Did Eyewitnesses See Jesus? An Interview with Richard Bauckham
Are the Gospel accounts based on eyewitness testimony? How reliable are their testimonies? In this interview, I talk with leading New Testament scholar Richard Bauckham about his book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, which is one of my favorite books on this topic.
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Why don't you quote the whole thing and stop trying to mislead people??
Thank you brothers for sharing.
The good news is that the Jesus Seminar has finally tripped over your sociological archology of the eye witnesses of Jesus. My only criticism of your published thesis is that the mind map of the Gospels is not Peter's but Cornelius. Mark 3:8 is taken right off a Roman intelligence map sheet. This is the GPS of the X Legion.
James Tabor's scholarship has brought him to the intuition that Mark and John are a work of literary fusion Mark provides the play-by=play commentary on the recorded trajectory of Jesus and John provides the Jewish color commentary.
James Tabor has been living the source of the literature of the Gospels. This is where Heidegger and Hegel converge, the existential in literature that is necessarily avoided in history.
Judea in the zeit geist you studied was not Ireland during the potato famine. Tel Aviv is what Jesus had in mind for the Kingdom of Heaven. Imagine clubbing with Gal Gadot and her INF buddies with Uzis slung across their backs and, at the end of the night , replay the shower scene in Starship Troopers.
We are a cunt hair away from the paradigm shift Jesus was trying to get Jerusalem to make. The thing we have that body had when Jesus was trotting all over the modern archeological field, like Cat Stevens. providing joy and community wellness seminars where ever they went. What Jesus was spreading was the Quality Assurance business model of Paul Krugman's Peddling Prosperity.
All the scholarship invested in the territory Jesus was running His insurgency. against the boundaries of Moses for the horizons of irresistible grace. Judaism and Shammai are all about what God is not. Hillel and Jesus stipulates to those constraints and enlarges the model to include what God IS as a capitalist tool. The kibbutz sociology of Israel, today, where the armada is celebrated basically goes back to the sociology of Judges. The synagogues that began emerging around 200 CE is what God had in mind for the Kingdom of God all along. The Tower of Babel is a cautionary tale warning against the sort of theocracy as both Temples and the Vatican without Martin Luther. But the people wanted a King and hither comes Samuel.
Jesus theology is a pretty full throttle, no holds barred, unconditional endorsement of Alexandrian Judaism of Philo of Alexandria. I mean, the Prologue in the Gospel of John a whack on the side of the head of any hones scholar.
They say that Mark marches. Exactly, But if you want to see it really gallop, explore the fusion of Mark and John, Just assume that John was written intentionally to fit together with Mark like Lego blocks.
The Gospel of Mark begins when Jesus pops up above the Roman military horizon. The running narrative of John begins the day before Jesus pops up above the Roman horizon and the Quelle source from which emerges the Gospel of Mark doesn't seem to know Lazarus ever existed.
Bethany is an intelligence dead zone for the Romans, in particular, the X Legion that had a garrison in Capernaum where they maintained a map of some sort with the foot print of John the Baptist in Mark 3:8. Why would a fisherman have that sort of political organization in his mind map? After Pentecost, Peter develops a global map that includes Paul's ministry into Asia Minor, but Thomas went to India, John Mark was publishing the Gospel of Mark in Alexandria to the west and he was headed for Rome.
Everything was headed to Rome.
In the Parable of the Talents, the Temple was the faithless servant who buried his Talent instead of putting it out on the street. Jesus was promoting the synagogue socialism coming out of Alexandria and the horizontal leadership of the Rabbis, acting as latter day Judges. You can see this sociology in Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations: he was looking at the Scottish cottage industrial base and and compared it to Capernaum.
The only significant different between the Jerusalem of Josephus' youth and Jerusalem, today, is the Vespa motor scooter. Josephus, and John Mark, were living very large and Josephus didn't want the Zealots, who were the John Birch Society of Jerusalem, to fuck things up. Josephus saw the horizons of Judaism that Jesus saw and realized that the only thing going wrong in the Pax Romana of 1st Century Jerusalem was the pathological discontent of the Zealots, based mostly on not being in complete control.
