I’ve never given much credence to the gospels. Not much more than magical fiction to me.
Mark tells us Jesus’ family doesn’t follow him and think he’s nut. Yet Acts places Jesus’ inner circle in Jerusalem shortly after his death, being led by his putative brother.
Mark is a polemic against Jesus’ inner circle, especially his family. The other gospels try to soften this portrayal but never break with it entirely.
Acts seems to me to have more historical underpinnings to it, at least some of it. Highly romanticized history it is, but I’ve always sensed a greater attachment to reality in it than I ever have in the gospels.
Just a thought.
Robert said
Those who take the gospel of John as a valuable source (only in some respects, of course). They use a few examples from the synoptics that seem to indicate that Jesus had spent more time in Jerusalem.
Well John 1 does identify some of Jesus’ early followers as disciples of John the Baptizer and places Jesus as staying in the vicinity.
CEJ said
Has anyone considered that the historical Jesus’ ministry may have been based in Jerusalem rather the itinerate ministry portrayed in the gospels?
If so, why the focus on Galilee in the gospels? The gospels are all Jerusalem plus Galilee; Samaria is somewhere you travel through at your peril. Luke had to contort just to drag the nativity down to Bethlehem.
The death of the Baptizer by Antipas does draw the narrative up the Jordan. My hobby horse in my dotage is that the historical Jesus may have been conflated with judas the galilean and/or jesus ben saphat (to the point that the Jesus known to paul may never be unearthed). Also, Crossan writes convincingly of the historical framework for social upheaval in agricultural Galilee.
Robert said
I think the primary implication would be that Jesus might have been less a country bumpkin and possibly more of an educated apocalyptic proto-rabbi. In and of itself, regardless of location, it does seem more likely to me that Jesus was fairly well educated.
An interesting point. I suppose the next question would be, what do we mean by “fairly well educated”? Thoroughly conversant with the Jewish scriptures? Could he read Hebrew?
As far as intercourse between the Galilee and Jerusalem, I suspect like any major capital there were expat communities from all over. There would probably have been continuous contact by people moving back and forth. Jesus and his disciples could have found some level of support from such a community of Galileans in Jerusalem.
I’ve begun to question the “twenty guys in a room” view held by Ehrman and others. I suspect Jesus might have had some level of success in the villages of the Galilee and left behind a small community when he took his fateful journey. It seems likely that the initial Resurrection experiences took place there.
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