Jesus and the Gospels

Craig L. Blomberg

• Publisher: B&H Academic
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781433668425
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

This second edition of Jesus and the Gospels prepares readers for an intensive study of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the events they narrate. Craig Blomberg considers the historical context of the Gospels and sheds light on the confusing interpretations brought forth over the last two centuries. The original 1997 book won a Gold Medallion Award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, and this updated version, factoring in new scholarship, debate, critical methods, and the ongoing quest of the historical Jesus, ensures the work will remain a top tool for exploring the life of Christ through the first four books of the New Testament.

Part One

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND FOR STUDYING THE GOSPELS

THE UNDERSTANDING OF any religion depends heavily on the historical circumstances surrounding its birth. This is particularly true of Judaism and Christianity because of the uniquely historical nature of these religions. Centered on Scriptures that tell the sacred stories of God's involvement in space and time with distinctive communities of individuals called to be his people, the Judeo-Christian claims rise or fall with the truthfulness of these stories. For Christianity, the central story is about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the story that forms the topic of the four New Testament Gospels.

Because many courses on the life of Christ or the Gospels are the first in a series of classes surveying the entire New Testament, part 1 of this book includes some historical background relevant to the New Testament more generally (i.e., including Acts, the epistles, and Revelation). Still, its primary focus is to prepare students for an intensive study of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and the events they narrate. The three major chapter divisions—covering political, religious, and socioeconomic background—obviously overlap, especially when studying a world that knew nothing of the separation of church and state. Still, the divisions are a convenient way of arranging the major topics of historical background to prepare one for a sensitive and informed reading of the Gospels.

1

POLITICAL BACKGROUND

An Overview of the Intertestamental Period

FOR CENTURIES CHRISTIAN scholars have referred to the period from the last quarter of the fifth century BC to the first century AD as the intertestamental period.¹ One might just as naturally study this period as the culmination of or sequel to the Old Testament era. However, since surveys of the Old Testament have much more material to cover than studies of the New Testament, textbooks on the New Testament or the Gospels have usually been the place where an overview of these five centuries appears. Furthermore, any informed reading of the New Testament requires some familiarity with the events of this era.

The primary ancient source for the political developments in Israel during the centuries leading up to and including the life of Christ is Josephus's Jewish Antiquities, a twenty-volume work on the history of the Jewish people. For the decades immediately after Christ, Josephus's Jewish War is most useful. Josephus (AD 37-about 100) described himself as a one-time Pharisee and a military general in the war against Rome (66-70), who subsequently became a loyal supporter of Rome and wrote voluminously under the patronage of the imperial court. Although clearly writing with pro-Roman biases, Josephus may be regarded as a relatively reliable historian; for some periods his works are all we have.²

Other information can be gleaned from the Old Testament apocrypha and pseudepigrapha. The apocrypha (from the Gk. word for “hidden”) refers to a collection of fifteen short books or parts of books that have traditionally been accepted by Roman Catholics as part of the Old Testament canon or that appeared in ancient Greek translations of the Old Testament.³ These include additions to older canonical works such as Daniel and Esther, books of wisdom literature similar to Proverbs (e.g., The Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus [also known as ben Sira]), edifying novels (Tobit, Judith), and historical narratives (1 and 2 Maccabees). The pseudepigrapha (from the Gk. for “false ascriptions” [concerning authorship]) include more than sixty additional works.⁴ Some of these were written in the names of very ancient Jewish heroes (e.g., Enoch, Moses, Levi, Abraham)—hence the name pseudepigrapha. The vast majority of these books were never accepted as inspired or canonical by any official segment of Judaism or Christianity.⁵ The pseudepigrapha include apocalyptic literature, the last “testaments” of dying leaders, expansions of Old Testament narratives, wisdom and philosophical literature, psalms, prayers and odes, and various other miscellaneous works. Few of the apocrypha and pseudepigrapha even claim to be historical narratives, but their themes captured the interests of the Jews during the various time periods in which they were written. The most significant of these documents for reconstructing the history of intertestamental Israel are 1 and 2 Maccabees (from the apocrypha). These books narrate the events leading up to and including the Jewish revolt against Syria in the mid-second century BC, with 2 Maccabees usually viewed as a little less reliable than 1 Maccabees.

Many Jews came to believe that after Malachi, the last of the Old Testament prophets, prophecy ceased to exist in Israel and would arise again only in connection with the events surrounding the arrival of the Messiah and his kingdom.⁶ A reasonable date for the writing of Malachi is 433 BC,⁷ and Josephus claimed that no Scriptures were written after the reign of Artaxerxes, who died in 424 (Ag. Ap. 1.8.40-41). So a survey of the intertestamental period begins where the Old Testament leaves off, with various repatriated Jews having returned from exile to Israel, rebuilding the temple, and seeking once again to serve their God in their land.

