Greco-Jesus? It Is to Laugh

The renewed quest for the Jesus of history behind the Christ of faith has resulted in many strange twists and turns. However, as often in the past, new descriptions of who and what the historical Jesus actually was seem to mirror the various scholars' assumptions and prejudices rather than to offer objective "truth.'' Certainly, the idea that Jesus was just a "nice guy,'' as some would-be radicals claim, makes idiocy of his whole story and of the vast impact of his life - for good and evil - upon the world. Those who "go there'' haven't thought nearly hard enough. But the emerging view of Jesus today as a person heavily influenced by the Greco-Roman culture all around him in occupied Galilee and Judea has led to a more sophisticated picture.

Through the writings of various members of the California-based Jesus Seminar - particularly books and articles by John Dominic Crossan, Robert Funk and other such scholars - Jesus has emerged as a kind of Hellenistic cynic philosopher-sage. Those wandering gurus of their day went about uttering pithy comments on all aspects of daily life. Their wisdom was practical and filled with biting attacks on injustices, especially those committed by the rich and powerful. It's not too strong to describe them as rather solitary "social revolutionaries.''

However, far from all biblical scholars accept such a view in spite of its popularity with the media and the masses. For example, critics of this would-be "solution'' to the enigma of Jesus have now begun a persuasive counterattack. Their rebuttal hinges upon the latest in archaeological discoveries in Israel - particularly at the ruins of Sepphoris, an ancient city just 6.4 kilometres from Nazareth. Since Sepphoris was a key Roman centre of administration and of security for a crucial trade route between Asia and Egypt, the debate focuses upon whether and to what degree the city was Jewish or, instead, a hive of Greco-Roman culture. The point is that the distance between Jesus' hometown of Nazareth and Sepphoris could be covered easily in a little over an hour's walk, allowing for the hills.

Jesus, then, easily could have walked there daily. As a boy, he is certain to have played in its streets or visited its synagogue with his parents. In his teens and as a young man, he could have been a stone mason rather than a carpenter (the Greek permits this meaning) who together with his father, worked on various public buildings there. (The Romans burned the city to the ground in 4 B.C., but it was quickly rebuilt in the following years.) Jesus would have had ample opportunity to steep himself in the ways of a much wider world than tiny, provincial Nazareth.

The prestigious bimonthly journal, Biblical Archaeological Review, carries two important articles in the July-August 2000 issue bearing directly upon this matter. The major one - "How Jewish Was Sepphoris In Jesus' Time?'' ) was written by archaeologists Mark Chancey and Eric Meyers, who have excavated there for fifteen years. Through a detailed examination of the most recent excavations, they make an unassailable case for the fact that the new Sepphoris - even though it had an amphitheatre, pagan temples and other signs of Greco-Roman ways - was essentially Jewish in character. They say evidence for Greco-Roman culture in Sepphoris in Jesus' lifetime is "very limited'' and conclude that the city's population was overwhelmingly Jewish, though non-Jews "were a small and uninfluential minority.'' The bulk of the city's Greco-Roman artefacts and monuments come from 200 C.E. or later. Also according to the authors, there is "no evidence for the presence of philosophic teachers, cynic or otherwise'' in the whole region of first-century Galilee. Thus, if these critics are reading the archaeological remains correctly, the argument that Jesus must have had more in common with Greco-Roman philosophers than with rabbis, the Hebrew Bible and the classic Hebrew prophetic tradition falls totally to the ground.

The older picture, one I hold myself, that Jesus was thoroughly Jewish in every respect and saw in himself the fulfilment of the ancient prophecies and promises to Israel, still remains more cogent. Jesus' leading ideas - the Kingdom of God, the challenging social values of the Sermon on the Mount, the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God and, most radical of all, the forgiveness of and the love for one's enemies - all have their roots in Judaism. Any reading of the Talmudic literature reveals this.

But we now have firm archaeological grounds, the mute testimony of rocks, pottery, ancient inscriptions and many other traces of early first-century Jewish culture in Sepphoris to refute the "Hellenistic-cynic-philosopher'' idea. The message to members of the Jesus Seminar is: "Thanks, but try again.''

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