final paper for Who is Jesus?
Meier – How do we decide what comes from Jesus?
Only judging more or less probably, “certainty is rarely to be had.”
-moving from merely possible to really probable
Vocabulary –
Pericope
Reaction/Redactor
Primary Criteria
1. The Criterion of Embarrassment
a. Example, Baptism
b. Because we find embarrassing material as late as the redaction of the Gospels – not just a creative thrust to address these, also a conservative thrust, to address the embarrassing issues, not to try to forget them
c. (ask for other examples – baptism by J. Bap. Betrayal by Judas, denial by Peter, crucifixion by the Romans)
d. Also – what might seem embarrassing today might not have been in context – e.g. the cry from the cross “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” – is using the psalms of the suffering just man. – bitterness of the complaint reaffirms closeness he feels to God.
2. The Criterion of Discontinuity
a. Focuses on words or deeds of Jesus that cannot be derived either from Judaism at the time of Jesus or from the early Church after him (e.g. prohibition of all oaths, rejection of voluntary fasting, perhaps prohibition of divorce)
b. Most promising and most troublesome – goal is to establish a minimum
i. Objection – depends on our knowledge of the context
ii. Objection – divorces Jesus from the Judaism that influence him and the Church that he influenced
iii. * it is always in danger of highlighting what was striking but possibly peripheral in his message
iv. Isolates what is “unique” to Jesus – better to speak of what is “strikingly characteristic” or “unusual” in Jesus’ style, instead of focusing on individual units – especially re. phrases like “Abba,” or “Amen, I say to you.”
3. The Criterion of Multiple Attestation
a. More than one independent literary source (Mark, Q, Paul, or John) – e.g. Jesus did speak of the Kingdom of God
b. Careful moving from “general motifs and phrases” to “precise sayings and deeds.”
4. The Criterion of Coherence
a. Only useful after establishing a certain amount of historical material – other sayings that fit well with the primary “data base” established by first 3 criteria.
5. The Criterion of Rejection and Execution