The Historical Jesus

 Why is it important to understand the historical nature of Jesus's life?

It is important to understand the historical nature of Jesus’s life because Jesus was a person, rooted in a time.

1. As humans, we are all shaped by our stories. What happens to us in our life – good or bad – shapes who we are. I’m not sure how much this applies to Jesus, but I imagine being the son of a carpenter shaped him. Certainly, being a Jew was important in his life and how he lived it.
2. Knowing the history of Jesus helps us to understand the outside forces of the time that impacted his life. We’ve already talked about Herod the Great’s impact on Jesus’s early life. The Roman Empire created a framework for his life and it shaped people’s expectations of him.
3. Knowing Jesus’s history – his birth, life as a child (as much as we can), his ministry, death, and resurrection shapes our faith. What happened to him, and what he allowed to happen to him are some of the building blocks of why we follow him.

 

Knowing the stories that shaped Jesus’s life, the outside forces that impacted him, and his own role in his biography helps us to understand the scripture with more accuracy and personal impact. The Gospel does not sit in a vacuum; our understanding of it (as much as we can) is bolstered by knowledge of the historical nature of Jesus.