{"id":17093,"date":"2013-08-26T16:14:05","date_gmt":"2013-08-26T20:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=17093"},"modified":"2013-08-26T16:14:05","modified_gmt":"2013-08-26T20:14:05","slug":"twenty-facts-about-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/08\/twenty-facts-about-jesus.html","title":{"rendered":"Twenty Facts about Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Doug Chaplin<\/a> has a post in which he mentions my attempt to engage mythicists. He writes:<\/p>\n

Of course, in any topic under the sun, but especially those to do with Jesus, even almost indisputable facts get disputed, even down to his actual existence. The latter seems to be giving a few North American writers a little frisson of naughtiness and an illusion of intellectual courage in their frequently fundamentalist culture. Some scholars \u2013 such as\u00a0James McGrath<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 do their best to take mythicists seriously enough to refute them. This side of the Atlantic academia hardly notices them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The main content of his post is a list of twenty facts about Jesus, explicitly based on E. P. Sanders\u2019 famous lists of things that we can have historical confidence about. I am reproducing Doug\u2019s list below. Would you agree with his confidence about our historical knowledge regarding all, some, or none of them, and why?<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. A man called Jesus existed who people thought was worth remembering<\/li>\n
  2. He came from Nazareth<\/li>\n
  3. He spoke Aramaic as his first language.<\/li>\n
  4. He was washed in the Jordan by John the Immerser as part of John\u2019s restoration movement.<\/li>\n
  5. He developed a ministry independent of John\u2019s (which was probably part-based around Capernaum and part-itinerant).<\/li>\n
  6. His travels and planned action and teaching were confined to Israel although may have included areas whose \u201cIsraeliteness\u201d was disputed.<\/li>\n
  7. He ate, drank and spoke about God with those whose community status and purity was disputed or denied.<\/li>\n
  8. He called disciples and spent time teaching them.<\/li>\n
  9. Among these disciples he spoke of and to a core group of twelve.<\/li>\n
  10. He prioritised the fictive kin relationships of his followers over their natural family relationships<\/li>\n
  11. He performed exorcisms and other perceived healings<\/li>\n
  12. He was also widely seen as a teacher, and a significant portion of his teaching was seen as indirect, riddling and opaque.<\/li>\n
  13. One of his key subjects was the kingdom of God \/ heaven.<\/li>\n
  14. He referred to himself using the idiom \u201cson of man\u201d (although how and why he did so is disputed)<\/li>\n
  15. One characteristic way he expressed authority in his teaching was by prefacing some statements with \u201cAmen.\u201d<\/li>\n
  16. He engaged in controversies over the interpretation of the law<\/li>\n
  17. One of his final controversies was something to do with the Temple<\/li>\n
  18. He was executed by the Roman authorities as a royal pretender<\/li>\n
  19. His followers after his execution claimed he had been vindicated by God as God\u2019s true king<\/li>\n
  20. A new Jewish movement in his name opened up Judaism to include Gentiles and came into conflict with other Jews over Jewish identity, theology and practice.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Doug Chaplin has a post in which he mentions my attempt to engage mythicists. He writes: Of course, in any topic under the sun, but especially those to do with Jesus, even almost indisputable facts get disputed, even down to his actual existence. The latter seems to be giving a few North American writers a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,64],"tags":[2822,2915,4646,4660,5677],"class_list":["post-17093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historical-jesus","category-mythicism","tag-doug-chaplin","tag-e-p-sanders","tag-historical","tag-history","tag-jesus"],"yoast_head":"\nTwenty Facts about Jesus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Doug Chaplin has a post in which he mentions my attempt to engage mythicists. 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