E.P. Sanders and the ‘Trial’ of Jesus
In: Journal for the Study of the Historical JesusSearch for other papers by Helen K. Bond in
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This study outlines E.P. Sanders’ views on the Jewish ‘trial’ of Jesus, paying particular attention to the following topics: ‘who ran what’ at the time of Jesus; the involvement of the Jewish leaders; the role and character of the high priest Caiaphas; what sources we can rely on at this point; and the differences between Sanders’ views in Jesus and Judaism and the later (and more popular) Historical Figure of Jesus. It concludes by suggesting ways in which scholars can build on Sanders’ insights, not only in terms of historical reconstruction but also as a starting point for a fuller appreciation of the evangelists’ narrative and creative art.
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8
Sanders, Historical Figure of Jesus, p. 273; idem, Jesus and Judaism, p. 295.
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13
Sanders, Judaism: Practice and Belief, pp. 318, 393–94, 401–402, 481–90.
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15
Josephus, Ant. 20.251; Sanders, Judaism: Practice and Belief, pp. 319–27; idem, Historical Figure of Jesus, pp. 22–31.
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20
See the critique of J.D.G. Dunn, ‘ Pharisees, Sinners and Jesus’, in Jesus, Paul and the Law: Studies in Mark and Galatians (London: spck, 1990); also M. Hengel and R. Deines, ‘E.P. Sanders’s "Common Judaism", Jesus, and the Pharisees’, jts 46 (1995), pp. 1–70; and B. Witherington iii, The Jesus Quest: The Third Search for the Jew of Nazareth (Carlisle: Paternoster, 1995), pp. 116–36.
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21
See for example M. Goodman, The Ruling Class of Judaea (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 113–18; J.S. McLaren, Power and Politics in Palestine (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1991); and D. Goodblatt, The Monarchic Principle: Studies in Jewish Self-Government in Antiquity (Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1994).
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24
J.D. Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1994), p. 152. His views on the passion narratives more broadly can be found in The Cross that Spoke: The Origins of the Passion Narrative (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988) and Who Killed Jesus?: Exposing the Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story of the Death of Jesus (San Franciso: Harper San Francisco, 1996)—the latter is a response to R.E. Brown, whose position is similar to Sanders’s.
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32
Both quotations are from Sanders, Historical Figure of Jesus, p. 26.
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34
Sanders, Historical Figure of Jesus, pp. 265–9; on the chief priests more generally, see also Sanders, Judaism: Practice and Belief, pp. 319–27.
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36
On Caiaphas, see D. Flusser, ‘…To Bury Caiaphas, Not to Praise him’, Jerusalem Perspective 33–34 (1991), pp. 23–28; idem, ‘Caiaphas in the New Testament’, ‘Atiqot 21 (1992), pp. 81–87; B. Chilton, ‘Caiaphas’, abd 1.803–806. On the high priestly aristocracy, see J. Jeremias, Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus (London:scm Press, 3rd edn, 1976), pp. 147–232 ; Goodman, Ruling Class; R.A. Horsley, ‘High Priests and the Politics of Roman Palestine: A Contextual Analysis of the Evidence of Josephus’, jsj 17 (1986), pp. 23–55; C.A. Evans, ‘Jesus’ Action in the Temple: Cleansing or Portent of Destruction?’ in B. Chilton and C.A. Evans (eds.), Jesus in Context (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1997), pp. 395–439.
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41
M.A. Powell, The Jesus Debate: Modern Historians Investigate the Life of Christ (Oxford: Lion Publishing, 1999), p. 126.
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48
C.H. Dodd, Historical Tradition in the Fourth Gospel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963); J.A.T. Robinson, The Priority of John (London: scm Press, 1985).
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50
See R.E. Brown, ‘The Problem of Historicity in John’, Catholic Biblical Quarterly 24 (1962), pp. 1–14; on the high priest and prophecy, see C.H. Dodd, ‘The Prophecy of Caiaphas (John xi 47–53)’, in Neotestamentica et Patristica (Leiden: Brill, 1962), pp. 134–43. Even the Jesus Seminar accept the note about the family relationship between Annas and Caiaphas, although John is our only source on this point; see R.W. Funk and the Jesus Seminar, The Acts of Jesus: The Search for the Authentic Deeds of Jesus (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1998), p. 429. On John’s particularly close relationship to the priesthood, see H.K. Bond, ‘Discarding the Seamless Robe: The High Priesthood of Jesus in John’s Gospel’, in D. Capes, A. DeConick, H.K. Bond and T. Miller (eds.), Israel’s God and Rebecca’s Children: Christology and Community (Festschrift L. Hurtado and A. Segal; Waco, tx: Baylor University Press, 2007), pp. 183–94.
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56
Sanders, Jesus and Judaism, p. 11 (these are facts 5 and 6 respectively).
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61
Both quotations are from Sanders, Historical Figure of Jesus, p. 269.
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69
See further, A. Borrell, The Good News of Peter’s Denial (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998).
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E.P. Sanders and the ‘Trial’ of Jesus
In: Journal for the Study of the Historical JesusSearch for other papers by Helen K. Bond in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
This study outlines E.P. Sanders’ views on the Jewish ‘trial’ of Jesus, paying particular attention to the following topics: ‘who ran what’ at the time of Jesus; the involvement of the Jewish leaders; the role and character of the high priest Caiaphas; what sources we can rely on at this point; and the differences between Sanders’ views in Jesus and Judaism and the later (and more popular) Historical Figure of Jesus. It concludes by suggesting ways in which scholars can build on Sanders’ insights, not only in terms of historical reconstruction but also as a starting point for a fuller appreciation of the evangelists’ narrative and creative art.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 760 | 135 | 16 |
| Full Text Views | 569 | 24 | 5 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 781 | 44 | 12 |