Why is this era important to study as background for the Gospels? Politically and socioeconomically, key developments occurred, an understanding of which is essential to a correct interpretation of the situation of the Jews in the time of Jesus. Religiously, Judaism was transformed into a set of beliefs and practices often quite different from Old Testament religion. For those inclined to see the hand of providence in history, numerous events occurred that prepared the way for the first-century world to be more receptive to the message of the gospel than in many other periods of history.

The Beginning of the Time between the Testaments:
Jews Continue under Persian Rule (ca. 424-331 BC)

From the perspective of a secular historian, this is no point at which to begin a new era. Nothing earth-shattering happened with the death of Artaxerxes. Life continued much as it had during the time of Nehemiah, Haggai, and Malachi. The Persian rulers, with varying degrees of consistency, continued the policy inaugurated under Cyrus in 539 BC of allowing Jews in exile to return to their homeland, worship their God freely, and obey the laws of Moses. The Jews, of course, did not reestablish a kingship but began to look to future days when they could do so. An increased preoccupation with the Law was based on the convictions that their past exiles were punishment for disobedience and that God would grant them complete freedom when they achieved a substantial measure of obedience to his Word.

Three important new developments did take place, however, during the Persian period, which sowed the seeds for the transformation of Judaism by the first century. The first two of these were the rise of the synagogue and the beginning of the oral Law. In fact, no one knows for sure the origins of either institution; some would date one or both much earlier or later. It is reasonable to assume that the events of exile and return had a formative influence on both. Without access to a temple in which to gather or a divinely authorized place to offer sacrifices, Jews began to congregate in local places of worship. They drew on biblical texts such as 1 Sam 15:22 (“To obey is better than sacrifice”) and substituted prayers of repentance and good works as the means of atonement for sin.⁸ Because they sought to apply the Torah (Law) to every area of life, a body of oral tradition—interpretation and application—began to develop around the written Law of Moses to explain how to implement its commandments in new times and places.⁹ Both the synagogue and the oral Law featured prominently in Jesus' interaction with Judaism centuries later.

The third development was the establishment of Aramaic as the main language for business and international relations throughout many parts of the Persian Empire, including Israel. A cognate language to biblical Hebrew, Aramaic became and remained the native tongue for everyday use among Jews in Palestine well into the first century. Indeed, by the time of Christ, many Jews were probably not fluent in Hebrew, as it had become a language largely limited to the reading of Scripture.¹⁰

Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Period (331-167 BC)

The first major new era of Middle Eastern history after the end of the Old Testament period began with the defeat of the Persians by the Greeks. Winds of change were heralded by the defeat of Athens by Philip II of Macedon in 338 BC. This small kingdom in the north of what today is Greece had expansionist designs. The Greek historian-philosopher Isocrates challenged Philip with his famous declaration: “Once you have made the Persian subject to your rule, there is nothing left for you but to become a god.”¹¹ Philip was assassinated two years later, however, and it fell to his son Alexander to strive for those goals.

Born in 356 BC, taught by Aristotle, and inspired by Achilles (the warrior in the Iliad), Alexander has been considered by many the greatest military ruler ever. In only thirteen years (336-323) he conquered and controlled virtually all of the former Persian Empire, plus some territories not previously under its control. His rule extended from Greece to India and from southern Russia to northern Africa.¹²

Greek Rule under Alexander (331-323 BC)

Israel came under Greek rule in 331 BC as Alexander's armies swept eastward. Like most of the peoples conquered, the Jews were given the same relative freedoms of worship and government as under the Persians, so long as they remained loyal subjects of Greece. Alexander apparently hoped to unite the eastern and western parts of his empire and create a new hybrid of cultures, religions, and peoples, with all, however, permeated by Hellenistic¹³ culture and influence. His turn-of-the-first-century biographer Plutarch, for example, claims that he founded as many as seventy new cities (Alex. 1), but most historians think this number is seriously exaggerated.

The voluntary dispersion of many of the Jews continued, as under Persia, since greater economic gain was to be had in many parts of the empire outside Israel. In fact, the largest Jewish community not in Palestine developed in one of Alexander's newly founded cities in Egypt, which he named for himself—Alexandria. This city became an important Christian center by the second century AD. Jews, under the influence particularly of the mid-first-century writer Philo,¹⁴ as well as Christians, especially following the late-second-century theologian Origen, developed in Alexandria an allegorical form of exegesis that sought to harmonize the best of Greek philosophy with Jewish or Christian religion.

In Greece, Alexander and his armies had come from Greek cities with a history...