Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony

by Richard Bauckham

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2006

Overview

In Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony, Richard Bauckham argues that the four Gospels are closely based on the eyewitness testimony of those who personally knew Jesus. Drawing on internal literary evidence, the use of personal names in first-century Jewish Palestine, and cognitive psychology, Bauckham challenges the prevailing assumption that the accounts of Jesus circulated as “anonymous community traditions.” Instead, he asserts that they were transmitted in the names of the original eyewitnesses.

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Key Features

• Argues that the four Gospels are closely based on the eyewitness of those who personally knew Jesus
• Draws on internal literary evidence to challenge prevailing assumptions

Contents

• From the Historical Jesus to the Jesus of Testimony
• Papias on the Eyewitnesses
• Names in the Gospel Traditions
• Palestinian Jewish Names
• The Twelve
• Eyewitnesses “from the Beginning”
• The Petrine Perspective in the Gospel of Mark
• Anonymous Persons in Mark’s Passion Narrative
• Papias on Mark and Matthew
• Models of Oral Tradition
• Transmitting the Jesus Traditions
• Anonymous Tradition or Eyewitness Testimony?
• Eyewitness Memory
• The Gospel of John as Eyewitness Testimony
• The Witness of the Beloved Disciple
• Papias on John
• Polycrates and Irenaeus on John
• The Jesus of Testimony

Top Highlights

“Byrskog has shown that testimony—the stories told by involved participants in the events—was not alien to ancient historiography but essential to it. Oral testimony was preferable to written sources, and witnesses who could contribute the insider perspective only available from those who had participated in the events were preferred to detached observers.” (Page 10)

“What is in question is whether the reconstruction of a Jesus other than the Jesus of the Gospels, the attempt, in other words, to do all over again what the Evangelists did, though with different methods, critical historical methods, can ever provide the kind of access to the reality of Jesus that Christian faith and theology have always trusted we have in the Gospels. By comparison with the Gospels, any Jesus reconstructed by the quest cannot fail to be reductionist from the perspective of Christian faith and theology.” (Page 4)

“‘The gospel narratives … are thus syntheses of history and story, of the oral history of an eyewitness and the interpretative and narrativizing procedures of an author.’¹⁶ In Byrskog’s account the eyewitnesses do not disappear behind a long process of anonymous transmission and formation of traditions by communities, but remain an influential presence in the communities, people who could be consulted, who told their stories and whose oral accounts lay at no great distance from the textualized form the Gospels gave them.” (Page 10)

“Must history and theology part company at this point where Christian faith’s investment in history is at its most vital? Must we settle for trusting the Gospels for our access to the Jesus in whom Christians believe, while leaving the historians to construct a historical Jesus based only on what they can verify for themselves by critical historical methods? I think there is a better way forward, a way in which theology and history may meet in the historical Jesus instead of parting company there. In this book I am making a first attempt to lay out some of the evidence and methods for it. Its key category is testimony.” (Pages 4–5)

Praise for the Print Edition

Bauckham’s proposal is both path-breaking and a tour de force.

—First Things

As in all of his works, Bauckham has ransacked obscure secondary literature for little-known but immensely helpful information. He has thought creatively about time-worn problems and uncovered possible interpretations of subtle features of ancient testimony—both in the Gospels and about them—with the shrewdness of a good detective.

—Trinity Journal

Bauckham has delivered a remarkable and insightful volume that is sure to offer a much-needed challenge to the status quo in modern gospel studies.

—Westminster Theological Journal

Product Details

• Title: Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony
• Author: Richard Bauckham
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Print Publication Date: 2006
• Logos Release Date: 2014
• Pages: 552
• Era: era:Contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Jesus Christ › Historicity; Bible. N.T. Gospels › Evidences, authority, etc
• ISBNs: 9780802863904, 9780802874313, 9781467446808, 0802863906, 0802874312, 1467446807
• Resource ID: LLS:JSSYWTNSSTSTMNY
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T00:58:51Z

About Richard Bauckham

Richard Bauckham (1946– ) was professor of New Testament studies at St Mary's College, University of St Andrews. He retired in 2007 from this position in order to concentrate on research and writing. He currently is the senior scholar at Ridley Hall in Cambridge and visiting professor at St. Mellitus College.

Bauckham earned a PhD at the University of Cambridge and was a fellow of St John's College. He taught theology for one year at the University of Leeds and for 15 years at the University of Manchester before teaching at the University of St Andrews. He is a fellow of the British Academy and a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Bauckham is known for his commentary on Jude and 2 Peter in the Word Biblical Commentary and his book Jude and the Relatives of Jesus in the Early Church.