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 is wisdom will be great. He will make atonement for all the children of His generation...His Word shall be as the Word of Heaven and His teaching shall be according to the will of God. His eternal sun shall burn brilliantly and its fire will give warmth to all the ends of the earth."
- The Words of Levi 4Q541 Frag. 9 1.2-4
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Christ on the Cross
Bartolome Esteban Murillo, c.1660-1682 |
The Jesus of Theology
325 C.E. marks a pivotal event in the history of Christianity. The Roman emperor Constantine I summoned more than 250 bishops to Nicea in Turkey to resolve a rancorous dispute which was threatening to disrupt the newly won peace of his empire. While all the bishops agreed that Jesus was the Son of God, they disagreed on whether he had existed with God before the beginning of time (as the Alexandrians believed); or had been created later and was subordinate to God (a position popularized by Arius of Antioch).
Constantine, still an unbaptized pagan at the time, decided in favor of the pre-existence of Jesus. In addition he demanded that the bishops add to the creed (drawn up by Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea) that Christ was "of one substance" (homoousion in Greek) with the Father. It was theologically necessary that God himself had become mortal in order to make the hope that mortals may obtain eternal life more believable. Under pressure of banishment, the council agreed with only two dissenting votes. The true nature of the Son of God was now an ineffable mystery beyond human understanding.
(To learn more about the first ecumenical council at Nicea, click here.)
The Jesus of History
Through the intervening centuries between then and now, the Nicene creed has remained the basic and unassailable doctrine of Christian faith. Jesus' sacrificial death gave man the key to salvation and his teachings and deeds were of secondary importance. It is only in modern times that any serious attempts have been made to learn about the Jesus of history. Somewhere between the messianic expectations of the Jews and the high christology of Paul was a real person who breathed and ate and was concerned with the daily tasks of living like the rest of us. Yet he made a profound impact on others, enough to gain a devoted, even fanatical, following and to earn the enmity of those who would engineer his death.
The Real Jesus? is a critical examination into the life and times of Jesus. If we dare to look truthfully through the accumulated centuries of obfuscation and mystery, what will we uncover about Jesus the man? What did he really say and do? And, more importantly, is there anything we can learn from the historical Jesus that will give us a new perspective on our lives today?
Real Jesus? Book Shelf
See reviews of some of my favorite books.
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Is this what Jesus looked like? Check out The Shroud of Turin.
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