The generations of kids that spend a summer doing a dig anywhre in the world, but especially in Palestine are the future of mental health in the universe. Doing a dig anywhere in the Fertile Crescent is living the literature of the region. They have been eye witnesses to the eye witnesses you have revealed in the Gospels. I mean, getting the Jesus Seminar interested is like leading a horse to water: if you can get it to float on it's back, you got something.
Nice Sum Up Sean
According to the "we" passages, Luke went to Jerusalem with Paul, and later accompanied him to Rome. I assume he remained in the area in the interim. do you think this was an opportunity to interview eyewitnesses? I also wonder who witnessed Jesus' trials. The beloved disciple, members oiof the High Priests' household, Nicodemus? I note also that Luke mentions Joanna, the wife of Herod' steward and Manaen who grew up at Herod's court and Luke is the only evangelists who mention's Jesus' trail before Herod.
If you want a balanced view watch his debate with Bart Ehrman. It becomes quite obvious his views are 100% special pleading.
Yes, Luke claims to be a historian but the majority of his gospel is a copy of portions of mark and Q. That’s not what historians do.
Ugh, SOO disappointed with Dr. Bauckham's audio. I will never understand how authors and/or publishers don't go out of their way to obtain high-quality audio setups for the purpose of promoting their hard-won ideas.
Bauckham is too smart for me. I tried reading his book but gave up because I couldn't make sense of any of it
2 Peter 1, 16 For we were not following cleverly devised stories when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah), but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty (grandeur, authority of sovereign power). 17 For when He was invested with honor and glory from God the Father and a voice was borne to Him by the [splendid] Majestic Glory [in the bright cloud that overshadowed Him, saying], This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased and delight, 18 We [actually] heard this voice borne out of heaven, for we were together with Him on the holy mountain. 19 And we have the prophetic word [made] firmer still. You will do well to pay close attention to it as to a lamp shining in a dismal (squalid and dark) place, until the day breaks through [the gloom] and the Morning Star rises (comes into being) in your hearts. 20 [Yet] first [you must] understand this, that no prophecy of Scripture is [a matter] of any personal or private or special interpretation (loosening, solving). 21 For no prophecy ever originated because some man willed it [to do so–it never came by human impulse], but men spoke from God who were borne along (moved and impelled) by the Holy Spirit.
I'm amazed that Richard Bauckham makes so many unproven assertions in this. Boiling it all down – and using words carefully and honestly – I'd like a Christian to answer this. Do we have ANY first hand eye witness accounts of the resurrected Jesus? I don't think that any truly honest Christian can say that we do. Most Christian scholars and theologians agree that the Gospels are anonymous, hence not first hand eye witness accounts, so the closest you can possibly get is Paul who reports that he talked to Peter and James (the brother of Jesus) who said they were eye witnesses. In other words we don't have their first hand accounts, Paul is relating what Peter and James said they saw or believed. Then there is Paul's encounter with Jesus which apparently took the form of seeing a blinding light and hearing voices. He doesn't claim to have actually seen a bodily Jesus. Today, we would call Paul's experience a psychotic episode. So, come on Christians, can you cite ANY first hand eye witness accounts?
I sawJesus, but it was in spirit form. He removed my spirit from my body and stood next o me on the edge of my field…he spoke to me, held my hand. Then I was standing next to my bed, looking down at myself sleeping. Jesus bent over and kissed my cheek. I felt the kiss and instantly woke up. His message was about assurance I am safe where I am. He indicated bad stuff is coming. My takeaway was that I am being personally protected by God, and to not worry. I never had an experience like that before…I’m a devout Christian,sometimes would hear his voice, but never met him. He has brown hair and chestnut/brown eyes, long hair/beard, tall, and was wearing a white robe. He had a glow about him, and was beautiful.
Eyewitness testimony is the least reliable form of evidence even if you could interview them, which you can't. You're taking the word of multiple anonymous authors that wrote a story decades after the supposed events occurred. Nothing but more garbage.
Great interview man! I wonder if you could do an episode with a scholar pointing out the assumptions and leaps made in modern unbelieving critical scholarship? That is one a lot of us would enjoy I’m sure!
Show me an account of an encounter with the post-resurrected, pre-ascended, bodily-formed Jesus, described with details, written in first-person language with verified authorship. There are none. For this reason, I don't consider any of the books of the New Testament to be legitimate eyewitness testimony of the resurrection.
THANK YOU for all you are doing ❤😊