A reach back for the Gospel truth

The concept of the New Testament as a unified text is so ingrained in modern thinking, it can be hard to imagine that the various works it comprises -- biographies, letters, apologetic tracts, sermons and histories -- were not created at once and handed on to Christian believers. Rather, biblical scholars contend, these discrete literary works developed over the course of decades -- even centuries -- after the death of the historical Jesus and were shaped by those active in the “Jesus movement,” then a sect within Judaism. Many works attributed to the apostles and contemporaries of Jesus weren’t even written until after that initial generation had passed away, and the very term “Christian” wasn’t coined until nearly a hundred years after Jesus’ death.

“Jesus did not come as the founder of a new religion,” writes scholar L. Michael White in “From Jesus to Christianity,” his detailed examination of the first four generations following Jesus’ death, “and yet a new religion, Christianity, was founded in his name, or, more precisely, in his memory.” In this dense, studious work, White, who is the director of the Institute for the Study of Antiquity and Christian Origins at the University of Texas at Austin and was featured on the PBS program “From Jesus to Christ,” examines how those people involved in the Jesus movement shaped the story of Jesus’ life, death, ministry and vision into what would eventually emerge as an institutionalized world religion, codified in the New Testament.

“One problem that often occurs when people approach the world of Jesus is that they assume the political and religious climate was essentially the same as that of ancient Israel [during the kingdom of David and Solomon]. Nothing could be further from the truth,” writes White, who goes to great lengths to provide readers with sufficient background -- political, religious, social and cultural -- on the entire Roman Empire to understand the nuances of the New Testament works, both those accepted into the canon and the apocryphal writings.

In the first generation, White tells us, the Jesus movement was shaped by those who had been witnesses to Jesus’ life and those, like Paul, who were inspired by his legacy; this time period was characterized by charismatic leaders and the passing along of the story via oral traditions.

During the second generation, the Jesus movement was still very much part of the Judaism of the day, though it was beginning to differentiate itself. White examines the book of Matthew and writes: “If being removed from the community’s fellowship causes the offender to be labeled as ‘Gentile,’ then being in the community can only be understood as being Jewish. Consequently, although Matthew’s ‘church’ is clearly at odds with the Pharisaic synagogues, it still thinks of itself very much as a Jewish sect.”

During this time, many of Jesus’ early believers were certain of impending apocalypse followed by the imminent return of Jesus. When this expectation was crushed as the Jewish revolt against the Roman occupation failed, the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed (AD 70) and Jesus had not returned, the followers had to reconsider their perspectives.

By the third generation, the break with Judaism was nearly complete as Christians began to define themselves and their beliefs in opposition to Judaism. The fourth generation shows the “church” becoming more institutionalized, focusing less on its charismatic leaders and more on hierarchical structures and doctrines. At the same time, Christianity was making a place for itself within the ruling Roman Empire.

To examine these periods in time and fit all the pieces into place, White looks at the books of the New Testament -- not in the order you’ll find them in contemporary Bibles but in the chronological order in which scholars believe they were written. The Gospels and other biblical literature are not direct biographies of Jesus, he suggests, nor are they histories: “Instead, they are early attempts to tell the story of Jesus for a particular audience in a particular context.... To be sure, the historical figure of Jesus stands behind the stories, but the stories are nonetheless removed from that historical figure in important ways.”

White’s text is filled with immense detail -- perhaps overwhelmingly so -- and requires a great deal of slow and careful study to comprehend the epic tale he presents. Looking into recovered scrolls dating from the first centuries of the common era (the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Nag Hammadi Library find of 1945, and others), as well as archeological findings and historical background, White weaves a complex tapestry. At times, the sheer weight of the details overshadows their import, leaving this reader looking for a guiding hand to show the way. Though the particulars are all fascinating, for someone who’s not a biblical scholar, it’s a lot to digest in one volume.

Bernadette Murphy is a regular contributor to Book Review and the author of “Zen and the Art of Knitting,” a work of narrative nonfiction.