Post Tenebras Lux

Hot on the heels of Passion Week, Pope Benedict XVI today released his new book, Jesus of Nazareth.  An academic study of early Christianity and the relevant documentary evidence, the Pope’s work is rumored to be a powerful rebuttal to the recent flurries which have arisen in popular circles over the Talpioth Tomb, the Da Vinci Code, and the Gospel of Judas.

A CNN article announcing the Pope’s new book reports that some recent (20th century) archaeological evidence, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, is causing scholars and the population at large to increasingly regard Jesus of Nazareth as more man than God.  But is this really the case?  It should be pointed out that the Dead Sea Scrolls contain absolutely no documents that mention Jesus Christ or the New Testament, nor are any “alternate gospels” a part of this particular find.  The Dead Sea Scrolls include various manuscripts from Old Testament biblical books, as well as some other documents from the early first century.  New Testament scholars almost unanimously admit that the “other gospels,” such as the Gospel of Judas, which paint various portraits of Jesus are works which were written much later than the New Testament gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).  Are we to think that life accounts of Jesus of Nazareth written in AD 180 and beyond are more reliable than those written in the early 60’s?

As a point of history, the earliest debates in the Christian church on the person of Jesus Christ were not over if he was God, but rather how and if he was human.  One of the earliest fringe groups is the Docetists, who may be alluded to in 1 and 2 John.  In the view of the Docetists, Jesus apparently only “seemed” (Gk. dokeo) to be human.  If, as these modern scholars say, Jesus was only a man, then why would the earliest dissidents from orthodoxy insist on his absolute divinity rather than his humanity?  History shows that in earliest Christian circles Jesus’ divinity was assumed as an obvious matter of fact.

For those of you who are interested in learning more about the person of Jesus and earliest Christianity, I recommend taking a look at Larry Hurtado’s  (of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland) How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God?.  Professor Hurtado, while not an evangelical Christian, upon an examination of the historical evidence reaches the conclusion that the earliest adherents to Christianity were absolutely convinced that Jesus of Nazareth was God.  In his opinion, the only explanation for this rapid and unprecedented “Jesus devotion” is that they clearly believed Jesus was bodily resurrected from the dead.  A more scholarly and exhaustive examination can be found in Hurtado’s Lord Jesus Christ:  Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity.

It is encouraging to see that the public at large has such a keen interest in the person of Jesus and the first century of the Church right now, albeit for perhaps sensationalist reasons.  Now is the time for New Testament and Church History scholars to shine with excellence in scholarship to rightly inform a most curious public audience.