Term
| The silence of non-Christian Sources |
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Definition
Ancient sources are silent about many people whose historicity cannot be doubted.
Example: John the baptist is mentioned by Josephus, not by Philo |
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Term
| The "Mythical" Christ of the letters of Paul |
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Definition
The Easter appearance which he had and the "rivalry" with other apostles- lead Paul to concentrate on cross and resurrection
Example: Paul was competing with other apostles who knew the earthly Jesus |
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Term
| The Unhistorical Johannine picture of Christ |
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Definition
The picture of Christ in the Gospel of John is the result of a special development which is limited to the Johannine circle.
Example: The Johannine features in the picture of Christ can be understood as a deviation from a broadly attested Jesus tradition |
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Term
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Definition
Back-projections from the period after Easter were clearly also partly occasioned by situations before Easter. Today the two cannot be separated
Example: The call of Peter took place while he was fishing. Only for that reason could this call story attract to itself the motif of the "miraculous catch" |
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Term
| The Chronological distance of the synoptic gospels |
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Definition
Individual traditions and complexes of tradition can be dated back far beyond the time of the composition of the synoptic gospels.
Example: the "synoptic apocalypse" was composed in 40 CE |
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Term
| The intention of the Jesus tradition |
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Definition
Jesus traditions are explicitly called "memory"
Example: In acts, Peter remembers a saying of the Lord |
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Term
| Shaping by the "Sitz im Leben" |
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Definition
Not all the community needs demonstrable between the thirties and sixties have found expression in the synoptic gospels
Example: Circumcision is not addressed at all in the synoptic gospels |
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Term
| The Productive power of the proof from scripture |
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Definition
Jesus and the disciples lived in their Bible. We cannot rule out the possibility that agreements between the Old Testament and the history which has been handed down came about through a deliberate "fulfilment" of scripture on the part of Jesus himself.
Example: So far nothing comparable has yet been demonstrated for Jesus |
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Term
| The formation of analogies |
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Definition
Many forms of Jesus tradition take up existing literary forms, but Jesus gives them a new emphasis which can only go back to him.
Example: Beatitudes are shaped as anti-beatitudes |
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Term
| The sayings tradition as the fruit of primitive Christian prophecy |
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Definition
The primitive Christian prophetic sayings which have been identified can be distinguished from the sayings of Jesus by an identifying divine "I"
Example: In an OT quotation, Behold, I send my messenger before you |
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Term
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Definition
| The miracle tradition of Jesus would not have arisen had not Jesus done miracles |
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Term
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Definition
The mythical elements in the Gospels have their real ground in the Easter appearances. The exalted state of Jesus is recognized in these appearances and is time and again backdated
Example: The appearance narratives |
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Term
| The one-sided criteria of research into the historical Jesus |
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Definition
| Traditions of Jesus have a plausible historical context when they fit into the Jewish context of the activity of Jesus and are recognizable as individual phenomena within this context. |
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Term
| Criterion of Dissimilarity |
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Definition
| Sayings and parables may be accepted as authentic if they can be shown to be dissimilar to characteristic emphases of both ancient Judaism and early Christianity |
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Term
| Criterion of Embarrassment |
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Definition
| the early Church would hardly have gone out of its way to create material that only embarrassed its creator or weakened its position in arguments with opponents |
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Term
| Criterion of Multiple Attestation |
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Definition
| A passage is more likely to go back to Jesus if it has been preserved in two or more sources which are independent of each other. |
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Term
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Definition
| Sayings that are not obviously dissimilar or multiply attested, but which nevertheless cohere with the core Jesus tradition might be considered authentic |
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Term
| Criterion of Historical Probability |
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Definition
| Whatever is attributed to Jesus must fit in some manner with a first-century Palestinian environment, and must account for later developments in the primitive Jesus communities |
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Term
| Criterion of Palestinian Environmental Phenomena or Aramaism |
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Definition
| Some critics argued that the appearance in the Jesus traditions of Aramaisms (‘Abba’, ‘Amen’) are a sign of authentic tradition. |
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Term
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Definition
| his asserts that sayings and stories that have features such as the use of the “divine passive” and semitic style — parallelism, rhythm and rhyme — may be authentic |
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Term
| Plausible Tradition History |
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Definition
| attempt to identify the earliest forms and versions of sayings by reconstructing a stemma that arranges all versions of a saying or motif in such a way as to derive less original forms from more original forms, and to suggest the basis on which hermeneutical diversity originated |
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