Will the real Jesus please stand up?
Remember those infinity mirrors? When you looked within you saw the same reflection receding back, smaller and smaller and smaller. That’s what it’s like trying to find the real Jesus in the New Testament. Just when you think you catch a glimpse of him, he seems to multiply and recede further and further into the distance. Why is this? Well, nobody actually followed Jesus around with a steno pad taking notes. All we know of him comes from oral tradition. The earliest written record was scribbled at least fifty years after his death and most scratched onto scraped hides a full hundred to a hundred fifty years later. The average telephone game gets tricky after only the third or fourth person in the circle. Image a fifty to a hundred year gap – major distortions!
So how can we discover the real Jesus? I have to admit this is not something I can do all by myself. I will have to rely on those who have gone before, the bible historians – those who have, to the best of their ability, placed their preferences aside and stuck to the facts, m’am, just the facts. Here are some of the tricks of the trade used in sifting through the ancient material.
1. “Christian” references ( Christos was a Greek title added much later after his death), innuendos, events suggested before they actually happened – all these and more are clear fictions added later by the followers of Jesus. They meant well, but these are the spin doctors at work adding what they wanted Jesus to have said and done based on their political and emotional needs of those future times.
2. Quotes from the Old Testament placed in Jesus’ mouth that are unlike Jesus’ point of view – Jesus taught using what was stated over and over as ‘his own authority’. He clearly respected the religion of his upbringing, but rejected and was rebellious about much of Jewish tradition. He was his own man, with his own, unique viewpoint that often differed from other rabbinical experts.
3. His style was humble, offering open ended stories and ideas where people had to come to their own conclusions. He often used a turn of phrase that had you guessing and laughing. He was not pompous, high handed and strident, but immensely likable.
These three points will give you an idea of how the sifting is done.
Well, that gives us a starting point. And how much of the New Testament is historically accurate and represents the real Jesus? – not a heck of a lot since so much of it represents the distorted view of those who weren’t there back then and just didn’t really know. But Jesus can be found, and we will head back in time to catch a few snapshots that will ring true and that we can keep, to hold close to our hearts.
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