Question:
There are basically two ideas of who Jesus was: the first is that he was the Jewish Messiah, and that he knew that in his life, and that he knew his mission entirely and knew the ramifications of what he was doing, and that he was God in the flesh, "God among us" or "with us" (Emmanuel). This is the traditional view of Jesus the church has held since the writings of the apostles.
The other view is that he was just a Jewish rabbi and the status of God, Messiah, etc. were placed on him after his death by his disciples. The gospels were written after his death to reinforce this belief and are not necessarily accurate in their history. The gospels are full of embellishment and exaggerations, paraphrases of Jesus' words, and outright fabrications to reinforce the belief of Jesus as God and messiah.
I suppose there is a middle ground which would say that Jesus in some way knew he was anointed for a purpose, and as the day grew closer he understood more and more what that purpose was, but that he didn't fully understand that he was the messiah. This view would probably deny that Jesus was God, or at least if he was he didn't know it. This view would also say that overall the gospels are an accurate account of Jesus' life and deeds and words, but some of it may be embellished.
All this to say, how can we truly know who the real Jesus was? He wrote nothing of himself during his lifetime, nor to my knowledge did anyone else write anything of him while he was alive. The gospels are decades removed from the actual events and all four have a specific purpose for their writing: could the writers have omitted facts or details in order to strengthen their point? Does it all end in simple faith? We believe just because?
I know this is long and confusing so I'll sum it up: how can we know that every word of Jesus in the four gospels is accurate and historical?
Answer:
by faith, and that's the bottom line, you can drum up all sorts of historical references and scientific proofs i'm sure, but the bottom line is faith.
Answer:
Originally Posted by Epaphras All this to say, how can we truly know who the real Jesus was? You can ask this same question about any historic figure (really anyone). The reason you specifically ask this about Christ is because of the extreme nature of the claims about Him. No amount of documentation or "scieintific evidence" could convince you of the sort of extreme claims made about Christ.
He wrote nothing of himself during his lifetime, nor to my knowledge did anyone else write anything of him while he was alive. This is true of many historic figures.
The gospels are decades removed from the actual events and all four have a specific purpose for their writing: could the writers have omitted facts or details in order to strengthen their point? It's certainly a possibility, and no evidence will ever be able to prove they didn't do such. No evidence can prove the scriptures were divinely inspired.
Does it all end in simple faith? We believe just because? It does boil down to faith. HOwever, it's far more complex than "We believe just because." Everyone is putting their faith in something or trusting something. There is no neutral, objective standpoint. The scientist as a set of beliefs and presuppositions by which they interpret the world. The Christian has their own beliefs and presuppositions by which they interpret the world.
So when I say it boils down to faith, really I mean it boils down choosing to put your faith in scripture. Do you trust that scripture is what it says it is and trustworthy? Is your starting point for knowledge scripture...your own reason...someone elses understanding of the universe?
If you only believe in the scriptures because of evidence, documentation, science and strong arguments, then really you only trust scripture because you trusted those other things first. They are what you really trust in.
how can we know that every word of Jesus in the four gospels is accurate and historical? You can't, but that is true of most things. I don't know that you really typed this message. There is no way to know or be certain that any 2000 year old text is accurate and historical.
Answer:
I agree with everyone else. But one "proof" I guess you could say is that many of the apostles died for what they believed, if they truly exaggerated it then at least one of them would have come clean so they would escape death. Like, if you made up a story wouldn't you rather say it is false than die? And the gospels were written by men who knew Jesus or knew soemone who knew Jesus, it's not like someone just decided to make it up after He died.
Answer:
The gospels are decades removed from the actual events and all four have a specific purpose for their writing:
Compared to many other historical figures, this is actually a short period of time between the death of the person and the first writings. I don't know if this is right or not, but I think it was something like 300 or more years before anything was written about Alexander the Great (or somebody that famous).
Who do I think Jesus is (besides the whole savior thing)? I think that he liked to party. The first miracle that he performed was at a wedding party.