Many of today's modern theologians are searching for the real Jesus. They are looking for the Jesus who walked in Galilee and taught his disciples and the masses. They want to know what he really taught and what he really did. They believe that the early church created and embellished stories, turning a real man into a god-like prophet/messiah.
These theologians (the seekers in this game of hide-and-go-seek) are mostly White men. Why that makes a difference, I don't know. Neither do I know why it is mostly a White Man's obsession. Nevertheless, they are looking for the real Jesus.
Jesus is hiding somewhere and they believe that with the right tools, they can strip away what the early church added (the Jesus of Faith) and find his hiding places, thus meeting the real Jesus - the Jesus of history. Jesus is hiding under a pile of Early Christian fabrication and exaggeration called the New Testament writings and the Gospels. But thanks to First and Second Century writings such as Josephus and the Book of Thomas, and thanks to modern scientific thinking and creativity, we are finding his hiding places by scaling back the layers of early Christian zeal and faith.
A common critique states that these men are only finding themselves in their search for Jesus and perhaps this is true to some extent; men like Morton Smith, who have concluded that Jesus was Gay was in fact himself gay. So it is likely that many seekers are finding their own selves - reading themselves into their studies. But I believe that many of these seekers are finding a Jesus who looks more like the areas of interest these seekers have. Let me explain:
Some scholars (such as John Dominic Crossan or Burton Mack), for whatever reason, might focus his studies on Cynics in the ancient world. They begin to see similarities between Jesus and the Cynics, so they pursue that direction more and more. Our scholars look for all the similarities they can find, and in the end will be convinced that Jesus was a Jewish Cynic. Our scholars are not necessarily modern Cynics or Cynic wanna-bees. But for some reason, our scholars stumbled upon or somehow were intrigued with the Cynics. It may also be that our scholars had little or no fascination with the Cynics until one day, while reading about Jesus, it dawned on them that from time to time Jesus did things Cynical. Our scholars then began to look for more evidence; and upon finding more, arm themselves with ways to disregard evidence to the contrary. Before long our scholars become convinced that Jesus was a Jewish Cynic.
Other scholars have discovered other parallels with ancient groups or individuals. And discovering those parallels, they become convinced that they have found the historical Jesus' true hiding place. So one seeker discovers that Jesus was a healer, another that Jesus was a political zealot fighting Rome's domination, another discovers that Jesus was a wandering prophet, and so on.
The weird thing is this: I believe by studying the past and by searching for the historical Jesus, our modern seekers are many times discovering, not so much the historical person of Jesus, but the historical expectations of the people of Jesus' day. Our scholars are helping us to see what people in Jesus day expected to see in Jesus, because they too read into Jesus what they needed to see; what they wanted to see; or what they expected to see. Their opinions and expectations were dictated by the world around them at the time. And because our present day seekers study the times of Jesus to help discover the historical Jesus, they come closer to learning what people in Jesus' day expected to see in Jesus.
The people in Jesus' Day were seeking to know who this Jesus was and where his miracles came from. The Gospels are filled with questions the First Century Jew asked such as, "Are you the Messiah? Are you the Prophet?" and "Who is this man?" The Synoptic Gospels highlight the discovery of the disciples in the middle of Jesus' ministry, "You are the Christ!" But even though the disciples learned that Jesus was the Messiah, their understanding of the Messiah was not spot on. In fact, it was considered demonic and serving the political needs of the people of Jesus day.
Like most in their world and like many modern day seekers, the disciples believed the Messiah was a political figure. The Gospels are filled with people who had different questions and answers that reflected what people expected to see from Jesus, and because they (like the disciples themselves) read into Jesus what their times and desires held dear, they did not truly find who Jesus was. They could only see in part. Metaphorically, they were like the blind man who being healed by Jesus saw men like trees walking - their vision was blurred.
So I congratulate the modern seekers for coming closer to discovering and joining in the opinions of those who saw Jesus and who asked, "Who is this man?" But to answer that question, they have failed.
