If we try to write an accurate account of the historical Jesus, we would meet with a lot of objections coming from the skeptics, as well as Christians. For example, let’s assume that we try to write an accurate account of Jesus’ resurrection. Who was there? How many angels appeared to folks at the gravesite? Did the women tell anyone what they saw, or did they keep quiet about what they were told by the angels? Did the resurrection occur on Sunday or another day? How long was Jesus in the tomb? And, perhaps just as importantly, does any of it matter?
I’ve written several studies about Jesus’ burial and resurrection.[1] Skeptics try to tell me that I abuse the testimony of the different witnesses, when I try to combine their testimonies to conclude what occurred and how. Yet, this is exactly what is done, when a jury retires to decide what occurred, concerning an event that was tried in a court of law. Additionally, my conclusions do not agree with what I was told by Christians, whether teachers, authors or preachers. Not everything is as it seems at first, if we take the time to investigate the source of it all. If this isn’t done, we are condemned to repeat the same mistakes of the past. Desiring to keep things simple, we compile a story of a Jesus, painting him from a preconceived image, we have of him, ignoring the “multilayered complexity” of compiling an accurate historical account about the Jesus we should be trying to get to know.
The call of the traditionalists from the Christian high-pressure system is to stay in the harbor. It is too dangerous to venture out to sea, just yet. Instead, just tell the story of Jesus, as we’ve learned it, as it has been taught in the great traditions of the church. In other words, take shelter from the western winds of skepticism, and pretend the low-pressure system of the approaching hurricane isn’t real, thus permitting the high-pressures system of conservative Christianity blow wherever it desires.
On the other hand, the “western wind” of the skeptics doesn’t want me to venture too far from the individual and separate witnesses of the Gospels. They don’t want anyone to combine the witnesses, and, instead, would much prefer the reader to preserve each record just as it is written, without any adjustments made to accommodate another witness, which may add to the first witness. Thus, preserving the purity of all the witnesses, as well as the false facade of apparent contradictions. For example, if we ask: “Did the women at Jesus’ gravesite tell anyone what the angels told them?” Well, if we don’t compare the four witnesses and read the accounts just as the skeptics would like to read them, the answer to the questions is: “It depends upon what Gospel narrative you read!”
Thus, each system: the western wind of skepticism and the high-pressure system of conservative Christianity, wishes, above all else, to preserve their version of the truth. Nevertheless, what about the real point of the Christian message? Isn’t it to know exactly what happened back in the first century AD to Jesus and through him to his disciples, as well as through him to his enemies etc. Isn’t that what needs to be done?
Carl Sagan once wrote: “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence!”[2] But what evidence would the skeptic accept? What happened to and through Jesus 2000 years ago is a matter of history, and can’t be repeated like is done in a laboratory in order to assure one of the validity of one’s experiment. Demanding extraordinary evidence of the claims of the Gospels is ridiculous. History cannot be repeated.
Therefore, it seems obvious in light of the perfect storm, we find ourselves in today with regard to Jesus, that it is very important, if we ever hope to break through the “dialogue of the deaf,” that we try to honestly examine the perfect storm into which Jesus, himself, walked, where the western winds of Rome clashed with the high-pressure system of the Sadducees and Pharisees during that fateful Passover season cir. AD 30.
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[1] See my study in the Gospel of Mark, The Resurrection of Jesus; and in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus’ Post Resurrection Appearances; How Many Came to Anoint Jesus’ Body?; Why Were the Women Afraid?; A Hidden Highlight in Jesus Appearances;
[2] See his book entitled: Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980).
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