Jesus (Christ) of Nazareth told in the Gospels, but this genre is meant to persuade the reader as well as to inform In other words, the Gospels already have an interpretation based on faith when they report the “mere” facts The second warning is that the Gospels represent in their final form at least three levels of information: first, there is an oral tradition that reports eye-witness accounts of Jesus’ life; second, there is the written account of the oral tradition; third, there is the final editing by the community of those who believe These two warnings serve to make the reader understand that it is impossible to separate out the Jesus of history from the Christ of faith It drove some scholars to despair that any historical facts could be gleaned from the Bible concerning faith One of the most influential figures of the 20th century, the German Rudolf Bultmann, believed only a courageous will to believe could justify biblical faith His faith came perilously close to Christian Dualism (Gnosticism) By a variety of historical tools, however, some basic facts can be ascertained Moreover, other points can be received if the Bible reader is willing to accept that faith does not compromise the truth value of the information Jesus’ identity can be broken down into the man Jesus was on earth, the mentor Jesus was in his ministry, and the message Jesus lived out and taught JESUS THE MAN Jesus was born a Jew, the son of a Jewish woman, and observed Jewish customs He lived in Galilee and Judaea, his childhood was inconspicuous, and the record about his early manhood is silent Around the age of 30 he began his public life as an itinerant preacher When he was on his own he attracted disciples and large crowds of curiosity seekers His career was cut short when Jewish leaders arrested him, and then he was tried and condemned by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate as a criminal Because he was accused of being an insurrectionist, he was given the capital punishment of crucifixion Jesus was the religious devotee of his first cousin named John the Baptist He lived with John in the wilderness and was baptized by him in the Jordan River near Jericho Apparently Jesus learned apocalyptic ideas from John and probably maintained some of his cousin’s practices, such as an austere lifestyle and baptism for his followers When John was imprisoned, Jesus began his independent ministry JESUS THE MENTOR The main proclamation of Jesus focused on the Kingdom of God Jesus seemed to be extending this idea 221 as he learned and adapted it from his cousin John The Kingdom of God was not a physical domain, but its power took hold whenever he spoke or acted authoritatively The kingdom had both a present and future orientation It seemed to be completed in the future, yet it was visible in the present through acts of power called miracles The miracles demonstrated that Jesus was preaching a real kingdom, and they also attracted huge crowds As Jesus did miracles, faith in him increased Several other messages emerged from the teaching of Jesus First, Jesus distinguished himself from his main competitors, the Pharisees, through his radical teachings on the need to love (even as far as one’s enemies) and through his radical discipleship demands (following Jesus even to one’s death) The closest disciples, called the apostles, formed a close-knit social unit that became the replacement for family and property Second, Jesus did not urge the rejection of the Jewish law, or Torah; if anything he strengthened its moral imperatives, while lessening its ceremonial aspects LIFE, DEATH, AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS The followers of Jesus were so “converted” by the life of Jesus that they traveled far and wide with his message and risked their lives for its truthfulness The presuppositions of the New Testament—probably at every level of its formulation based on the very early writings of the apostle Paul—include the miracles and the resurrection of Jesus, and this was also the driving force for the spread of the Jesus movement Such enthusiasm is Although Jesus attracted many disciples, he was tried and condemned by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate as a criminal