38. See the chapter with that name in Eduard Schweitzer, Jesus, trans. David Green (Richmond, VA: John Knox, 1971), 13ff.
39. N. T. Wright, Simply Jesus, 176 (see intro., n. 6).
40. T. Austin-Sparks, The Octave of Redemption (Tulsa, OK: Emmanual Church, 2000), chap. 3; http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/001611.xhtml.
41. Matt 2:23.
42. Luke 2:51–52.
43. See his discussion with Adam Bradford at www.premierradio.org/uk.
44. Luke has let us know that at age twelve, Jesus was extremely bright (Luke 2:41ff.).
45. Heb. 2:17 nrsv.
46. If Jesus had received formal theological training, for instance, these statements would be unintelligible. If He was a student of some respected rabbinic school, the words “Where did this man get this wisdom?” and “Is this not Joseph’s son?” would make little sense. These people knew Jesus’ family. If Jesus had been officially trained as a “chief rabbi” or “doctor of the Law,” they would have known and not been surprised by His knowledge and wisdom.
47. Luke 4:22 NASB.
48. Matt. 13:54–56 NASB.
49. Mark 6:2–3 NASB.
50. John 7:14–16.
51. Ben Witherington says, “There is, however, no evidence of Jesus’ pursuing higher learning at an urban center like Jerusalem (compare Luke 2:47 to Mark 6:2–3)” (Ben Witherington, The Jesus Quest: The Third Search for the Jew of Nazareth, 2nd ed. [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1997], 38). Scholars like Witherington have pointed out that it is anachronistic to call Jesus a “rabbi” in any formal sense. Doing so is reading later Jewish writings back into the first century. Francis Moloney interprets the challenge of the Jews, saying, “Jesus can lay claim to no authoritative teacher and therefore there can be no authority in what he has to teach (v. 15b)” (Francis J. Moloney, Sacra Pagina: The Gospel of John [Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1998], 242). Arguments such as “Jesus would have been arrested by the temple guard when He taught in the temple courts if He wasn’t rabbinically authorized to teach” don’t hold water. According to David Instone-Brewer, who is an expert on rabbinic Judaism, the so-called unauthorized rabbis often taught in the temple courts without being arrested (see his discussion with Adam Bradford on www.premierradio.org/uk and his Traditions of the Rabbis from the Era of the New Testament, 2 vols. [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004, 2011]). The temple guards existed to keep order and peace. They didn’t care if someone was a “rabbi” or not; they cared only about riots. The temple guards wanted to arrest Jesus (especially when He cleansed the temple), but they couldn’t because He was too popular with the people and an uncontrollable riot would have ensued (John 26:3–5; Luke 19:47–48; Mark 11:18). Robert Mounce, in his chronological arrangement of the Gospels (Jesus, In His Own Words; see intro., n. 79), confirms this on page 193, placing Mark 11:18–19 and Luke 19:47–48 immediately after the cleansing of the temple. The Pharisees did send officers to arrest Jesus on several occasions, but their attempts failed (John 7:25–32, 44–47; see also 8:59 and 10:39).
52. N. T. Wright, John for Everyone (London: SPCK, 2002), 1:97–98. The renowned Jewish scholar Jacob Neusner has soundly established that during Jesus’ day, there was no normative expression of Judaism. New Testament scholars like N. T. Wright, Ben Witherington, Scot McKnight, and James D. G. Dunn agree. See also Dunn, Jesus Remembered, 256ff (see intro., n. 3). What later became an official school of rabbis didn’t exist in the first century. New Testament scholars such as Dunn, Witherington, Wright, and McKnight point out that rabbi simply meant teacher. (A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., by Walter Bauer and Frederick William Danker [BDAG] [University of Chicago Press, January 15, 2001]: “master, sir, rabbi, a term for an outstanding teacher.” Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament by Carl Ludwig Wilibald Grimm [Hendrickson Publishers; Rei Sub ed., June 1, 1996]: “my great one, my honorable sir. A title with which Jews called their teachers.”) Witherington, McKnight, and Dunn were of personal help to me in sorting through some of the historical data related to this subject. It was a term very similar to the way we use Reverend today; some people who hold that title are theologically educated. Others are not. David Instone-Brewer argues that rabbi didn’t become an official title until AD 80. See his discussion with Adam Bradford on www.premierradio.org/uk and his Traditions of the Rabbis from the Era of the New Testament. Before AD 70, rabbi was not an official or technical term. (Both Pharisees and Sadducees were called rabbi if they taught. It was simply a respectful title for a teacher.) The word took on a technical, official meaning years later with the emergence of rabbinic Judaism. Jacob Neusner has effectively proven that theories that make Jesus an officially trained rabbi are the result of reading later Jewish documents back into the first century. See Jacob Neusner’s Judaism When Christianity Begun: A Survey of Belief and Practice (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002); Introduction to Rabbinical Literature (New York: Doubleday, 1994); In Quest of the Historical Pharisees, eds. Jacob Neusner and Bruce D. Chilton (Waco, TX: Baylor University, 2007). Also see Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism, eds. John Collins and Daniel Harlow (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010).
