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Historical Jesus

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lightbulbAbout this topic
The Historical Jesus refers to the study of Jesus of Nazareth as a figure in history, focusing on his life, teachings, and the socio-political context of 1st-century Judea. This field employs critical historical methods to distinguish between the biblical portrayal and the historical reality of Jesus.
lightbulbAbout this topic
The Historical Jesus refers to the study of Jesus of Nazareth as a figure in history, focusing on his life, teachings, and the socio-political context of 1st-century Judea. This field employs critical historical methods to distinguish between the biblical portrayal and the historical reality of Jesus.

Key research themes

1. What are the evolving scholarly methodologies and interpretive models for reconstructing the historical Jesus?

This research theme focuses on how scholars critically approach the sources and traditions about Jesus to reconstruct a historically plausible figure. It examines methodological debates including the use of form criticism, narrative frameworks, and social memory theory, as well as the epistemological challenges of separating the 'historical Jesus' from early Christian interpretations. Understanding these methodologies is crucial for recovering a historically grounded portrait of Jesus, beyond theological or apologetic distortions.

Key finding: This article delineates two distinct methodological models in historical Jesus research: one, continuing form criticism, seeks a historical Jesus 'behind' early Christian gospel interpretations to retrieve a historical core,... Read more
Key finding: This work traces the evolution of scholarly quests for the historical Jesus through phases—the old quest emphasizing discrepancies and idealizations by early Christians, the no-quest focusing on the importance of faith... Read more

2. How do socio-political and class-conflict perspectives inform the understanding of Jesus’ historical context and movement?

This theme investigates Jesus within the concrete socio-economic and class structures of first-century Palestine. It leverages Marxist and materialist historiographical frameworks to analyze Jesus not as a detached religious figure but as deeply embedded in class struggles, peasant cultures, and early revolutionary movements. Understanding Jesus through the prism of social conflict elucidates the political implications of his actions, teachings, and death within the oppressive Roman and Jewish elites’ milieu.

Key finding: Crossley and Myles provide a socio-historical Marxist analysis positioning Jesus as a catalyst of a millenarian peasant movement opposing exploitative economic and patriarchal systems in first-century Galilee and Judea. They... Read more

3. What insights emerge from linguistic, astronomical, and gematria analyses regarding the historical Jesus and related biblical symbolism?

This theme captures interdisciplinary approaches employing ancient languages, astronomical alignments, and symbolic numerology (notably gematria) to interpret the figure of Jesus and associated biblical phenomena. These methods explore how textual encoding, celestial events, and numerical symbolism contribute to narratives about Jesus’ identity, mission, and eschatological significance. This includes studies of Hebrew and Aramaic language use in Judea, astronomical correlations with gospel events, and complex numerical frameworks linking Jesus-related motifs to divine archetypes.

Key finding: This paper challenges prevailing scholarly opinions by demonstrating, through historical and archaeological evidence including inscriptions and the Dead Sea Scrolls, that Hebrew remained an active spoken language alongside... Read more
Key finding: This study reconstructs Jesus’ one-year public ministry and crucifixion timing through ancient astronomical data and biblical festival alignments, associating planetary movements—especially Jupiter’s heliacal risings and... Read more
Key finding: The article presents Jesus as the central authoritative figure ('apex') granting sacred status to biblical canons across diverse Christian cultures, using an intercultural approach involving Protestant African contexts, Roman... Read more

4. How does the multiplicity and contradiction of Jesus' personas in historical and mythic accounts shape modern understanding of his identity?

This theme explores the recognition and incorporation of the diverse and sometimes contradictory depictions of Jesus from various historical, mythic, philosophical, and religious viewpoints. It engages with the notion that these contradictions enrich rather than diminish Jesus' figure, positioning him as a multi-faceted character relevant to differing cultural and theological needs. This perspective shifts from searching for a singular historical Jesus to appreciating the complex narrative textures and symbolic mythologies that have evolved.

