Taking Caesar out of Jesus: Uncovering the Lost Relevance of Jesus

By Robert M. Wills

Jesus is the center of Christian faith and the Bible is its holy book, its sacred scriptures. For hundreds of years, this meant that Jesus was divine and the Bible was a divine product.
This remains the primary perspective for many Christians today. However, it has mutated appreciably for others. It is not that Jesus is no longer thought of as the center of Christian faith or the Bible as Christianitys sacred scriptures. Those remain true for everyone. However, studies in biblical criticism and the historical Jesus suggest Jesus was a Palestinian Jew a human being -- not different in that respect from you and me. Divinity was bestowed upon him by his followers, and eventually took the form of imperial divinity after the example of Caesar.
This presents a conundrum for Christianity. What, for instance, is Christianity to do with a human being at its center? How has Christianity accommodated imperial rule? What do we do with those imperial titles by which he is known Lord, Savior, Redeemer, and Son of God? Taking Caesar out of Jesus presents a new portrait of Jesus based on solid historical evidence assembled from the works of hundreds of critical biblical scholars. As the subtitle proclaims, Jesus emerges from this book as a new figure, relevant to the 21st century. Some will say this new perspective destroys Christianity. Others will find Jesus to be far more believable and compelling. Anyone will find this progressive approach to uncovering the historical Jesus thought-provoking.
This book, however, goes beyond biblical criticism and a new portrait of the historical Jesus. It confronts the Christian proclamation that Jesus is humanitys savior including the notion that it needs a savior. It suggests that the historical Jesus never embraced the well-known notion of divine salvation. To the contrary, Jesus embraced Judaisms wisdom tradition. In the wisdom tradition, a person deals with the exigencies of life by developing a new vision of reality, and by acting differently. Jesus did not provide an instruction manual for living; rather, he pointed us in the direction of self-management. As described in this book, this new way of living, taken from Jesuss parables and aphorisms, will startle some, and stir others toward greater maturity and responsibility for their own lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 18, 2013
• ISBN: 9781493108107

Robert M. Wills

Robert M. Wills, M. Div. MSW. An ordained Episcopal priest, he is a graduate of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He had a bi-vocational career in the Episcopal Church and in the mental health field. He also served as an adjunct instructor in both the School of Social Work and the Department of Psychiatry at Wayne State University in Detroit. He is currently retired and living in Arizona. He remains active as a clergyperson and leads groups in the study of progressive Christianity. He is an associate member of the Westar Institute.

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction

Where Christianity Got Off Track

Part I Reshaping Christian Faith

Reshaping Christian Faith

Chapter 1

The Bible: Historical-Critical Perspective

Chapter 2

The Bible: The History Behind The Story

Chapter 3

Belief: Its Role In Christian Faith

Chapter 4

How The Quest For The Historical Jesus Is Reshaping Christian Faith

Chapter 5

Jesus: A Figure Of History

Chapter 6

Christ: A Figure Of Faith

Chapter 7

A History Of God

Chapter 8

Divinity And Humanity In Axial Faith

Chapter 9

The Fall, Sin, And Evil

Part II Transforming Our Lives

Part Two:

Transforming Our Lives

Chapter 10

The Human Condition

Chapter 11

The Historical Jesus As A Model For Living

Chapter 12

Autonomy, Not Atonement

Chapter 13

The Role Of Liturgy In The Christian Life

Chapter 14

The Myths Of Our Religious Past

Chapter 15

From Nonimperial Jesus To Nonimperial Faith

Epilogue

Making The Historical Jesus The Center Of Christianity

Glossary

Bibliography

Notes

This book contains critical thinking, analysis, interpretation, inference, and metacognitive knowledge. Contrary opinion for the author’s conclusions can be legitimately set forth. While I have made every effort to check facts, present the works of others accurately, and interpret their positions fairly, there is always the possibility that I have not measured up to the standards I have tried to uphold. I suspect few readers of this book will agree with everything I have written. I have not attempted to write the final word on any subject. Rather, I have set forth notions and opinions , both my own and those of noted scholars, that beg for further study, debate, and contrary opinions. No one should read what I have written as a final position or definitive truth. Hopefully I have advanced our common search for truth and integrity as applied to subjects that remain ineffable.

