Rethinking the object of the "quest for the historical jesus" in the 20th - Early 21st centuries

Abstract

This article deals with the historical Jesus as an object of biblical studies. It shows that, beginning with Reimarus, who is considered to be the founder of the "Quest for the Historical Jesus", up to the middle of the 20th century, the participants of the "Quest..." had believed that they were reconstructing the life, teaching, and personality of the "real" Jesus of Nazareth. The article demonstrates that such understanding of the object of study gave rise to the controversy between the participants of the "Quest..." and the majority of traditional theologians who believed that the attempt to change the image of Christ attested in the Gospels undermines the very foundations of the faith. In the second half of the 20th century, J. Robinson and J. Meyer proposed to rethink the object of the "Quest...". Both scholars argued that the programme of the "Quest for the Historical Jesus" requires changes in its paradigm. This is caused by the new understanding of historical science that had developed by the middle of the 20th century, and is also due to the very small amount of scientifically verifiable material in the Gospels. Robinson and Meyer claimed that in the modern context, the "historical Jesus" can no longer be understood as the "real" Jesus of Nazareth; the designation "historical Jesus" should become a specific term referring to a fragmented theoretical construct based on current methods of historical science. The article discusses the arguments of Robinson and Meyer, and shows how a paradigmatic rethinking of the concept of "historical Jesus" can influence the relationship between confessional theology and the project of the "Quest...".