Public-theological debate - who was the real Jesus?

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explain the author's understanding of the historical Jesus in terms of a ''Weberian'' ideal type model. The lack of historical evidence of the role of a father in the life of Jesus in early Christian literature from the period prior to 70 CE, including the letters of Paul, the Gospels of Mark and Thomas and the Sayings Source Q, is explicated in a theological, ethical and cultural fashion. The reference to Joseph as Jesus' father in early Christian literature (which originated after the rift between Jesus followers and Judean adherents to the ''Synagogue'') is compared to intertestamental Semitic-Hellenistic literature (such as Josephus, the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, and Joseph and Asenath) in which the Joseph-figure functions as a ethical example for believers. From the assumption that Jesus grew up fatherless, references to Jesus' unconventional allegiance with social outcasts in the New Testament is interpreted from an ideal type of a fatherless child in first-century Herodian Palestine. Such a perspective is labelled as ''Christology from the side'' and its difference with orthodox Christology is historically explained.