1. Introducing the Person of Jesus

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we offer some introductory remarks about Jesus’ identity, focusing in particular on (i) the controversy surrounding who Jesus was in his own time, as presented in the Gospels (ii) disputes throughout Christian history concerning the presence of humanity and divinity within Jesus (iii) the issue of the historical reliability of documents about Jesus, including post-Easter convictions of the Gospel writers (iv) comparing and contrasting historical and theological interpretations of these documents (v) variation between the accounts of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels and in John’s Gospel (vi) the significance of early Christian conceptions about Jesus being related to the divine.

Course

In this course Dr James Carleton Paget (University of Cambridge) examines the identities associated with the person of Jesus. In the first module, we introduce the person of Jesus by providing some historical background, and assessing the nature of the documents containing accounts of Jesus. After that we look at Jesus’ authority, with special reference to precedent and the relationship between Jesus’ identity and his authority. In the third module, we examine the wisdom of Jesus by investigating the substance of his teaching. Then we discuss the idea of Jesus as a liberator - both a political liberator and liberator from evil, before moving on to examine Jesus as the Son of God. Finally, we take a look at Jesus’ uniqueness, in terms of his teaching, the hypostatic union, divine revelation and salvation.

Lecturer

James Carleton Paget is a lecturer in New Testament Studies at the University of Cambridge. His research interests are research interests in Jewish-Christian relations in antiquity, ancient Jewish Christianity, inter-testamental Judaism and the history of ancient biblical interpretation. His publications include Jews, Christians and Jewish Christians in Antiquity (2010) and The Epistle of Barnabas: Outlook and Background (1994)