Robert M. Wills

For our five sons and four daughters-in-law who have inspired this book more than they can imagine:

Andrew and Nichole Wills

Stephen and Dominique Wills

David and Denise Wills

Paul Asaro

Peter Asaro and Diana Mincyte

And with love to our grandchildren

Ainsley, Holden, Madeleine, and Niamh

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

N o one writes a book alone. The author gets his name on the cover. However, there are many people in the background offering their services, their support, and their critical assessments that are sometimes hard to hear but absolutely necessary. To all who have supported this work, concretely or by accommodation, I am most grateful. Two people, however, offered more than support. They gave me their expert advice, skills, talents, and love. I will never forget the gift they have been to me.

Tom and Sue Barnett

Tom spent innumerable hours editing the text, making suggestions, and getting after me when I said something utterly stupid. Sue not only accommodated the time Tom gave to this project, but she read every page as Tom edited. Any friendship that can sustain the stress of a project like this has got to be strong.

Mary Lou Wills

Mary Lou happens to be my wife and much more. On her own, she is an accomplished professional artist, specializing in printmaking, with her work showing in galleries around Prescott. Her work can also be viewed at her website: www.marylouart.net. Mary Lou designed the cover for this book.

PREFACE

A fter the Jesus Seminar, what could I honestly believe? That was the question I asked myself that launched this book. If you don’t know about the Jesus Seminar, it was a project of biblical scholarship, involving approximately 150 critical biblical scholars during the 1980s and 1990s. The purpose of the seminar was to take up the quest for the historical Jesus after the previous quest died in the early twentieth century.

The fact that there was a quest for the historical Jesus at all can be traced to skepticism regarding the Bible and Christianity owing to the publication of Darwin’s The Origin of Species (1859). Most scholars identify two separate quests, both of which were part of New Testament studies trying to provide a historical portrait of Jesus, and each quest using its own research criteria. The first quest is attributed to Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694–1768), a deist who denied the supernatural origin of Christianity. Reimarus is remembered for his recognition that the real Jesus and the Jesus proclaimed in the biblical narrative were not the same. His faults were said to be that he ignored historical and literary criticism. The second quest was initiated by Albert Schweitzer with the publication of his book The Quest of the Historical Jesus, in 1906. Schweitzer concluded it was impossible to get behind the canonical narrative and therefore provided an interpretation of Jesus based on what he found in the gospels. He understood Jesus in the light of late Jewish eschatology. His quest ended when German biblical scholar Rudolf Bultmann affirmed Schweitzer’s conclusion that the historical Jesus was lost to history. Bultmann turned biblical studies away from the historical quest and toward the kerygma, which he claimed was all we needed to know about Jesus. The second quest (some call it the third quest) was resumed in the 1970s by American biblical scholar Robert W. Funk and culminated with the publication in 1993 of The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say? Funk established the Westar Institute and, with John Dominic Crossan, commenced the Jesus Seminar. The Jesus Seminar was the first effort by a large group of scholars to systematically apply historical critical method to the study of the gospels. For the first time, scholars were able to get behind the canonical narrative and examine the words of Jesus from the perspective of his own culture. The fruit of the work of the seminar fellows is recorded in this book.

Over the years, I had led numerous groups composed of conventional lay Christians who studied the seminar’s reconstruction of the historical Jesus and its implications for faith. What I noticed was that thoughtful reflection on and discussion of the historical Jesus had a salutary effect on nearly all participants. This was true whether participants began as staunchly traditional Christians or as skeptics who found traditional belief implausible.

Prior to writing this book, I had become quite conversant with the new scholarly thinking, knew the work of the early seminar fellows such as Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, and realized that the fellows had broken new ground in biblical studies that had astonishing implications for Christian faith. I am normally a person who is able to articulate his thoughts. Over the years, I had modified much of the traditional system of beliefs I had learned as a child and studied in seminary. Nevertheless, I found it perplexingly difficult to articulate a new personal theology.

Not having a compelling alternative system of beliefs troubled me profoundly—after all, I was a religious professional, an Episcopal priest, and someone who still professed Christian faith. I had been liberated from any notion of a supernatural Jesus but didn’t know what to do with a Jesus who was human, just as you and me.

At that point, I joined the Westar Institute as an associate fellow, attended both national and regional meetings, and was introduced to the current thinking of second-generation fellows. It was also vitally important to increase the intensity of my studies. Continuing experience as the facilitator of study groups kept me grounded. In this process, the figure of Caesar loomed large for me. It became obvious to me that the Jesus of the biblical narratives was a figure dressed in the clothing of the emperor. Just as I needed to be liberated from the traditional Christian belief system that had gone stale in my life, so Jesus needs to be liberated from Caesar, who has distorted and overshadowed the Jesus of history.

