For the past eight weeks, I have been reading the four Gospels for class. Alongside these readings, I have been studying the different forms of “criticism” that many have used in past decades, and also centuries, to try and find the “Jesus of history” as opposed to the “Jesus of faith.” While proper interpretation of any passage involves knowing what was going on historically at the time the passage was written, these criticisms opened up a new avenue of thought and respect for the historic background. As with anything else, we need to be careful when using these criticisms, because we can take them too far and come out with a Jesus that would have been unrecognizable to the early church. But, these criticisms do make you think a little, which is always a good thing. Was Jesus, or the writer of a given Gospel, influenced by Hellenism (that is the Greek-ified culture of the Jews)? Was Jesus a sage? A cynic? Were the writers of the Gospels making Him out to be a demi-god like Hercules? Or, was He actually continuing the work of the Jewish prophets? Fulfilling prophecy and bring God’s people back to God?

Those who tend to take these criticisms too far, also tend to lean on non-canonical gospels. These are ancient writings that claim to be gospels written by people of prestige in the early church. However, they were actually written at least a century or more after that person had died or been martyred, and some as recently as the mid-1900’s. Surprisingly, I do find these other “gospels” helpful. They show us just how grounded the four in the Bible really are. These other gospels have a walking, talking cross; sayings of Jesus that contradict what the Biblical Gospels say; and most assuredly tell us more about the person or communities that wrote them than they do about the historical Jesus.

After going through all of this, I now read the Gospels and see a Jesus who not only used the Jewish Scriptures (what we Christians call the Old Testament), but who also used the culture that He grew up in and was around all the time, to teach the people who flocked to Him. For example, in Mark 12:13-17 they ask, “Should we pay taxes to Caesar?” Jesus replies, “Bring Me a denarius (the coin used to pay taxes) … Whose picture is on this coin?” They answer, “Caesar’s.” Jesus responds, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”

Unfortunately, this only matters if we take the Gospels to be accurate accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry that were written shortly after the events took place. We have good reasons to do so, and I will give a few here. We have found an inscription with the name Pontius Pilate on it, the geography described in the Gospels is accurate, and there is evidence of a man name Jesus, from Nazareth, who had disciples, was killed on a cross by the Romans, and whose tomb was found empty. There are many more that I could list, but I will save them for a future post, or series of posts.

Overall, this class that I have taken has strengthened not only my knowledge of the Gospels, and the historical backdrop of them, but also my faith in them and the Jesus they portray. If anyone where to ask me how to get a deeper knowledge, a better interpretation and a solid understanding of the Gospels, I would suggest a study in the criticisms, with a grain of salt and cautions to not go too far. The methods are useful, and can lead to good insights. We as Christians should not be afraid of the criticisms, but should take control of them and mold them. In Matthew 10:16 Jesus told His disciples, “Look, I’m sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore, be as shrewd as serpents and as harmless as doves.” And the Apostle Paul echoes this in 2 Corinthians 10:4b-5 “We demolish arguments and every high-minded thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to obey Christ.”