There are many different opinions about the historical evidence about Jesus, and some outlandish viewpoints. How can we find the best information and who can we trust?
The range of expert opinion
Historians are supposed to approach their task of assessing the historical facts in an objective manner. However historical investigation of Jesus isn't easy, because these are no ordinary stories, and because scholars and others who write about Jesus and history can bring to their study many different viewpoints and biases. For example:
- Some are believers who write to defend the christian faith. They are acknowledged experts in their fields, but they will generally believe or assume that the New Testament has been inspired by God and kept accurate by him, and are willing to accept the reality of supernatural events and causes. There are a large number of scholars in this category, including, in the reference list, Blomberg, Habermas and those quoted in Strobel. Christians will generally be happy to accept what they say but non-believers will not.
- At the other end of the spectrum are non-believers or highly sceptical christians who use specualtive or radical methods not general endorsed by other historians, and perhaps write to disprove or discredit the christian faith, . They will generally believe or assume the New Testament to be unhistorical except where historical analysis can demonstrate otherwise. They will generally make naturalistic assumptions, e.g. that the miraculous cannot occur. There are a smaller number of scholars in this category, represented in the reference list by Funk and the Jesus Seminar, those writing in the Secular Web, and perhaps Crossan. Non-believers will genrally be happy to accept the views of these scholars but christians will not.
- The mainstream of New Testament scholarship uses objective methods and assumptions that remove as much as possible the effect of any pre-conceived viewpoint. They will exercise caution, but not scepticism, in drawing historical conclusions. Some are not be willing to pass historical judgment, one way or the other, on miraculous matters, as they see these as beyond the domain of the historian. The majority of scholars are in this category. Some (in my opinion the most trustworthy ones) will apply similar methods of historical analysis to the New Testament as would be applied to other writings of a similar age, but others adopt even more stringent methods to "bend over backwards" so that they reach conservative conclusions. Some of the most respected New Testament scholars in this category in the reference list include Sanders, Wright, Charlesworth, Borg, Crossan, Evans, Sherwin-White, Dunn, Fredriksen, Vermes and Bauckham.
Who have I relied on?
In preparing the historical Jesus material on this website, I have mostly used scholars in the latter category, in order to arrive at conclusions that can reasonably be accepted by people of any philosophical or religious viewpoint. In particular, I have relied most on:
- the late Michael Grant, because his wide expertise (he wrote numerous books about many facets of the Roman Empire) gave him a broader persective as a historian than some purely New Testament scholars, and because he was a non-believer and therefore less likely to have a point to prove;
- the lists of facts about Jesus that are "almost beyond dispute" developed by EP Sanders, especially that on pages 10-11 of his book The Historical Figure of Jesus, because Sanders is respected as a careful scholar who has expressed no religious belief or disbelief;
- Mark Powell, because his book represents not his own views but a summary of a broad cross section of the most respected scholars; and
- John Dickson, because he is a historian who writes simply for lay readers from a carefully considered viewpoint within the centre of scholarship.
In basing my summaries on these scholars and the other mainstream scholars mentioned above, I believe I have been objective and reasonable. We do well to be wary of those who only quote scholars from one end of the spectrum or the other.