The Historical Jesus: A Survey of PositionsRobertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon)
Religion
The Historical Jesus: A Survey of Positions
Robertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon)
Jesus Christ -- Historicity; Jesus Christ -- Rationalistic interpretations
"It is self-evident," says the Professor, [96] "that the
real speech of Christ must have been longer than we read it now in
any Gospel." That thesis cannot be self-evident of which the subject
invites and admits a wholly different explanation; and the "must"
is a sample of the Professor's critical ethic.
Similarly Dr. Petrie assumes that there were any number of logia
current, all genuine, and that the gospel-makers simply cite from
them wherever they are found appropriate to the circumstances of
the moment. "These episodes, thus brought into prominence by the
conditions of the time, were therefore incorporated in the Nucleus,
or in the gospels which grew upon that." [97] It now behoves us to
consider that interesting development of traditionalist theory.
The Nucleus, be it explained, is Dr. Petrie's substitute for the
Primitive Gospel of the school of B. Weiss, and is constructed
by the simple and certainly quite objective process of selecting
"everything that is common to all three synoptics in a parallel
text"--that is, occurring in all three in the same order. This is
the "structural" test, and it yields a document which does not, like
the Weiss selection, end before the Last Supper, but goes on to the
Resurrection. But this Nucleus, be it noted, was practically complete
almost immediately after the Founder's death. The close "suggests
a document drawn up within a few months of the final events." [98]
How, then, Dr. Petrie can speak of logia incorporated in the Nucleus
in respect of the conditions of the time, is not very clear. By
his account the prevalent Christian idea about the year 30, during
the Ministry, "was the proper understanding of the law, which was
not yet abrogated in any particular." At this stage, accordingly,
the Sermon on the Mount would be the prominent logion. "And when
we notice how the fulfilling of the law is the main theme of the
nucleus, and how little [even] of the completed Gospels refer to
the Gentile problems, we must see how devoid of historic sense is
the anachronism of supposing the main body of the Gospels to have
originated as late as the Gentile period" [99] [i.e. 60-70!]. But
in 40-50, with the spread of the Church, as set forth in the Acts,
"the Samaritans were welcomed, and Gentile proselytes such as the
centurion Cornelius"; whereupon the suitable logia would be added to
the Gospels current. Then in 50-60, when the Gentiles began to enter
in decisive numbers, there was "a special meaning in the parable
of the Prodigal Son, and in the subjection to kings and rulers";
hence further embodiments. Then, after the fall of Jerusalem in 70,
"Christianity lost its sense of any tie to Judaism."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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