Message #760

[Koimichra]

I hope Koi sees this as I suspect she will have a much better idea of what is going on here than I do.

I'm actually slightly confused by a few things, some of which is probably just the NY Times's reporting (I think they're overreporting the "conflicting" views and presenting a couple things as the consensus position of NT scholarship when it isn't -- but some of that is who they're quoting) but we're already aware there are competing Messianic traditions in the era -- Maccabeans, Simon Bar Kochba, Jesus, etc. -- with competing ideas of what a Messiah is. (And also of Jews whose attitude is, "cut it out with the Messiahs, every time you follow one, Rome kicks the crap out of us.") This does place the motif of the suffering Messiah at an earlier date, but I think "Jesus as sufferer" is only novel if you disregard the importance of suffering as a motif in the wisdom literature of the Tanakh. Contrary to what one of those scholars is trying to suggest Christian scholars suggest, Jesus is part of a tradition and doesn't spring full-formed from the middle of nowhere, and the period is bracketed by two apocalyptic texts (Daniel and Revelations) and full of all kinds of social, political, and religious crazy.

I think scholastically it's a major find, particularly the "three days" bit if that works out -- very interesting to see that specific part of the Jesus story developed before Jesus, and I think the text as a whole could have interesting implications for our understanding of Jesus's self-understanding (as the various 20th century finds have done) -- but I don't think it radically rewrites our understanding of the era as a whole. I think the Times is conflating two things there -- its majorness for Bible scholars (huge) and its majorness for average Christians (small). It'll definitely get attention from the general public because of its nature, but it won't change the basic theology of the churches. It'll come as news to some folks who were unaware of current Bible scholarship until they see this article, but for most educated Christians I think it's just another piece in the puzzle in understanding the era.