The Age of Enlightenment was a European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries in which ideas concerning God, reason, nature, and humanity were integrated into a worldview that gained wide favour in Western society and launched revolutionary developments in art, philosophy, and politics.
Central to Enlightenment thought were the use and celebration of reason, the power by which humans understand the universe and improve their own condition. The goals of rational humanity were considered to be knowledge, freedom, and happiness.
The key doctrines of the Enlightenment were individual liberty and religious tolerance, the polar opposite of an absolute monarchy and the power of religious authorities which were dominant forces of the day. The Enlightenment was marked by an emphasis on the scientific method and an increased questioning of religious orthodoxy.
An outcome of the Enlightenment and increased scientific enquiry, was the rejection of the traditional Christian image of God as a supernatural being that intervened in the affairs of the world to satisfy His own will when desired. This had implications regarding understanding of the person of Jesus Christ, who was believed to be the incarnation of God in the world, that is, God had taken human form in the person of Jesus. This resulted in what became known as the Quest for the Historical Jesus, a modern academic study of the historical Jesus, which has continued on and off since the 18th century, as scholars have sought to distinguish between the ‘Christ of faith’ and the ‘Jesus of history.’
The Quest sought to separate fact from fiction when it came to the life of Jesus. An early starting point was the stories concerning the birth of Jesus, which we find only in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. Both accounts are narratives of a virgin birth, but both are very different from each other.
Matthew sets the scene for the birth of Jesus by telling his audience that Jesus was the Messiah, of whom it was prophesied would rescue the Jewish people from the rule of foreign oppressors and restore Israel to its former glory in the time of King David. “Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 1:18 NRSV)
Matthew also tells his audience that the name of Jesus’ human father is Joseph. Is it perhaps more than coincidence that his name should be Joseph? We know from one of the stories from the Book of Genesis that one of the sons of Jacob (who was also known as Israel) was called Joseph. He was sold by his jealous brothers into slavery in Egypt, but eventually, under the protection and guidance of God, he became the right hand man to the Pharaoh, and ultimately brought Jacob and the rest of his family to Egypt where they settled. It was through this set of circumstances that their descendants, the nation of Israel, came to be in Egypt and would eventually be rescued by God, through Moses, from slavery.
Is it perhaps also more than coincidence that Jesus is born in Bethlehem? Bethlehem was of course the birthplace of King David, and we know that the Jewish Messiah, whom Matthew has already said is Jesus, was expected to be a warrior king like David. Matthew even tells us through the genealogy of Jesus, that Joseph is a descendant of King David.
All four gospels indicate that the hometown of Jesus was Nazareth in Galilee, yet the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke suggest he was born in Bethlehem. In his gospel, Luke goes to extraordinary lengths – telling the story of a census being ordered by the Roman Emperor Augustus (a story full of historical inaccuracies) – to ensure that Joseph, who Luke tells us is from Nazareth in Galilee, is in Bethlehem with Mary at the time she gives birth to Jesus.
The gospels of Matthew and Luke are believed to have been written in the years 80–85 and 85–90 of the Common Era (CE) respectively, some fifty to sixty years after the death of Jesus. The earliest known Christian writings we have are the letters of Paul, with the earliest of those, the Letter to the Galatians, dated around the year 48 CE, some 18 years after the death of Jesus.
Nowhere in his letters does Paul refer to the birth of Jesus, nor does Paul really comment specifically on anything Jesus is thought to have said or done during his ministry. In Paul’s mind, the defining aspect of Jesus is his death and resurrection. For Paul, it’s through the death and resurrection of Jesus that God is revealed.
The first gospel to be written is the Gospel of Mark, with an authorship date somewhere around the year 70 CE, approximately 22 years after the Letter to the Galatians, and 40 years after the death of Jesus. Again, there are no Jesus birth stories in Mark’s Gospel.
In fact, when we first hear of Jesus in Mark’s Gospel, he is already an adult, at roughly 30 years of age. “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptised by John in the Jordan.” (Mark 1:9 NRSV) Mark tells us nothing about the life of Jesus up to this point. All we learn from Mark is the occupation of Jesus, and the outline of his family structure. “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offence at him.” (Mark 6:3 NRSV)
Mark was no doubt aware of Paul’s letters at the time he was constructing what we might say was the first biographical record of the life of Jesus. The notion that God was revealed in Jesus only after his death, which is really the claim that Paul makes, wasn’t consistent with the stories that Mark would tell of the miracles that Jesus performed, which were done through the power of God working in Jesus.
To overcome this, Mark introduces the story of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptised by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”(Mark 1:9-11 NRSV)
So now, God is revealed as being in Jesus at the very beginning of his ministry in Galilee. As already noted, both Matthew and Luke then go even further than Mark, locating God’s presence in Jesus at the time of his conception and birth.
The last of the gospels, the Gospel of John, was written some time in the tenth decade of the first century, perhaps 5 to 10 years after the Gospel of Luke. The author of John goes back even further in time, suggesting that Jesus and God are in fact the same: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1 NRSV) These words from the Gospel of John are behind the formation of the church doctrine of the Incarnation; that God became human in the person of Jesus.
It has been suggested that the gospel stories are not historical accounts of things Jesus said or did, but rather they are the creative work of the gospel writers, theological expressions of God experiences that people encountered in Jesus.
If that is true, what are with left with that explains why Jesus rose to prominence, and why his disciples followed him?
We know for a fact that Jesus was a real, first century figure who was crucified. There is historical evidence from independent sources other than the Bible that support this. But what was Jesus like? And what did he do? Unfortunately we can only speculate as to the answers of these questions.
He must have been a charismatic figure who attracted people to himself. His message must have been powerful, and his teaching persuasive. He boldly and dramatically broke down the prevailing social barriers of his day, and in doing so became a threat to the Jewish religious leaders of the day, and so it makes sense that they would construct a case against him to influence the Roman authorities to have him put to death.
