History 4956: The Historical Jesus and the Early Church

East Tennessee State University

Department of History

Summer 2007 Mr. Burgess

This course will deal with the scholarly question of the "historical Jesus", as versus the "Jesus of faith", and the idea of "Jesus" in the early Christian Church. In the process, we will look at the development of New Testament scholarship, the development of scholarly and historical approaches to New Testament studies, as opposed to simple adherence to dogma and superstition, and the gradual evolution of the man Jesus of Nazareth to Jesus Christ, "the Son of God", with the attendant consequences of that change.

Grading and Written Assignments Undergraduates: This is not a required course and due to the nature of the subject material, you are presumably taking it because you have an interest in learning something about it. In this case, exams do not seem to serve a useful purpose. Instead, they interfere with learning by causing concentration on exam preparation and encourage a kind of rote-memorization only. You will be required to do a written assignments of approximately 8 to 10 pages, which is relevant to what we are studying. Each individual must see me to have the paper topics approved by the end of the first week of class. The paper may either be a pure research topic or a critical essay on some appropriate topic. It must contain the necessary footnotes and bibliography, and follow the expectations of the History department in regard to the submission of papers. The paper will count 80% of your grade. It will be due the final day of class. The grading scale for this class is the standard University grading scale, plus-minus scale, which can be found in the catalogue and in the schedule of classes..

Graduates: Your paper will be between 12 and 14 pages. It will be due the final day of class.

Graduates and Undergraduates: The remaining 20% of your grade will be determined by your consistent attendance, interest, participation, and ability to demonstrate during class discussion that you are familiar with the material being studied. Obviously, it is important that you participate in this class as an equal member.

Attendance: I won't be taking attendance each day; as the class is relatively small, it will be obvious who is there and who is not. You are adults and it is your money you are spending. I leave it up to you to make decisions on your attendance. But since 20% of your grade is based upon consistent attendance, interest and participation, it would probably behoove you to put in a regular appearance. And as a matter of concern, it is my opinion that you will not profit much by this class, if you fail to attend on a regular basis. What we are doing is complex and complicated. If you miss a day or two, it will be like missing a week or more of a regular semester. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that this would affect your understanding of what is going on in the class.

Books: Please, get them and read them.

Tatum, W. Barnes. In Quest of Jesus: A Guidebook

Saunders, E.P. The Historical Figure of Jesus

Vermes, Geza. Jesus, the Jew

Ehrman, Bart. Jesus. Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millenium

The New Testament (presumably, you can dig up a copy)

Reading Assignments:

Week 1:

Week 2: Tatum and the Gospels

Week 3: Vermes

Week 4: Ehrman

Week 5: Saunders

Bibliography posted on the web:

For an extensive bibliography -- which is growing by the week and is now over three hundred pages -- goto:

Additional Readings for your future edification: Not Required -these reading deal with the scholarship on the historical Jesus and related subjects. Their publication dates range from the beginning of the century to last year. A far more extensive bibliography is in the process of being produced for the Department's webpage.

General histories and intellectual histories:

K. Bihlmeyer. Church History

S. Brown. The Origins of Christianity

N. Cohn. Cosmos, Chaos, and the World to Come: the Ancient Roots of Apocalyptic Faith

(a tour-de-force on the origins of apocalyptic faiths including Zoroastrianism,

Judaism, and Christianity and the relations between them. Not to be missed.)

C. Cochrane. Christianity and Classical Culture (an amazing intellectual tour-de-force)

M. Ellis. The Christian Fathers

R. Fox. Pagans and Christians

P. Hughs. The Church in Crisis (the first 6 or 7 ecumenical councils)

Paul Johnson. A History of Christianity

K. Latourette. History of Christianity

T. Sheenan. The First Coming: How the Kingdom of God became Christianity

Texts and criticism:

The Apocrypha, ed. E.J. Goodspeed

M.W. Barton. Biblical Interpretation

J. Bentley. Secrets of Mt. Sinai

H. Chadwick. Early Christian Thought and the Classical Tradition

B. D. Erhman. The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture

R.L. Fox. The Unauthorized Version

R.W. Funk, ed. The Five Gospels

B.L. Mack. The Lost Gospel : The Book of Q and Christian Origins

R.J. Miller, ed. The Complete Gospels

N. Perrin. The New Testament: an Introduction

G. Vermes. The Dead Sea Scrolls

N. Glob. Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Search for the Secret of Qumran

H.-J. Klimkeit. Gnosis on the Silk Road: Gnostic Parables, Hymns, and Prayers from

Central Asia

C.W. Hedrick and R. Hodgson, Jr. ed. Nag Hammadi, Gnosticism, and Early Christianity