Key finding: Arguing from the mythicist perspective, this work presents Jesus not as a singular historical figure but as a composite of 'contradictory faces'—the Jewish Jesus, Rebel Jesus, Philosopher Jesus, Greek Jesus-God, and Roman... Read more

All papers in Historical Jesus

The Scriptures, in common with its literary depiction of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, provides an inexhaustible source of divine information and theological guidance which has formed the basis of religious thought for the past... more
A visão que historiadores críticos tem sobre Jesus é diferente daquela que os cristãos de hoje tem. Questionando os relatos dos evangelhos e consultando outras fontes, a maior parte dos historiadores entende que no centro da mensagem de... more
Las muertes de los judíos cada día iban de mal en peor, encendiéndose los revolvedores cada día más, viéndose cercados con tanta adversidad, pues estaban ya ellos, con todo el pueblo, aquejados del hambre. La muchedumbre de los muertos... more
Habiendo Tito pasado la soledad de Egipto hasta Siria, y llegado a Cesárea, venía determinado de ordenar allí su ejército; pero estando él aun con su padre Vespasiano, a quien Dios poco antes había concedido el imperio, ordenando sus... more
y de la crueldad de los zelotes. Anano, pues, y Jesús, tal fin hubieron, como hemos arriba contado. Después de éstos, así los zelotes como los idumeos echábanse todos contra el pueblo, y mataban a todos cuantos hallaban; no menos que si... more
Enoch’s ancient prophecy describes the end-times evildoers — the rulers, the mighty, the sinners — who seize the earth, deceive nations, and persecute God’s people. This paper compares Enoch’s warnings with today’s Global Elite: the... more
This book proposes a revised chronology for the life of the charismatic Jew called Yeshua. Drawing on primary sources such as the Gospels, Josephus, and apocryphal texts, it argues that the date always suggested, 32 AD cannot be even... more
Esta obra colectiva reúne trabajos que, desde perspectivas diversas, abordan temas sugerentes y a la vez atractivos de la historia del Viejo Continente. Investigadoras e investigadores de Francia, España, Italia y Argentina esbozan... more
Lucas 4.14-30 é um texto fundamental para a definição do ministério de Jesus. Visto que o próprio Jesus define seu ministério como pregar boas novas aos pobres, o texto tem sido chamado de Manifesto de Nazaré. A passagem é muito... more
You are going to be taken through a process that is very simple, but is going to produce the most extraordinary results. By loading information that we will give you, into AI, it will reveal everything about the real Jesus story known by... more
W niniejszym artykule przedstawię pogląd wybranych Ojców Kościoła na temat przyjaźni. Podkreślają oni jej wagę w dążeniu do doskonałości chrześcijańskiej. Na początku wskażę na kontekst myśli patrystycznej dotyczącej tej kwestii, czyli... more
By foregrounding societal personhood, modal asymmetry, and ad intra/ad extra segmentation, we’ve shown how containment logics can absorb existentially dialectical concerns without collapsing into metaphysical determinism. The Logos... more
Al-Qaul al-Mukhtasar fi Alamat al-Mahdi al-Muntazir is a comprehensive scholarly work that explores the authentic signs and attributes of the Awaited Mahdi (peace be upon him) as found in Islamic traditions. Originally narrated by the... more
El estudio Porque Juan Bautista dudó del Mesías examina la vida y misión del profeta como bisagra entre el Antiguo y el Nuevo Pacto. Juan, descendiente de Aarón y último de los profetas, fue llamado a preparar el camino para Jesús,... more
В данной статье анализируется «третий поиск исторического Иисуса», который опирается на археологические исследования Галилеи. Авторы дают краткое описание сути «третьего поиска», рассматривают упоминания о Галилее в древних письменных... more
Could Yohanan ben Zechariah's title "Baptistes" have originally meant that he was the "Purifier" sent to purify Israel for the imminent eschatological kingdom? (This article is in Hebrew.)
Mark's Gospel insists that the 'Way of Jesus' is the 'Way of Discipleship'. As a 'macrologia' in which the dominant genre is the βίος genre, Mark promotes the μίμησής / imitatio of Jesus, the primary character. However, Mark is more than... more
Power Point delle lezioni tenute martedì 30 settembre e lunedì 6 ottobre 2025 all'Università degli Studi di Udine nel corso di Storia del cristianesimo e delle Chiese della prof.ssa Emanuela Colombi.
This chapter looks carefully at the wording and geographical layout of John's depiction of the burial and potential escape of Jesus from his makeshift tomb.
The story of the raising of Lazarus (John 11) as a potentially historical event presented in symbolic terms. Lazarus, Jesus' chosen deputy and successor, was not dead but was held prisoner by the Sanhedrin in a specific place within... more
