science); they realize that even if they personally believe in Jesus (in a spiritual or theological or religious sense), they should not fudge the evidence or treat the historical materials concerning him differently than they would if they were studying any other individual from the ancient world.

Students sometimes find it awkward to think of biblical assertions about Jesus in these terms. It may seem sacrilegious to admit that some things they believe about Jesus, things clearly presented in the New Testament, do not pass muster in terms of historical science. But there may be a sense in which we already know this to be the case. In the United States certain things can be taught about Jesus in public schools: a history teacher may tell students that Jesus was Jewish, that he taught the Golden Rule, that he called disciples, that he was crucified—these are regarded as “historical facts” about Jesus that can be presented without any suspicion that the teacher is promoting the Christian religion. Yet most people in America realize that it would be inappropriate for a public school teacher to tell students that Jesus was born to a virgin, that he was the Messiah, or that he died for people’s sins. A teacher who said such things would probably get in trouble for teaching religious beliefs rather than simply presenting historical information. Of course, the categories of “histori-cal facts” and “religious assertions” get fuzzy, but most of us probably have some degree of awareness that certain things about Jesus are verifiable apart from faith while other things are not. The search for “the historical Jesus” is basically a quest for “the historically verifiable Jesus.”

Map 4.1. Galilee in the time of Jesus.

ME

DI T

ER

RA

NE

AN

S

EA

Sea ofGalilee

Mt. Carmel

Mt. Tabor

Ptolemais

Caesarea

Nazareth

Capernaum

Gennesaret

Magdala

Chorazin Bethsaida

Gergesa

Nain

Sepphoris

Gadara

Tiberias

GAULANI TI S

Cana

10 mi50

0 10 km5

PHOENICIA

DECAPOLIS

S A M A R I A

UPPERGALILEE

LOWERGALILEE

Golden Rule: a traditional name given to the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:12: “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you.”

89The Earthly Jesus as Understood by Modern Historians

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Published by Baker Academic © 2018 Mark Allan Powell