C F D Moule, Jesus: Grounds for the Christian Estimate
**Rowland Croucher**
(Pr=E9cis of a previously unpublished lecture at the University of=20
Cambridge, Lent term 1968. Professor Charlie Moule, Fellow of Clare=20
College, Cambridge, was a highly acclaimed New Testament scholar. The=20
title and some of the language in this talk are somewhat =91Oxbridgian=92=
=20
but the sentiments here are, I believe, worth serious study).
Is it possible, by reasoning, to go all the way to the sort of knowing=20
to which a Christian estimate belongs? To this I answer =91Yes=92. Faith =
of=20
course is not the same as reason; but it might turn out to be actually=20
unreasonable not to believe.
The New Testament accounts of the life and death and resurrection of=20
Jesus are of course biased =96 written confessedly by believers =96 but=20
they=92re about all we have (except for the scornful reference in Tacitus=
,=20
and some antagonistic references in later Jewish literature).
In Palestine, in the twenty years after about the year 30 of our era,=20
something remarkable occurred. A considerable number of people had the=20
strong conviction that Jesus of Nazareth was alive after he truly died,=20
and was, in a special sense, God=92s Son. This conviction was embedded in=
=20
the very early tradition which preceded the writings which became the=20
New Testament.
It may be easier to adopt a stance of incredulity about all this =96 unti=
l=20
you actually acquaint yourself with the documents. The earliest of these=20
was written about the year 50 =96 about 20 years after Jesus=92 crucifixi=
on=20
=96 in a letter by Paul to Christians at Corinth. Read 1 Corinthians=20
15:3-9, and note that it was written by an ex-Pharisee, someone who=20
believed in an after-life beyond the general resurrection at the climax=20
of history. The Pharisees=92 idea of resurrection was of a transcendent,=20
transhistorical culminating act of God. Now I simply fail to understand=20
how the conviction that an *individual* who had been executed was alive=20
again (see Romans 6:9f) could spring from the Pharisaic imagination. It=20
was so unlike anything that a devout Jew might have conceived. Still=20
less could the physical survival of a badly hurt person (which is what=20
resuscitation theories require) have conveyed this notion =96 or the mere=
=20
discovery of an empty tomb. So I am left with no plausible alternative=20
to what the Christians said =96 that they were driven to this unique=20
formulation by a unique, but clear and undeniable experience.
But this =91aliveness=92 related to a unique individual. The character th=
at=20
comes through the traditions is someone big and strange and original. Of=20
course the Gospels represent the end-term of a period of some years of=20
oral transmission =96 and naturally oral traditions become shaped, adapte=
d=20
and maybe distorted over time. Some scholars think that the Christian=20
communities actually created for themselves a certain number of new=20
sayings and incidents. I, for one, find it difficult to convince myself=20
of that. Careful scrutiny of the documents, making due allowance for=20
some distortion, yields some noteworthy results.
[1] First, Jesus was big (if one may put it so). He had an=20
unsophisticated but powerful mind, cut through sham, and asked=20
disturbing questions (see e.g. Mark 3:1-5, 7:5-13,11:27-33). But he was=20
big not only in intellect, but also in integrity. The portrait that=20
survives is of an attractive young man moving freely among people with=20
loose morals with a tenderness and grace and an enjoyment of their=20
companionship matched only by his un-selfconscious integrity.
[2] But Jesus was also strange. He was very close to God, addressing God=20
as =91Abba=92 (rather like =91Daddy=92). And he conveyed the sense that w=
here he=20
was, God=92s reign was being acknowledged. But he was also =91at home=92 =
in=20
the world. Everything about him was authentic =96 his worship of God, his=
=20
words, his conduct. He had no rabbinic degrees or external credentials:=20
only this unique and transparent closeness to God.
[3] And he was original, attacking the religious complacency of his day=20
with a very new and fresh picture of a merciful God. His convincing=20
analogies were drawn from an acute observation of the world and were=20
presented like the insights of a brilliant cartoonist. (See, eg. Mark=20
4:26-32, Matthew 13:45f., 21:28-32).
So it was not just anyone, but this known person =96 a man big, strange=20
and original =96 that the Christians believed to be alive with an absolut=
e=20
and inextinguishable life. He wasn=92t the figment of people=92s=20
imagination, but of Jews who, against their will, got squeezed out of=20
synagogues, and against their own intentions, became differentiated as=20
the sect of the Nazarene =96 and many of whom were ready to die for their=
=20
conviction. All this is difficult to classify as superstitious fantasy.
=91So we are left with this dilemma. The rationalist in us all says:=20
Explain away the Christian estimate; there is no room for it in a=20
rational person=92s beliefs; account for it by hallucination or error or=20
mere superstition or trickery. But the historian in us says: But is that=20
sufficient to explain this mighty before and after? =96 this big, strange=
,=20
original Figure before, this extraordinary conviction after the death?=20
The historian in us leads us, pretty relentlessly, as I believe, to the=20
edge of that precipice of faith. To step over that precipice means=20
allowing a transcendental factor into this story =96 allowing that histor=
y=20
to lead to transhistory, that here, in an exceptional but inescapable=20
way, the transcendental impinges on the course of history=85 To withdraw=20
from the precipice and retrace our steps involves inventing tales about=20
credulity and stupidity which ill accord with the extraordinary depth=20
and sanity of what is presented. What are we to do?=92
Full text: http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/
June 2009.
Shalom/Salaam/Pax! Rowland Croucher
Justice for Dawn Rowan - http://dawnrowansaga.blogspot.com/