53. For a discussion on the difference between upper and lower Galilee, see Keener, The Historical Jesus of the Gospels, 178ff.
54. Isa. 11:1; 53:2 NIV.
55. John 1:46 NIV.
56. There is a tradition that says that Sepphoris was the home of Joachim and Anna, the parents of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
57. Dunn, Jesus Remembered, 313 (see intro., n. 3).
58. Ben Witherington, What Have They Done With Jesus? Beyond Strange Theories and Bad History—Why We Can Trust the Bible (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006), 170. Witherington points out that artisans were used to bartering. And first-century Jews didn’t like handling or dealing with money, particularly Roman coins (“The Royal Line of Jesus?” 13 April 2006, http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/2006/04/did-jesus-found-dynasty-ja_114493136136345584.xhtml).
59. 2 Cor. 8:9.
60. They could only offer two doves as a sacrifice when bringing Jesus into the world, a clear sign that the family wasn’t well-to-do (Luke 2:24; Lev. 12:8). Some would argue that this was before Jesus received gifts from the Magi. See the next note, which addresses that objection. In addition, Scot McKnight points out that Mary belonged to a class of Jews called Anawim (“the pious poor”), which were noted for being socially destitute, gathering around the temple to express their frustration and hope, and yearning for justice with the coming Messiah. Simeon and Anna were examples of the Anawim. Mary’s Magnificat illustrates liberation for the poor (Luke 1:46–55). McKnight says, “It is this ’hand that rocked Jesus’ crib’—and it is from Mary that Jesus developed a vision of the kingdom that meant justice for the poor. Shalom cannot exist when people are marginalized” (McKnight, The Story of the Christ, 41 [see intro., n. 6]).
61. Some prosperity preachers who have projected their wealthy statuses upon Jesus have taken 2 Corinthians 8:9 to mean that Jesus was materially wealthy and that He has promised to make His followers materially wealthy. They argue that the Magi’s gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh given to Jesus at His birth set Him up for life. But most scholars believe that Mary and Joseph used these gifts to get to and from Egypt. It is highly doubtful they would have lasted a lifetime; there is no evidence to suggest it, and the Gospels contradict it. For instance, why would Jesus need to be taken care of financially by some of the women (Luke 8:1–3), and why would He say that He had no place to lay His head (Luke 9:58)? Also, to say that Jesus was rich because the soldiers bargained over His seamless robe is a stretch. Perhaps one of His well-to-do followers gave Him the garment as a gift. We just don’t know.
62. N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: 2 Corinthians (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2004), 90.
63. Jerome Murphy O’Connor, Holy Land: An Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700, 5th ed. (New York: Oxf
ord University Press, 2008), 468; http://www.itsgila.com/highlightssepphoris.htm.
64. Some scholars believe that Jesus would not have worked in Sepphoris. They argue that since Jesus was a pious Jew, and Sepphoris was a profoundly pagan city, He would have stayed clear of it, especially because it was the special turf of Herod, whom Jesus called “that fox” (Luke 13:32).
65. Luke 4:16ff. Consider also His often-asked question, “Have you not read?” While He did say this to the learned scribes (who were literate), Luke 4 makes clear that He could read Himself.
66. Josephus, The Life Against Apion, trans. H. St. J. Thackeray, The Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), 187, 375.
67. Baum’s book is presently only in German: Der Mündliche Faktor und Seine Bedeutung für die Synoptische Frage (Tübingen: Francke, 2008). Its English title would be The Orality Factor and Its Meaning for the Synoptic Question. Reading in the ancient world was normally done aloud.
68. Not all scholars agree with this point. See R. A. Horsley and J. A. Draper, Whoever Hears You Hears Me: Prophets, Performance, and Tradition in Q (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1999); and W. V. Harris, Ancient Literacy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989). For a fulllength contextual study of education in ancient Israel, see James Crenshaw, Education in Ancient Israel: Across the Deadening Silence (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007).