The pericope of the Samaritan woman in John 4 is Mary Magdalene's first appearance, being chosen at the well by Jesus to be the wife of Lazarus.
“The Myth of the Mythical Jesus” was the title of a 2016 Patheos.com blog posting written by the prolific Christian apologist Philip Jenkins, the author of more than 25 books. It spawned an entire school of apologetics that seems... more
This paper argues that the Gospel story of Barabbas preserves a suppressed memory of Jesus as a militant figure, later reworked into the peaceful Christ of Christian theology. Early manuscripts of Matthew record the crowd choosing between... more
Este artigo propõe uma metodologia crítica para identificar práticas farisaicas antigas a partir da análise cruzada entre os evangelhos e a literatura rabínica. Evitando tanto a reconstrução acrítica do farisaísmo quanto o ceticismo... more
Through systematic mathematical analysis of Hebrew gematria in Genesis chapters 1-14, we document unprecedented evidence that ancient Hebrew functions as a binary-based programming language encoding the fundamental mathematical structures... more
The Greek word “ego, eimi” is translated into English as “I am”. There are different schools that talk about the phrase. Some say yes, it is a Hellenistic term, and others say no, so it’s biblical, not found in the Hellenistic world. Most... more
This paper explores the fundamental difference between historical acknowledgment and faith-based belief, using the figure of Jesus as a central case study. While the historical existence of Jesus is widely accepted by scholars, the belief... more
This paper proposes a reinterpretation of the time markers in the Book of Daniel, arguing that the prophet encoded references to the three Jewish pilgrimage festivals-Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles-as chronological anchors within... more
The Anunnaki, deities of Sumerian and Akkadian mythology, are popularly described in modern reinterpretations as extraterrestrial beings who came to Earth from a planet named Nibiru to mine gold in order to repair their failing... more
This work surveys the "Third Quest" (TQ) of the historical Jesus with a focus on the various portraits of Jesus within the first century using the historical-critical method. It argues that such studies and portraits of Jesus have... more
This work clarifies the meaning of χρῖσμα in Johannine interpretative thought to his readers in Ephesus and the Church at large amongst the various interpretations that find those passages suitable to defend their intentions without... more
Uzu Masa is one of many names for Japan's Jesus Messiah.
some typographical errors in last pages of the paper; pages 105 to 110 corrected
No Brasil é quase uma luta heroica conseguir conciliar uma pós-graduação (doutoramento) -da envergadura da Faculdade de Educação da Unicamp -, com os compromissos profissionais e familiares. Entretanto, esse propósito ao qual nos... more
nous allons retenir la dénomination de « deuxième » et de « troisième quête » en référence à des « écoles » de chercheurs ayant exercé, à tour de rôle, une certaine hégémonie intellectuelle sur les études consacrées au Jésus historique.
Historical critical methods which include source, form, redaction and tradition criticism have a central place in Biblical Criticism. The application of historical critical methods to the Bible is an outcome of the changes in many fields... more
La présente monographie a été à l'origine une thèse d'habilitation présentée en 2022 à la Faculté de théologie catholique de l'Université Eberhard Karl de Tübingen. Dans sa version imprimée, elle n'a été que légèrement modifiée. Le titre... more
Alfred Loisy (1857–1940) is a key figure for the history of Christianity and the history of exegesis. While his involvement in the so-called “Modernist crisis” and his role as a Biblical scholar have been the subject of several... more
Did he or did he not go?
Long time ago Joel the prophet said: "Also for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand; It shall come as destruction from the Almighty." (Joel 1:15) My beloved, today we contemplate one of the most essential pillars of our Christian... more
Not exclusive but ALL inclusive. Any Doctrine that divides is Satanic.
The social order, justice, and prosperity possible in a nation depend on the kind of leadership and the electioneering processes that produce them. Elections in Nigeria have usually been fraught with irregularities both in concept and... more
El evento del Getsemaní corresponde al momento de máxima angustia espiritual de Jesús antes de su arresto y posterior crucifixión. Es el evento N.º 112 en la armonía evangélica del CBA. A continuación, se presenta un estudio comparativo... more
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