The current discussion about the historical Jesus: problems and criteria

Abstract

The article presents the passage from the traditional defense of the historical value of the gospels (which followed the model of a judicial process in which the trustworthiness of witnesses and the eye-witness character of their testimony had to be proved) to the contemporary discussion, which for approximately the last fifty years has been developing and refining the criteria of historical reliability, in order to proceed to scrutinize each individual gospel text on these bases. His contribution lays out both the strong points and the weak points of the four criteria which end up being the most spendable and produce the most accurate results: the criteria of double dissimilarity, of multiple testimony, of coherence and of historical plausibility or sufficient explanation.

Keywords

• Gesù storico, Leben-Jesu-Forschung, Third Quest, Jesus Seminar, ipsissima verba Jesu, ipsissima facta Jesu, ipsissima intentio Jesu, criteri interni