Group of Scholars Searches for New Consensus : View of Jesus Predicting Apocalypse Disputed

The view that Jesus believed the world and history would come to a cataclysmic end, an interpretation of Scripture that has been dominant in biblical scholarship for nearly a century, appears to be facing its doom in mainstream studies.

Evangelical and fundamentalist scholars still see the apocalyptic drama as crucial to Jesus’ message, but mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic Bible specialists in America are finding--to their surprise--that there is a big swing in their ranks away from the view popularized by Albert Schweitzer in 1906.

Before Schweitzer earned acclaim in Africa as a medical missionary, the German scholar wrote in “The Quest for the Historical Jesus” that Christianity’s founder essentially was an apocalyptic preacher and that Jesus’ teachings about the “kingdom of God” pertained to God’s dramatic intervention in history.

Scholars Polled

But this week, a group of U.S. scholars searching for a new consensus on the historical Jesus polled themselves in a meeting here at the University of Notre Dame on whether they, like Schweitzer, believed that “Jesus expected the end of the world in his generation.”

Only nine of 39 scholars voted yes.

“I was frankly surprised at the shift, because most books still present Schweitzer’s view,” said Robert Funk, organizer of the so-called Jesus Seminar.

“I think mainstream pastors will breathe a sigh of relief,” said Funk, a former University of Montana religion professor.

Sayings that appear to present Jesus as wrongly predicting an end within the lifetimes of his contemporaries can be considered words put into his mouth by later believers; that is, they do not go back to the historical Jesus, Funk asserted.

Doubts on Prediction

Moreover, Jesus Seminar discussions here also made it plain that scholars now tend to doubt also that Jesus predicted the end of the world to occur any time in the future. Such sayings, usually associated with verses about the “coming Son of man” and popularly regarded as sayings referring to the Second Coming, have steadily been losing favor as authentic Jesus sayings in non-conservative circles.

The Jesus Seminar, launched last year, includes more than 100 men and women, of which 30 to 40 meet twice a year to assess and vote on the likely authenticity of every saying attributed to Jesus in the Bible and in apocryphal writings. The project is expected to last up to 10 years.

Funk said they represent a cross section of professors of religion and the Bible from major seminaries, religious colleges and state universities, all of whom work on the premise that historical-critical analysis demonstrates that some words were put on Jesus’ lips by Gospel writers and the early church. Conservative Protestant scholars have not joined; understandably so, since they nearly unanimously contend that any saying credited to Jesus must be accurate if it is in the Bible.

Shift in Thinking

In voting here, Funk said that balloting on two sayings attributed to Jesus about the “kingdom of God” reflected the shift mainstream scholars are making.

Mark 9:1 has usually been taken to mean Jesus’ reference to a cosmic intervention in history: “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.”

The first vote showed an almost even division--13 thinking that it was authentic or probably authentic and 14 thinking not. After further discussions, the final vote was nine thinking that it might be authentic and 16 doubting that it had derived from Jesus. (Vote totals varied because some seminar participants left before the voting was completed.)

Luke 17:20-21 is often cited by those who believe that Jesus said that the kingdom--God’s reign--had already arrived: “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Lo, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” The initial vote favored its authenticity 15 to 12; the final ballot went further in favor, 18 to 7.

Change in Views

“I think the discussions we had changed those votes away from the ‘apocalyptic Jesus,’ ” said seminar member Karen King, who teaches at Occidental College.

Vernon Robbins of the Methodist-related Emory University in Atlanta said the swing away from an apocalyptic Jesus started in the last 15 years, primarily among scholars who concentrated on the parables, widely considered to be the best examples of Jesus’ teaching.

“The parables are trying to identify the activity of God where people are,” Robbins said. “They are not interested in talking about the angels and God in heaven and what a particular age will bring.”

Although the Jesus Seminar has drawn criticism for its unprecedented vote-taking on the validity of each saying of Jesus--from religious liberals as well as from conservatives--they draw upon published findings using historical-critical analysis, procedures that are standard for mainstream Protestant and Roman Catholic biblical scholars.

Should ‘Come Clean’

New Testament scholar Bruce Chilton of Yale Divinity School, who is not a Jesus Seminar participant, said in a recent telephone interview that mainstream scholars should “come clean” about their views that much of what Jesus says in the Gospels was created after his lifetime.

“Basically, the difference is between an authoritative New Testament or an authoritative Jesus--you can’t have them both,” Chilton said.

Seminar member Bernard Brandon Scott of St. Meinrad (Ind.) Catholic Seminary said he thinks that the new direction in Gospel studies will have social consequences.

“ ‘The new view’ definitely undercuts the picture of Jesus who will come as the Son of man to rescue the world from its failures,” Scott said.

He suggested that Jesus’ image as a returning world-rescuer has contributed to the feeling by many American Christians that the nuclear arms race is a part of an inevitable Armageddon but that believers will be saved for the coming kingdom of God.

Interpretation Complex

Despite the seemingly confident “last-days” Scripture references used by television evangelists, the interpretations of Jesus’ words in Mark, Matthew and Luke are rather complex in evangelical scholarship.

Mark 9:1 (and its equivalent in Matthew 16:28) is sometimes interpreted as referring not to the end of the world but to the next scene, the glistening white Transfiguration of Jesus on a mountaintop, according to Ronald Youngblood of San Diego, editor of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society.

Theology Prof. E. Earl Ellis of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Tex., agreed. “Sayings about seeing the kingdom of God are not necessarily to be equated with the end of the world,” Ellis said when contacted by phone. “They could have referred to Jesus’ resurrection or the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost,” he said. And some apocalyptic predictions by Jesus in the Gospels seem to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 66-70, Ellis said.

Likewise, in mainstream scholarship--the Jesus Seminar included--the interpretations of individual sayings are varied and complex. Many New Testament scholars who deny the “apocalyptic” element in Jesus’ teaching nevertheless believe that there is a future element to his authentic sayings. The technical adjective is “eschatological,” or having to do with final things.

Range of Opinions

Funk, who accepts the eschatological view of Jesus’ sayings, said that this view of Jesus ranges from scholars who think that Jesus expected religious and political changes in Israel to happen eventually to those who think that the kingdom will be fully realized in non-literal, more spiritual ways.

Some Jesus Seminar participants are not ready to abandon the apocalyptic Jesus. Adela Yarbro Collins, who teaches at Notre Dame, said she does not consider every doom-sayer sentence attributed to Jesus to be historically reliable.

“But I still think Jesus expected God to intervene in history, that he was influenced by Jewish apocalyptic views of his day,” Collins said. “It doesn’t bother me that things didn’t work out as he thought.”