Abstract:
A.G. van Aarde’s contribution to historical
Jesus research is mainly expressed in his book Fatherless in Galilee: Jesus as Child of God. The
book was the result of five years of Jesus research. Van Aarde is an ordained minister of
the Netherdutch Reformed Church of Africa (NRCA). Since the book’s publication in 2001,
the NRCA has experienced an immense dispute regarding the book in particular but also
regarding the subject of historical Jesus research in general. This dispute has publicly escalated
since 2010. It has often centred on Van Aarde’s notion of Jesus’ fatherlessness. This article
will focus on said book in order to ascertain what is meant by the concept ‘the fatherless
Jesus’. This is done to illustrate that Van Aarde’s research, as it converges in the scrutinised
publication, remains of relevance to the NRCA.
Description:
This article is an adaptation
of parts of a MDiv
dissertation, completed
under Prof. Ernest van Eck
in the Department of New
Testament Studies of the
Faculty of Theology at the
University of Pretoria in
2013. The article is meant
as a tribute to the 15 year
anniversary of the existence
of the Reformed Theological
College at the Faculty of
Theology of the University of
Pretoria.
