How to prefer original sources?
Presenter: Reed Troutman
Christian, sometimes Catholic, raised ecumenical.
Topic: Redaction Criticism, reading the Bible like a historian, preferring original sources.
How to prefer original sources?
The Bible is an anthology.
Some of the books are more original than others.
So prefer original stories.
Not all the time but when you’re looking for what’s foundational.
Helps answer: Who Was The Historical Jesus?
• Can we read the Bible as anthology?
• Do we follow or belong to a Jewish “rabbi?” Friends? Followers? Students? Devotees?
• Bring your faith, that’s why I go to church every Sunday too.
What Did Jesus Look Like?
• About 30 years old
• Jewish man, Judea
• Exact Appearance unknown
2000 year old funerary art
16th Century Madonna with Child
Faces of Judea
• Fayum portraits show realism
• Regional diversity
Faces of Judea
• This is my best guess
using AI to composite the cave paintings of Jesus in the Coptic temple with funerary realism.
A Cosmopolitan Judea
• We don’t know what he looked like because… Roman Empire… Assyrian Occupation
• Greek language, Egyptian trade
• Many peoples
Trade Routes
• Roads connect cultures
• Ideas travel fast
• Judea not isolated
• He probably was not Ethiopian much, because Acts makes a bid deal out of the baptizing of the Ethiopian Eunuch. But egytian coptic roman greek.
Nice this painting of St Mark with really important Greek script. Greek to me. I can’t read that… someone get a seminarian… I went to law school.
Lawyers are like Historians
St Mark
Lawyers are like Historians
St Mark
Jesus the “Rabbi”
• Rabbi means teacher now. Not in 1st Century necessarily.
• Jewish master,
• Jesus did set a gold standard in public ministry, so He helped redefine rabbi in to what it is today.
• Not Temple priest
Jesus the “Rabbi”
• Rabbi means teacher now. Not in 1st Century necessarily.
• Jewish master,
• Jesus did set a gold standard in public ministry, so He helped redefine rabbi in to what it is today.
• Not Temple priest
The place He spoke
• The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind
Rabbi at Work
“Messiah”
• Mark is the most original source for the messiah’s biography.
• If in Matthew, Luke, it might be embellished. But do more justice.
LOVE Matthew, Luke and John. Well , King of Kings. Behold the man. Ecce homo. Reremembered.
Lets go further.
Three Biblical Archeological Historical Questions
Important for Understanding the Real Jesus
• Age at baptism?
• Who killed Goliath?
• Earthly father?
Three Historical Questions
• Age at baptism?
Three Historical Questions
• Who killed Goliath?
Elhanan killed Goliath [2 Sam 21:19] (not King David)
Three Historical Questions
• Earthly father? hint yes normal Jewish upbringing, Joseph the Carpenter.. also remembered. 19 and 13 would be Joseph and Mary’s age at betrothal?
Three Historical Questions
Art pieces were major productions. Think Tori Spelling, Linda Hamilton. Know the artist or sponsor the artist, get into the picture.
Now that we answered….
Our Three Historical Questions
• Age at baptism? 30
• Who killed Goliath? Elhanan
• Earthly father? Joseph
Why Ask? Why is Biblical Archeology a topic?
Timeline of Sources
• Oral tradition 30 AD - 65 AD?
• Mark, 65 AD (Temple will be gone)
• Matthew, Luke 85 AD (Temple gone)
• John, 100 AD (The nice synagogue.)
• Qur'an 610 AD (riffed off established)
Time drawn to scale… if we had three times more space we could get to the book of Mormon.King James.
and this is why historians prefer original sources.
King James, 1000 Mormon —----->
Jesus at About 30
• Baptized by John
• Begins public ministry
• Luke remembers about 30
(Hint, hero stories like
precocious prodigies more.
Could be true, Jesus was a
genius, but not precocious in the
original Gospel of Mark)
King David at 30
• Becomes king at 30
• Philistine wars
• Royal tradition
(Hint, hero stories like
precocious prodigies more.
Could be true, David was a
brave shepherd, but historians
like original sources, however boring.)
Ezekiel at 30
• Priest at 30
• Prophetic calling
• Babylonian exile
The Age Thirty Pattern
• David, Ezekiel, Jesus
• That is where Mark’s adult leadership begins
• Jesus followed that Jewish tradition
Hint: think of a modern correlative. You
have to be 25 in America to run for
congress, 30 for senate, 35 for president.
Mark and Memory
• Aramaic stories from 0 AD to 30, normal unremarkable family life and childhood.
• Earliest Gospel, probably told and or written in aramaic.
• Mark written 65 AD.
• Community memory also continues and informs Luke and Matthew a generation later. Like 85 AD. Where they made up a great nativity too.
I have been speaking of my perspective as a lawyer trained to weigh evidence. As a historian trained to prefer original sources. What is this perspective called in Theology departments in seminaries?
Redaktionsgeschichte (or Redaktionstheologie) Like Greek, german is Greek to me. But “Editor”
Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 83, Number 108, 25 June 1892
Why do “redactionists” like me love Mark but celebrate that the Gospel “got better” with time?
• Shortest Gospel
• Rougher Greek
Others expand him.
New archangel. Virgin birth baby mama drama.
A Redactionist Reading
is it pointless.. like why did St. Jerome translate the Bible to Latin either?
we maintain that for history sake only…
• Start with earliest
• Trace later additions
• Consider what changed
Bible as Anthology
• Separate scrolls
• Different authors
• Later collection
Read Historically
• Date matters
• Audience matters
• Genre matters
Mark's Beginning
• No birth story
• Adult Jesus appears
• Baptism starts ministry
What Mark Doesn't Say
• No manger
• No Bethlehem birth
• No angels
Start with Mark
• Earliest surviving Gospel
• Ask what is present
• Then compare later
Matthew & Luke
• Add birth narratives
• Filled in what Mark
alluded to…
What They Add
• Genealogies
• Angels appear
• Family stories
• Hero stories
• Sermonn on the Mount
• Lord’s prayaer
John Is Different
• Unlike Synoptics
• No birth or baptism start
• Begins with theology recalling
Genesis. In the Beginning…
John The Evangelist…
In the Beginning
• Logos, the Word
• Eternal reflection
• High Christology
The Qur'an
• By numbers, very important
later gospel. Muhammad’s.
• Prophet and Messiah
• Like Matthew and Luke,
Muhammad repeats the
Nativity version of events,
no earthly father. Virgin birth.
Qur'an on Jesus
• Much later witness
like the Book of Mormon.
How to Understand the Quran
• Important religious text
for two billion muslims.
• Not first-century source,
so we historians don’t take it
literally, except as a reflection
of 7th century christian
thought. The Prophet adopted what he agreed with, including the virgin birth. The crucifixion was too hard to take.
Both Faith and History
• Believe in miracles
• Put away childish things. Don’t believe in the miracles we reinvented to be perfect for children’s literature.
• Also read historically What if both are true? Like flood stories are ubiquitous folk stories because of actual memories like the Toba volcano.
Children’s stories get retold, but for some of the most important events in history.
Thank You
Christians, let’s go follow
Jesus!
Muslims, thanks for praying for peace to be upon
Him.
Cool
Jewish
guy.