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N.T. WRIGHT'S SEARCH FOR THE HISTORICAL JESUS

The church’s fascination with Jesus continues unabated. This is really no surprise, for Jesus has always faired pretty well with those who sit in the pew. For nearly two millennia, practicing Christians the world-over have regularly recited, memorized, and attempted to heed Jesus’ words. His life of sacrifice and self-giving has been held up as the model for every disciple. He has been the object of devotion, the subject of both creed and sermon, and the recipient of countless prayers. Simply stated, Jesus has been and continues to be the cornerstone of Christianity. What is surprising, even shocking, about the contemporary situation is the intense desire of the general public (and not just Christians) to hear what historians (and not just pastors or theologians) have to say about the historical Jesus (and not about the way in which Jesus figures in Christian doctrine). Each of these shifts is crucial.

No doubt, the popular appeal of Jesus is but one facet of a larger cultural movement in the West (particularly in North America). People are hungry for inner peace and are discovering it in all sorts of places. Jesus is seen by many outside the church as one potential way—and simply one way among many—for finding this peace. However, the Jesus that most attracts the attention of the general public is one stripped of his potentially offensive Christian features. Jesus is valorized as a, if not the, quintessential spiritual guide. Ironically, many of the recent scholarly efforts have played right into this larger movement by depicting Jesus as just such a figure--namely, a wandering sage, a philosopher who helped people find inner peace despite the difficult and oppressive circumstances of the first century.

This tendency to universalize Jesus is curiously mated with an obsession for certainty. People want to know, with high a degree of confidence, what really happened and who Jesus really was. In the contemporary search for Jesus, the conclusions of historians are thus to be preferred over the claims of theologians. As the recent documentaries on PBS, A&E, and ABC clearly demonstrate, the real “experts” on Jesus are now understood to be those who say they apply scientific methods in an objective and dispassionate way to discover “the truth” about the Jesus. No longer are the words of pastors and theologians viewed as having equal footing with those of historians. The public suspects that the church has tried to hide the real Jesus behind creed, doctrine, and sacrament. Only the specialists are to be trusted in discovering who he really was.

Finally, the use of the adjective “historical” in the phrase “historical Jesus” signals that a distinction is being made between the Jesus of history and the Jesus of the Gospels. It is quite a shock for many Christians to think that there could be a difference. But this is simply not so in the contemporary search for Jesus. According to many historians, a clear and decisive distinction must be made. Lurking in the background is a suspicion that the Jesus described in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (and found in Paul, and the creeds for that matter) is not the real Jesus. The NT Gospels give neither a full nor objective picture. The Gospels are attempts by ancient believers to give an accounting of their faith in a way that would produce faith among their contemporaries. Only after careful and discriminating research, including a comparison of the NT Gospels with other sources not contained in the Bible, can a true picture of the historical Jesus be drawn. In fact, once a new picture of the historical Jesus is drawn, it is then used to read (and often times correct) the image of Jesus as found in the Gospels.

It is into this context that the work of N.T. (Tom) Wright must be fitted. Wright is an Anglican priest, a former Oxford don, and the newly appointed Canon Theologian of Westminster Abby (London). Wright is a deeply spiritual Christian, known as an inviting preacher and Bible teacher. His abilities to give a public accounting of the faith have led him to be featured alongside other scholars who formed what is known as the “Third Quest for the Historical Jesus” (cf. B. Witherington, The Jesus Quest [InterVarsity, 1995] and M.A. Powell, Jesus as a Figure of History [Westminister/John Knox, 1999]). Like others in the Third Quest, Wright deploys a finely calibrated, state-of-the-art method. Like others, he is a rigorous and discerning historian. Like others, Wright casts his net beyond the NT. And, like others, he relentlessly focuses upon the Jesus of history, refusing to be dependent on simplistic doctrinal answers to what he sees as essentially historical questions.

However, in sharp contrast with many of his colleagues, Wright positively, meaningfully, and unapologetically connects his portrait of the historical Jesus with both ancient and contemporary expressions of Christianity. Wright is thus not content to ask, “Who was Jesus?” No, indeed. In addition to the “who” question, Wright feels obligated—even compelled—to ask the “how” questions: “Just how did the historical Jesus fit into first-century Judaism?” And, most importantly, “Just how did the historical Jesus become the foundation and driving force for the church’s faith?”

