Whose Historical Jesus?

Preface

PREFACE Michel Desjardins The 1980s and 1990s have witnessed a breath-taking revival of historical-Jesus studies. Recovering the first-century Jesus matters more to Christian Origins scholars now than it has for over a century. Particularly in North America, the "Jesus Seminar" has reflected and enhanced this modern quest;1 so too have several major studies, most notably E. P. Sanders' Jesus and Judaism2 and John Dominic Crossan's The HistoricalJesus.3 The approach of the millenium—the year 2000, after all, elicits connections with Jesus' birth and return—ensures that this revival has not yet run its course. Anniversaries also form the matrix of this book, which emerges from two successive years of discussions held at the annual meetings of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies on June 8-9, 1993 and June 6, 1994. The year 1993 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Canadian J^earneds, the regular venue for members of the CSBS. It also marked, as some of us whimsically observed after our 1992 meeting, a more likely two-thousandth anniversary of Jesus' birth, a fitting occasion to address the burgeoning field of historical-Jesus studies. This synchronicity led to plans for a special CSBS seminar on the historical Jesus at the 1993 Carleton University Learneds in Ottawa, highlighting some of the major theorists in the field, and for a second round of assessments and analyses at the University of Calgary J^earneds the following year. Peter Richardson and I assumed organizational responsibility for these meetings. We were delighted to gain the participation of some of the most exciting historicalJesus scholars from outside the country, as well as an exceptionally wide range of gifted Canadian academics. The 1993 session revolved around presentations by John Dominic Crossan (Chicago), Burton Mack (Claremont), Jane Schaberg (Detroit), Sean Freyne (Dublin) and Halvor Moxnes (Oslo)—with closing 1 The Jesus Seminar was established by Robert Funk in March 1985 to examine the parables and aphorisms attributed to Jesus, in order to separate what Jesus might have really said from what the early Christian communities ascribed to him. The Seminar's voting practice (scholars dropping red, pink, grey and black beads into boxes to reflect their assessment of the historical reliability of each saying) and frequent engagementswith the media havegiven it a measure of notoriety. Some important publicationsto emerge from the context of this seminar include: Robert W. Funk, ed., New Gospel Parallels, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985); John Dominic Crossan, ed., Sayings Parallels:A Workbook for the Jesus Tradition (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986); John S. Kloppenborg, Q Parallels: Synopsis, Critical Notes, and Concordance (Sonoma: Polebridge, 1988); Robert W. Funk, Bernard Brandon Scott and James R. Butts, The Parables of Jesus: Red Letter Edition (Sonoma: Polebridge, 1988); and Robert W. Funk, The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus (New York: Macmillan, 1993). 2 E. P. Sanders, Jesus and Judaism (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985). This book appeared when Sanders was still associated with the Department of Religious Studies at McMaster University, having recently left his position there to take up another at Oxford University. 3 John Dominic Crossan, The HistoricalJesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991). 2 Whose HistoricalJesus? remarks by Paula Fredriksen (Boston).4 Other participants (some joining a round-table discussion, some also responding formally to the papers) included Sandra Walker-Ramisch (Montreal), Willi Braun (Toronto), William Arnal (Toronto), Edith Humphrey (Montreal), Gregory Bloomquist (Ottawa), Margaret MacDonald (Ottawa), Lloyd Gaston (Vancouver), Leif Vaage (Toronto) and Stephen Wilson (Ottawa). The 1994 session highlighted papers by Wendy Cotter (Chicago), Gregory Bloomquist (Ottawa), Robert Cousland (Calgary), John Marshall (Princeton), Wayne McCready (Calgary), Grant LeMarquand (Toronto), EdithHumphrey (Montreal), Larry Hurtado (Winnipeg) and Barry Henaut (Ottawa). Responding were Daniel Fraikin (Kingston), Willi Braun (Toronto), Dietmar Neufeld (Vancouver), Terence Donaldson (Saskatoon), William Klassen (Waterloo), Stephen Westerholm (Hamilton) and Robert Webb (Regina). Both sessions attracted broad audiences (scholars in the field and in related fields, graduate students, non-academics). They were distinguished by their serious conversations and collegial tone. This book captures the remarkable spirit of these meetings. It includes the major papers,5 edited to reflect their new setting, fresh introductions by original respondents and section conclusions by Leif Vaage and Peter Richardson.6 Readers will find here a representative sample of current academic perspectives on Jesus—with the occasional surprise (e.g., Schaberg, LeMarquand) and plea for change (e.g., Cotter, Bloomquist). Readers will also hear more Canadian voices on this issue than ever before collected in a...