Sanders - The Historical Figure of Jesus
Much about the historical Jesus will remain a mystery. Nothing is more mysterious than the stories of his resurrection, which attempt to portray an experience that the authors could not themselves comprehend. But in the midst of mystery and uncertainty, we should remember that we know a lot about Jesus. We know that he started under John the Baptist, that he had disciples, that he expected the ‘kingdom’, that he went from Galilee to Jerusalem, that he did something hostile against the Temple, that he was tried and crucified. Finally we know that after his death his followers experienced what they described as the ‘resurrection’: the appearance of a living but transformed person who had actually died. They believed this, they lived it, and they died for it. In the process they created a movement, a movement that in many ways went far beyond Jesus’ message.