H. Gamble. The New Testament Canon: Its Making and Meaning

The Nag Hammadi Library, ed. J. M. Robinson

The Other Bible, ed. W. Barnstone

The Apostolic Fathers, ed. J. B. Lightfoot

M.W. Meyer. The Secret Teachings of Jesus: Four Gnostic Gospels

S.L. Schepps. The Lost Books of the Bible

The Historical Jesus:

S.F.G. Brandon. The Trial of Jesus of Nazareth

J.D. Carmichael. The Birth of Christianity: Reality and Myth

H. Carpenter. Jesus

H. Conzelmann. Jesus

J.D. Crossan. The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant

J.D. Crossan: Jesus: A Revlolutionary Biography

J.D. Crossan. Who Killed Jesus

J.D.G. Dunn. The Evidence for Jesus

P. Fredrikson. From Jesus to Christ: The Origins of the New Testament Images of Jesus

W. Fricke. The Court-Martial of Jesus

M. Grant. Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels

M. Grant. St. Paul

R.A. Horsley and J.S. Hanson. Bandits, Prophets, and Messiahs: Popular Movements at the time of

R.A. Horsley. Jesus and the Cycle of Violence

R.A. Horsley. Sociology and the Jesus Movement

L. T. Johnson. The Real Jesus

W.F. Meeks. The First Urban Christians

J.Meirs. A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus

J. Painter. The Quest for the Messiah

N. Perrin. The Ressurection

J. Reumann. Jesus in the Church's Gospels

E.P. Sanders. The Historical Figure of Jesus

A. Schmenann. The Historical Road to Eastern Orthodoxy

M. Smith. Jesus, the Magician

G.N. Stanton. The Gospels and Jesus

G. Theissen. Sociology of Early Palestinian Christianity

G. Vermes. Jesus, the Jew

G. Vermes. The Religion of Jesus the Jew

G.A. Wells. Who was Jesus?

G.A. Wells. The Jesus of the Early Christians

G.A. Wells. The Historical Evidence for Jesus

G. A. Wells. Did Jesus Exist

A.N. Wilson. Jesus. A Life

Graeco-Roman Religion:

S. Angus. The Mystery Religions

W. Berkert. Greek Religion

W. Burket. Ancient Mystery Religions

F. Cumont. The Mysteries of Mithra

W. Holliday. The Pagan Background of Early Christian Religion

F. Legge. Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity

R.M. Seltzer. Religions of Antiquity

D. Ulansey. The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries

L. Martin. Hellenistic Religion

Judaism:

M. Grant. The Jews in the Roman Empire

E. Schurer. A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus

V. Tcherikover. Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews

Gnosticism:

C.W. Hedrick and R. Hodgson, Jr. ed. Nag Hammadi, Gnosticism, and Early Christianity

H. Jonas. Gnosticism

H.-J. Klimkeit. Gnosis on the Silk Road: Gnostic Parables, Hymns, and Prayers from

Central Asia

E. Pagels. The Gnostic Gospels

E. Pagels. The Gnostic Paul

E. Pagels. Adam, Eve, and the Serpent

S. Petrement. A Separate God: The Origins and Teaching of Gnosticism

K. Rudolph. Gnosis: The Nature and History of Gnosticism

Ancient and Medieval Christianity:

P. Brown. Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity

P. Brown. Augustine of Hippo

P. Brown. Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity: Towards A Christian Empire

H. Chadwick. Augustine

D. Christie-Murray. A History of Heresy

M.S. Enslin. Christian Beginnings

D. Knowles, O.S.B. Christian Monasticism

C.H. Lawerence. Medieval Monasticism

J. Leclercq, O.S.B. The Love of Learning and the Desire for God: A Study of Monastic

Culture

R. MacMullen. Christianizing the Roman Empire

H. Maccoby. Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity

A. Malherbe. The Social Aspects of Early Christianity

W. Meeks. The Moral World of the First Christians

W. Meeks. Early Christian Morality

W. Meeks. The Moral World of the First Christians

H.C. Kee. Miracles in the Early Christian World

E. Pagels. The Gnostic Gospels

E.Pagels. The Gnostic Paul

E. Pagels. Adam, Eve, and the Serpent

U. Ranke-Heinemann. Putting Away Childish Things

G. Ricciotti. The Age of Martyrs

J.B. Russell. A History of Medieval Christianity: Prophecy and Order

M. Sordi. The Chrisitans and the Roman Empire

R.W. Southern. Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages

R.L. Wilken. The Christians as the Romans Saw Them

H.B. Workman. The Evolution of the Monastic Ideal

J. Ziesler. Pauline Christianity

In addition: The History Department's webpages have additional links related to all of these

subjects at: http://www.etsu.edu/cas/history/religion.htm