69. See the discussion by James D. G. Dunn in Jesus Remembered, 314–16, and Thomas Rausch in Who Is Jesus? An Introduction to Christology (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2003), 65. Also see Ben Witherington, The Christology of Jesus (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990), 236. David Flusser believes that Jesus spoke and even taught in Hebrew, not Aramaic (David Flusser and R. Steven Notley, The Sage of Galilee [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007], 111). Few scholars would agree with him.
70. See R. Riesner, Jesus als Lehrer (Tübingen: Mohr, 1984), 228–32.
71. Luke 4:16ff.; Josephus, Antiquities, 4:212; Dunn, Jesus Remembered, 316.
72. Mark 9:20; Luke 8:44; Mark 6:56; Matt. 14:36; see also Num. 15:38–40 and Deut. 22:12. Luke says it was Mary and Joseph’s custom to observe the Passover feast each year (Luke 2:41). Although the Torah commanded a trip to Jerusalem three times a year, in the first century, it was regarded as common to make the trip once a year from Galilee (Darrell Bock, Jesus According to Scripture: Restoring the Portrait from the Gospels [Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2002], 74).
73. Luke 2:21–24, 27, 39, 41; 1:28; Matt. 1:19. Ben Witherington confirms all of the above in his book The Jesus Quest: The Third Search for the Jew of Nazareth, 2nd ed., 38. N. T. Wright concurs, saying, “His later life indicates that, like many Jewish boys, he was from an early age taught to read Israel’s ancient scriptures, and that by adulthood he knew them inside out and had drawn his own conclusions as to what they meant” (Simply Jesus, 6).
74. Luke 2:49 NIV. The Greek could also be translated “my Father’s affairs” or “my Father’s business.”
75. Luke 2:51 NIV.
76. Luke 2:46; 24:7.
77. Luke 2:49.
78. John 20:15 msg.
79. Luke 2:51.
80. Luke 24:8.
81. Luke 2:48–9; emphasis added.
82. Luke 2:52.
83. Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would be endowed with divine wisdom (Isa. 11:1–2 niv).
84. Isa. 53:2 NLT.
85. Ps. 45:2 NLT.
86. 1 Sam. 16:6–7 NIV.
87. John 1:14.
88. An entire book could be written expounding each part of the tabernacle of Moses, showing how it all points to Christ. The book of Hebrews alludes to some of it. See also Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, 837–39.
89. Fredrick Buechner, The Life of Jesus (New York: Harper & Row, 1989), 14.
90. 1 Cor. 11:14 NLT.
91. Matt. 6:17–18 NIV.
Chapter 6: Jesus’ Preparation for Ministry
1. C. H. Spurgeon, “Sermons—Their Matter,” in Lectures to My Students: A Selection from Addresses Delivered to the Students of the Pastor’s College, Metropolitan Tabernacle, 1st series (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1875), 82.
2. Wright, Simply Jesus, 21 (see intro., n. 6). Albert Schweitzer (The Quest for the Historical Jesus [1906, English 1910]) made the explosive observation that the inherent danger in doing historical Jesus research is to unwittingly create a Jesus in our own image. This, of course, must be guarded against whenever one tries to reconstruct the life of Christ, as it’s always a realistic trap into which to fall.
3. Wright, Simply Jesus, 64.
4. Num. 4:3, 34–35, 47.
5. In Jesus’ day, students applied to study with teachers. Teachers did not select students.
6. Acts 22:3.
7. And if God the Father so chose, Jesus could have been born into a Levitical family and become a priest.
8. A blue-collar worker is defined as someone who is part of the working class and performs manual labor. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled construction. The image of Jesus as a blue-collar worker, in contrast to a religious professional in occupation and training, was inspired by a speech, given many years ago, by Gene Edwards that one of us heard.
9. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., by Walter Bauer and Frederick William Danker [BDAG] (University Of Chicago Press, January 15, 2001): “one who constructs, builds, a carpenter.” Most scholars suggest that Jesus would have worked with both wood and stone. Ben Witherington says that Jesus and Joseph would have used both stone and wood to build houses, “since stones were the normal main material used to construct a house in Galilee (see Luke 6:48)” (“The Royal Line of Jesus?” www.benwitherington.blogspot.com). See also Robert L. Webb, “Jesus’s Baptism by John: Its Historicity and Significance,” in Bock and Webb, eds., Key Events in the Life of the Historical Jesus, 133n128 (see intro., n. 3).