Thus, for Wright, whatever one decides about Jesus’ identity must be squared with what we know to be true about first-century Judaism and early Christianity. This framing of the task means that Wright simultaneously seeks to be a sober and circumspect historian and a passionate, committed, and responsible theologian. This rather unfashionable combination makes his work as novel as it is important.

Despite his confessional commitments, Wright has steadfastly refused to accept, simply and without question, the traditional portraits of Jesus. Thus, those who listen to Wright—and listen carefully—will find his work a double-edged sword. In the face of the methodological skeptics and against those who wish to transform Jesus into the equivalent of a first-century guru, Wright is a great ally. At the same time, however, the Jesus Wright discovers is a figure likely to disturb the faithful. Wright’s Jesus did not wander around Galilee preaching justification by faith, the end of the world, or that he was the second person of the Trinity. Wright’s Jesus is firmly planted in the politics and culture of first-century Palestine.

A steady stream of books and articles have flowed from the pen of Wright. He may be first known by his revision and extension of S. Neill’s New Testament Interpretation (Oxford, 1984). Or some may have run across his Tyndale commentary on The Epistles of Paul to the Colossians and Philemon (Wm.B. Eedrmans, 1986) or his essays on Paul, ultimately collected together in Climax of the Covenant (Fortress, 1992). But it was in the New Testament and the People of God (Fortress, 1992) that Wright first hinted at the breadth and scope of his work on Jesus and early Christianity. This book was the first installment of five (now expanded to six) prospective volumes on the “New Testament and the Question of God.” Jesus and the Victory of God (Fortress, 1996) is the second volume in this series and represents Wright’s full-scale treatment of the historical Jesus. While other works of Wright also discuss various aspects of Jesus research—see, e.g., Who is Jesus? (Wm.B. Eerdmans, 1993), The Meaning of Jesus (Harper SanFrancisco, 1999), and The Challenge of Jesus (InterVarsity, 1999)—it has been Jesus and the Victory of God that has attracted reviews and the most attention (cf. C.C. Newman, Jesus and the Restoration of Israel [InterVarsity, 1999]).

In Jesus and the Victory of God Wright ignores proverbial wisdom and takes on all parties. With those who wish to lay claim to the mantel of Enlightenment historiography (but against those who think that the theological concerns associated with Jesus somehow insulate them from serious, historical study), Wright concurs that the question of the historical Jesus cannot be avoided. With those who believe something can be known about Jesus (and against those who hide behind skepticism), Wright avers that investigating Jesus is no different from historical studies of other figures of antiquity and, thus, that the major historical questions—who was Jesus? what were his aims? why did he die?—not only are fair game, but are, in principle, answerable. And, with those whose first line of appeal is to the canonical Gospels (and against those who privilege later or non-extant sources), Wright seeks a reconstruction of Jesus that, on the one hand, is grounded in first-century Judaism and, on the other, can explain the nature and shape of Christianity. Wright’s Jesus charts a third way.

Wright divides the almost seven hundred pages of substantive text into fourteen chapters, arranged in four parts. Part One clears the deck. After a whirlwind tour of the last one hundred years of Jesus research (ch. 1), Wright focuses his attention on the last twenty years. Here Wright strategically deploys the figures of W. Wrede and A. Schweitzer to highlight the two dominate approaches in the study of the historical Jesus—the wide and oft traveled road of Wrede’s “consistent skepticism” (ch. 2) and the narrow gate of Schwietzer’s “consistent eschatology” (ch. 3). Having decided to go the way of Schweitzer, Wright then previews his own hypothesis and its associated problems (ch. 4).

Part Two profiles the mindset of Jesus against the worldview of Second Temple Judaism. This entails an investigation of the prophetic praxis characteristic of Jesus (ch. 5), the story(-ies) of the kingdom that Jesus implicitly invoked and explicitly told (chs. 6-8), and the way in which his words and deeds challenged, and ultimately undermined, the cherished symbols of Judaism, a subversive posture that consequently placed Jesus on a collision course with the temple authorities (ch. 9). To conclude Part Two, Wright examines the way in which Jesus’ prophetic deeds and kingdom preaching provide coherent answers to the major questions of any worldview (ch. 10).

