Who Was Jesus?
There is probably a historical person behind the Gospels, but we cannot know for certain how well the Gospels reflect his life.
"There is a consensus of sorts on a basic outline of Jesus’ life. Most scholars agree that Jesus was baptized by John, debated with fellow Jews on how best to live according to God’s will, engaged in healings and exorcisms, taught in parables, gathered male and female followers in Galilee, went to Jerusalem, and was crucified by Roman soldiers during the governorship of Pontius Pilate (26-36 CE). But to use the old cliche, the devil is in the details”.1 Amy-Jill Levine, The Historical Jesus in Context, 2006.
Most scholars assume that Jesus was a Jewish teacher and healer who gathered a following and was eventually executed. It is highly questionable whether Jesus performed all the miracles attributed to him in the Gospels. Among scholars, the Gospels are known as narratives seen through the lens of faith of a later generation of Christians living decades after the events. The Gospels are not considered eyewitness accounts, nor do they claim to be.1 There is not a single instance where a gospel writer says anything along the lines of "When I was with Jesus" or "This is what I saw". Their treatment of the sources they use indicates that they do not consider themselves eyewitnesses. If they had witnessed these events themselves, it is hard to imagine why they would hide this fact from their audiences.
Among New Testament exegetes, it is believed that the Gospels were written decades after the alleged resurrection of Jesus.2 The names of the Gospels were given later. The authors of the gospel do not give sources for their texts, nor do they name themselves. There is no indication that these texts should be understood as objective historical fact. Rather, the Gospels are based on orally transmitted preaching stories, the kerygma of the early Christians in the first century.
Here is another revealing quote:
"The real Jesus of the historian is, typically, a greatly reduced Jesus, since somewhere between about 50 and 95 per cent of the gospel material is regarded as too problematic to be useful historically. The discarded material becomes useful again when we turn to the historical reality of the early church; but by then a gulf has been set between the church and the historical Jesus. Whatever the differences between the various versions of the historical Jesus (differences that are often much exaggerated), they tend to agree at this point: that the real Jesus differed significantly from the composite image of him created by the evangelists." Francis Watson, in The Cambridge Companion to Jesus, 2003, page 157.
The apostle Paul dedicated his life to missionary work. He never mentions the dozens of miracles attributed to Jesus in the gospels.
After the crucifixion of Jesus, the first Christians carried out missionary work among the Jews and Romans, as they believed Jesus had commanded them to do. Many, if not all, Christians believed that it was desirable to bring as many people as possible into the fold of the church. The text most often used as a classic statement of the Christian universal conversion mission is the so-called Great Commission Jesus addressed to the apostles at the end of the Gospel of Matthew.
The Gospels are thought to be based on stories first told person-to-person by Christians in the decades following the crucifixion. Through these stories, Christians defended their faith against outside attacks. They also wanted to instill faith in others by preaching - they wanted to missionize. In doing so, the missionaries could not point to the messianic accomplishments of Jesus - there were none to be seen. The only proof that this Messiah had existed at all were the stories Christians were telling about him.
In their attempts to convert, the early Christians compared Jesus to famous Jewish figures. This comparison is already evident at Jesus' transfiguration; it is Moses and Elijah who appear to him (Mark.9:2-8). When Moses makes contact with God on Mount Sinai, his face begins to shine so brightly that it must be covered (Exod.34:29-35). When Jesus prays on the mountain, his face also changes, and his clothes begin to glow bright white. (Matt.17:1–9, Mark.9:2-8, Lk. 9:28–36).
Many of Jesus' miraculous deeds borrow from legends told about the Jewish prophets. While the miracle of walking on waters is attributed to Jesus, according to Jewish legends, Moses, Elijah, and Elisha all crossed water miraculously. Whereas Moses had divided the Red Sea, Elijah and Elisha divided the Jordan river to cross it. (Exod.14:21, 2. Kings 2:8,14, Mark.6:45-53, Mark.14:22-23, Matt.6:30-44, Lk.9:10-17, John 6:1-15).
Elijah and Elisha had healed people and even raised children from the dead (1. Kings 17:22-24, 2. Kings 4:32-37, Mark.5:21-43, 40-41, Mark.9:18, 23-26, Matt.5:21-24, 35-43, Luke 7:11-17, Luke.8:40, 42, 49-56 and John 11:1-45).
Jesus multiplied bread and fish, according to the Gospels. The Jewish prophets also worked food miracles in the Hebrew Bible. Elijah multiplied flour and oil for a woman and her son. Elisha fed a hundred men by multiplying loaves of bread. Moses also fed the Hebrews with manna from heaven. (1. Kings 17:12-16, 2.Kings 4:42-44, 2.Mos.16:1-36, Mark. 6:30-44, Matt.14:13-21, Luke, 9:10-17, John.6:1-15, also Mark.15:32-39 and Matt.8:1-13).
Some of Jesus' miracles are probably due to competition with pagan gods. The missionaries attributed similar miracles to Jesus as the gods of the pagans they were proselytizing for. Dionysus was the Greek god of wine, drunken ecstasy, and fertility. He was often depicted with clusters of grapes growing from his head. He was also a suffering god, whom followers could ritually join, promising them salvation after death.1 Dionysus is especially credited with supernatural wonders. Springs of wine gushing from the ground, thursoi dripping with honey, and vines sprouting and bearing fruit in minutes are all miracles associated with Dionysian ecstasy and with the epiphany of the god. There are also stories of flowing wine in his sanctuaries and festivals in honor of the god. Dionysian festivals were celebrated throughout the Greek world. Some believed that Dionysus attended their festivals, and manifested himself in wine. There are stories of empty pots miraculously filled with wine behind closed doors. The transformation of water into wine was the characteristic miracle of Dionysus. Famously, Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11), a likely site of drunken ecstasy and fertility. This was most likely a miracle adopted from Dionysus - it is an early Christian attempt to overcome the wine miracles attributed to Dionysus. Not only does he turn water into wine, but he produces an incredible hundred gallons of it.
The Christian missionaries embellished a profane story about an executed messianic candidate with miracles and supernatural signs. The Christian missionaries drew on well-known legends from the Hebrew Bible to show that Jesus was as great, if not even greater, than the Jewish prophets. Eventually, these stories were compiled into the Gospels we know.
According to Christian apologist C.S. Lewis, the story of Jesus was a matter of "myth becoming fact". In his view, the story of Christ was true myth, and “God’s myth where the others are men’s myths”. After the scientific study of the content and background of the Gospels of the last centuries, there are few good reasons to believe that this story is much more than “myth”. There are real historical events in the background, but they are nearly impossible to verify. Most likely, the actual historical truth is a banal story about a failed Messiah - but in later Christian proclamation, this story was made to seem like the fulfillment of a divine plan.
Jesus seen here after the incident at the Jewish temple. He may have turned over a couple of tables and yelled a few curses at the money changes. Christian propagandists and missionaries retold the story for decades and finally it came out to say that Jesus "cleansed the temple" stopping its activity altogether (John 2).
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