10. Joseph isn’t mentioned alive during the ministry of Jesus, and whenever the family is mentioned, only Mary and the children are referred to (John 2:1–15; 7:1–10; Mark 3:31–34; 6:1–3). We do not know how Joseph died, but it’s possible that he died from a deadly illness, such as tuberculosis or malaria, both of which plagued Galilee. There is no evidence that Jesus began His healing ministry until age thirty, when He was anointed upon being baptized by water by John the Baptist.
11. Luke 2:7; Matt. 1:25.
12. See Mark 6:2–3. Also see J. P. Meier, A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus (New York: Doubleday, 1991), 1:316–32, arguing that these were true siblings to Jesus. Eusebius mentions Jesus’ brothers and sisters “after the flesh” (Ecclesiastical History 2.23; 3.19). Mary and Joseph probably named their four boys after the Patriarchs ( Jacob and Joseph) and the Maccabean heroes (Simon and Judas).
13. Heb. 4:15.
14. Lucado, God Came Near, 26 (see chap. 4, n. 43).
15. John 1:1–3.
16. Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29; Gal. 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24.
17. Col. 1:16.
18. Heb. 4:15.
19. Heb. 5:8.
20. 1 Cor. 10:13.
21. See Matthew 10:39—which speaks of self-denial and cross-bearing—for the principle of losing one’s life. Jesus’ self-denial is a mark of the divine life.
22. 1 Cor. 10:31.
23. John 5:30 NIV.
24. John 6:57 KJV.
25. John 7:16–17 NIV.
26. John 8:28 NIV.
27. John 12:49 NIV.
28. John 14:10 NIV.
29. John 14:24 NIV.
30. Frank’s summarizing paraphrase after putting together all of the above texts.
31. Isa. 50:4–5.
32. John 11:41–42.
33. This is clear from texts like Luke 24 and John 5. Virtually every time Jesus quoted the First Testament, He revealed something specific about Himself. We know that Jesus understood something of who He was at age twelve (Luke 2:41–52).
34. John 8:56�
�58 NIV.
35. Matt. 6:25–33 NIV.
36. John 6:42.
37. Mark 6:6; Luke 13:22.
38. N. T. Wright, Who Was Jesus? (London: SPCK, 1992), 98.
39. Luke 5:17.
40. See McIver, Memory, Jesus, and Synoptic Gospels (see intro., n. 73).
41. Matt. 21:23 NIV.
42. Mark 6:4; John 7:16.
43. Witherington, The Christology of Jesus, 80.
44. George MacDonald, Wisdom to Live By (Eureka, CA: Sunrise Books, 2001), 179.
45. See Ben Witherington, “The Sage from Galilee” at www.patheos.com/blogs/bibleandculture. See also the work of Jacob Neusner and David Instone-Brewer. The oral tradition existed, but Jesus repudiated “the tradition of the elders.” The Mishnah is the eight-hundred-page Jewish sequel to the Torah that spans the time after the birth of Jesus to AD 200. It contains thousands of opinions among different rabbis.
46. Ben Witherington, Jesus the Sage: The Pilgrimage of Wisdom (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000).
47. Matt. 12:42; 1 Cor. 1:24; John 1:1, 14.
48. See John 8:41. The people in His village called Him “Mary’s son,” not Joseph’s (Mark 6:3 niv).
49. See Matthew 9:3.
50. See Matthew 27:63; John 7:12.
51. See Matthew 11:19. Scot McKnight argues that the accusation of being a “drunkard and a glutton” is a throwback to Deuteronomy 21:20. It is the equivalent of a rebellious son worthy of being stoned. Scot McKnight, The Story of the Christ, 46.
52. See Luke 7:39.
53. See Matthew 12:24.
54. I (Frank) wrote the dedication of my book Pagan Christianity (Carol Stream, IL: BarnaBooks, 2008) to such individuals. See also The Reformers and Their Stepchildren by Leonard Verduin (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964).
55. John 15:20 NIV.
56. Matt. 27:18 NIV.
57. Acts 5:16–18 NIV.
58. Acts 13:45 NIV.
59. Acts 17:4–5 NIV.
60. From his discussion with Adam Bradford on www.premierradio.org/uk.
Chapter 7: Jesus’ Baptism and Temptation
Jesus Page 43