Vocab Chapter 11

Question 1

Rationalism

Answer 1

The philosophical perspective which claims that reason is the sole test of truth

Question 2

First Quest for the Historical Jesus

Answer 2

Nineteenth-century movement which sought to interpret the life and miracles of Jesus from a rationalistic perspective

Question 3

Herman Samuel Reimarus

Answer 3

German professor whose essay “On the Intention of Jesus and His Disciples” is often viewed as launching the rationalistic First Quest for the Historical Jesus

Question 4

Albert Schweitzer

Answer 4

German theologian, musician, philosopher, and physician whose magisterial Quest for the Historical Jesus criticized the First Quest for the Historical Jesus for merely reimagining Jesus as a nineteenth-century rationalist scribes. Experts in the law of Moses

Question 5

No Quest

Answer 5

Twentieth-century period associated especially with Rudolf Bultmann and marked by extreme skepticism concerning what can be known about the historical Jesus

Question 6

Rudolf Bultmann

Answer 6

The most influential New Testament scholar of the twentieth century. He sought to “demythologize” the New Testament in order to discern its true existential message

Question 7

Ernst Treltsch

Answer 7

Set out highly influential philosophical principles which effectively ruled out supernatural intervention in human events

Question 8

D. F. Strauss

Answer 8

German scholar who claimed that Gospel events were not merely rationalistic events misconstrued by eyewitnesses (as the First Quest assumed), but rather myths which had developed over the course of time in the early churches

Question 9

William Wrede

Answer 9

Sought to demonstrate that the Gospels were not biographies or history but rather theological motivated fictions

Question 10

Johannes Weiss

Answer 10

Seeking to place Jesus in his first-century context, Weiss identified Jesus as an apocalyptic prophet expecting the imminent end of the world

Question 11

History of religions school

Answer 11

(Religiongeschichteschule)
A nineteenth-century German school of thought which sought to study religion in terms of its evolutionary development from simple polytheistic religions to complex monotheism

Question 12

Martin Kähler

Answer 12

Rejected the Historical Jesus quest as misguided, claiming that the only Jesus we can know is the Christ of faith

Question 13

Jesus of history vs. Christ of faith

Answer 13

A distinction sometimes drawn between the historical figure of Jesus and the presently reigning Lord of the church, worshipped by believers today
(Martin Kähler)

Question 14

Ernst Käsemann

Answer 14

German professor of the New Testament and student of Bultmann whose influential 1953 essay launched the New Quest for the Historical Jesus

Question 15

New (second) Quest

Answer 15

A resurgence in historical Jesus research initiated by students of Rudolf Bultmann in the 1950s. It’s origin is usually traced to a 1953 lecture by Ernst Käsemann

Question 16

Third Quest

Answer 16

A name given to the resurgence in the study of the historical Jesus from the 1980s onward, characterized by a variety of new methodologies and cross-disciplinary research

Question 17

Jesus Seminar

Answer 17

A controversial group established by Robert Funk and John Dominic Crossan which met in the 1980s and 1990s and voted on the sayings of Jesus, finding very little of historical value in the Gospels

Question 18

Criteria of authenticity

Answer 18

Various criteria— such as dissimilarity, coherence, and multiple attestation — developed by Jesus scholars to test the authenticity of the words and actions of Jesus

Question 19

Cynics, Cynic-like philosopher

Answer 19

Countercultural Hellenistic philosophers who rejected the norms of their society and sought to live a simple, unencumbered life

Question 20

John Dominic Crossan

Answer 20

Cofounder of the Jesus Seminar and most influential advocate of Jesus as a Cynic-like Jewish peasant

Question 21

Spirit person

Answer 21

….

Question 22

Charismatic

Answer 22

Someone considered to be filled with or to act in the power of the Spirit of God

Question 23

Marcus Borg

Answer 23

Influential member of the Jesus Seminar and key advocate of the view that Jesus was a “spirit person” or Jewish mystic

Question 24

Social revolutionary

Answer 24

,

Question 25

Eschatological prophet

Answer 25

,

Question 26

E. P. Sanders

Answer 26

Key advocate of the view that Jesus was an eschatological prophet in close continuity with the Judaism of his day

Question 27

Covenantal nomism

Answer 27

Perspective advocated by E. P. Sanders that first-century Judaism was guided not by a works salvation but by a covenant relationship with God established through grace and maintained by Torah observance

Question 28

John P. Meier

Answer 28

Prolific author of multivolume work A Marginal Jew, which methodically examines the Jesus tradition for historicity. Meier views Jesus primarily as an eschatological prophet

Question 29

N. T. Wright

Answer 29

Innovative and influential Jesus scholar who views Jesus as an eschatological prophet restoring God’s people by leading them out of spiritual exile into a new exodus deliverance