near the time of the death of Herod the Great
• Jesus spent his childhood and early adult years in Nazareth, a Galilean village.
• Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist
• Jesus called disciples
• Jesus taught in towns, villages and countryside of Galilee
• Jesus preached ‘the kingdom of God’
• About the year 30 Jesus went to Jerusalem for Passover
• He created a disturbance in the Temple area
• He had a final meal with the disciples
• He was arrested and interrogated by Jewish authorities, specifically the high priest
• He was executed on the orders of the Roman prefect, Pontius Pilate

“We may add here a short list of equally secure facts about the aftermath of Jesus’ life:” (THFJ:11).

• His disciples at first fled
• They saw him (in what sense is not certain) after his death
• As a consequence, they believed that he would return to found the kingdom
• They formed a community to await his return and sought to win others to faith in him as God’s Messiah.

In addition, Sanders writes:

• The sheer volume of evidence makes it extremely likely that Jesus actually had a reputation as an exorcist” (THFJ:149).
• “Jesus’ enemies did not suspect him of fraud, but of healing by calling on a demonic power” (THFJ:160).

 

Paula Fredriksen:

• “The challenge of placing Jesus coherently within his native, early first-century environment is aided by the handful of indisputable facts that have served as the touchstones for this reconstruction:" (JNKJ:268).

o His encounter with John the Baptizer
o His popular following
o His proclamation of the Kingdom of God
o His crucifixion by Pilate in Jerusalem
o The survival of his core followers, who took up his proclamation of the Kingdom while identifying Jesus as Christ, risen from the dead, and extending the mission out from its Jewish matrix to also include Gentiles.”

Dale C. Allison:

• “Almost everyone regards as indisputable a rather long list of particulars, including:

o that Jesus was baptized by John
o that he was a Galilean miracle-worker
o that he was known as a teacher
o that he was crucified in Jerusalem under Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius
o and that shortly after his death some of his followers claimed he had risen from the dead” (JONMP:52).