Part Three concentrates on discovering the aims and beliefs of Jesus. According to Wright, Jesus believed himself to be the Messiah, a vocational calling that included prophetically enacting in himself Israel’s long-awaited return of from exile (ch. 11), intentionally dying to achieve the defeat of Israel’s true enemy (ch. 12), and announcing, symbolizing, and embodying Yahweh’s return to Zion (ch. 13). Finally, in Part Four (ch. 14), Wright briefly draws together the major strands of his research.

Jesus and the Victory of God is a prodigious and important work. It more than holds its own, even without New Testament and the People of God preceding it and the prospect of four other volumes to follow. Besides summarizing a voluminous amount of primary and secondary literature, Wright takes a closely reasoned stand on every major issue and most minor ones as well. He successfully exposes the rotting historical foundations of other paradigms at the very same time that he seeks to construct a new one out of sound epistemological timber. Wright also argues in detail, offering fresh and original exegesis of many Gospel texts (especially the parables). He relentlessly beats the drum of his own coherent thesis on nearly every page and he does so with a well thought-out, consistently applied methodology. In short, he maps the terrain; he weighs the evidence; he proposes inventive readings; and he stalks his opponents. To say that this book is a tour de force is an understatement.

Full evaluation of a book this mammoth in scope, attentive to detail and potentially revolutionary, will require some time to pass, and much of that work must be left to the articles and books that are sure to follow in its wake. However, some preliminary words of assessment are in order.

•  Jesus is best understood in the context of a pluriform Judaism. According to Wright, Jesus should not be camouflaged within Judaism. Nor should Jesus’ connections to Judaism be minimized. Rather, Jesus should be seen as presenting a specific challenge to the prevailing winds of Second Temple Judaism. Jesus was a Jew who preached a calculated and decidedly Jewish message to his Jewish contemporaries.
•  The best category for understanding Jesus’ deeds (his praxis) and his words (his preaching and parables) is that of prophet. Jesus prophetically enacted and preached the arrival the kingdom of Israel’s God. Jesus’ prophetic words and deeds presented a radical, eschatological alternative to the program of violence and revolt (or accommodation) advocated by many first-century Jews.
•  Jesus’ prophetic kingdom preaching addressed the major issue of Second Temple Judaism—the return from exile. Despite the presence of Jews in the land and despite the Temple, Jews were still longing for the great day of redemption, a day in which the long night of exile would come to an end. According to Wright, Jesus preached and enacted the end of Israel’s exile.
•  Jesus’ prophetic kingdom aspirations for a return from exile were intimately tied to his messianic aims. It is not enough to say that Jesus was a (or even the) prophet. Jesus’ vocation included living out the intended destiny of Israel. That is, Jesus sought to be what Israel had never been—namely, obedient to God. Jesus messianically assumed the role of faithful Israel and his disciples thus became the messianic community, the faithful Israel.
•  Jesus’ vocational aims as prophet and messiah were dramatically portrayed in the complex of events that formed the final week of his life, but particularly in his cleansing of the Temple. In this event Jesus presents a direct challenge to contemporaries and it was the Temple cleansing that precipitated Jesus’ death. Jesus was thus crucified as the Messiah.
•  Finally, Jesus as prophet and Messiah paves the way for understanding Jesus as the embodiment of God. Wright has demonstrated that Jesus’ ministry in Jerusalem can be viewed through the lens of the scriptural hope for God’s return to Zion. God was somehow in Jesus.

By showing how the crucified Jesus of history could become the venerated Lord of the church Wright has gone a long way in dispelling the general public’s suspicion about Christian preaching. Further, he has shown how this Jesus addresses the fundamental questions of human existence. What is more, Wright has done this by taking the Gospels seriously and by carefully heeding the canons of historical study. Whatever else may be said, at least in this regard, Jesus and the Victory of God is leading us in the Wright direction.

By Carey C. Newman, Ph.D., Editor of Academic Books at Westminster/John Knox Press.