What I learned was that Bultmann may have been technically right about losing the historical Jesus to history. However, he was wrong to not recognize that the imprint of Jesus was indelibly embossed in history. What we can find is the voiceprint of Jesus hidden in his parables and aphorisms. By the voiceprint of Jesus, I mean the way Jesus talked and many of the principles behind his way of thinking. We find the framework for Jesus’s message in the wisdom tradition of Israel, not in its tradition of Salvation History.

I found what I considered to be the authentic message of Jesus emerging through these experiences. Jesus himself became a surprisingly fresh figure—one who is both believable and compelling.

In sharing my journey, my personal and evolving view of the historical Jesus and the impact this figure has had on my life, I make it clear that I speak only for myself. I do not speak for any organization or institution with which I might be otherwise affiliated.

I encourage readers to consider my thoughts and develop their own personal theology—one that informs them and imparts wisdom to their lives. I trust that reading my book will be helpful to anyone interested in knowing in depth the history of Christian faith and in developing their own path of wisdom. Whether one considers oneself Christian, non-Christian, atheist, agnostic, or unsure of one’s position, living the path of wisdom is universally relevant for all who care about, and desire to enhance, their humanity.

Although this book is written to the lay Christian and to non-Christians who may not have a deep understanding of Christian faith and theological language, I have nevertheless tried to avoid dumbing down the message. It is my intent that this book, in regard to Christian faith, be both educational and critical. In order to do this well, it was necessary to use terminology that will not be familiar to every lay reader. To assist the reader, I have included an extensive glossary of terms and phrases in the back of the book. Please use it liberally. In itself, it provides a lesson in what a person needs to know to become conversant in Christian faith and theology.

July 1, 2013

INTRODUCTION

Where Christianity Got Off Track

A r ound the year 30 CE, a peasant sage from Nazareth in Galilee travelled with some of his followers to Jerusalem at the beginning of the annual Passover Festival. Known as Jesus, this teacher of wisdom became a scapegoat for the paranoia among the Roman officials and the Jewish authorities who watched the Passover unfold with foreboding. The Passover celebrated the legendary exodus of the Hebrew forebears of Judaism from slavery in Egypt at the hands of a nameless imperial pharaoh.

During the week in Jerusalem, Jesus caused some kind of (probably minor) disturbance on the temple grounds. Pilate, the Roman governor, and the temple authorities were on the lookout for any messianic pretender. It is doubtful that Jesus claimed to be messianic (one anointed by God to lead the people against imperial oppression), although some of his followers may have made that claim for him.

Whether Jesus was a messianic figure or not doesn’t matter. He carried a messianic reputation. He did something to draw attention to himself. That was sufficient to make the authorities, obsessed with the need for crowd control, react. Jesus was crucified just outside the city as an example to any pilgrim coming to the festival of one who resisted Roman rule.

That was the end of Jesus. It should have been the end of any movement or following he had. Yet the movement survived. It probably survived as a nonviolent messianic movement within Temple Judaism.

The story of the birth of Christianity needs greater exploration because it cannot now be told with sufficient confidence. The Westar Institute’s current scholarly investigation is addressing the topic; in the meantime, there is no shortage of speculative stories. In one of his several seminal works, The Birth of Christianity, original Jesus fellow and preeminent New Testament scholar John Dominic Crossan calls the two decades between 30 and 50 CE the lost years. Just as the early years of Jesus’s life are factually empty, so are the early years of Christianity.¹ Still, Crossan believes that the years of Christian birth were a continuation of the social movement Jesus started in Galilee and was carried on after his death by his companions. That movement entailed nonviolent resistance to Herod Antipas’s urban development and rural commercialism in Lower Galilee. Antipas’s program served Roman imperial interests to the detriment of Galilee’s peasant population.

A much different picture is painted by Robert Eisenman in his work James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls.² Eisenman is an American archaeologist and biblical scholar whose claim is that Jewish Christianity emerged from a messianic, priestly, ultrafundamentalist sect that predated Jesus but adopted him as their spiritual model in order to expand their influence and acceptability. For Eisenman, the leader of this small band was James the Just. For Eisenman, the canonical twelve apostles had nothing to do with the founding of Christianity and may have been a fictitious group in the first place. It should be noted that Eisenman’s thesis has many critics among well-respected scholars. Mention of it here merely illustrates the wide expanse of speculative theories about Christian origins that masquerade as learned opinion.

If the first twenty years were a dark age for Christian origins, the history of Christianity finds some solid ground with St. Paul. Paul was a Hellenistic Jew from Tarsus in modern Turkey. He first played an antagonistic role toward Christianity and then experienced a vision in which he felt Christ called him to proclaim a new gospel to the Gentiles. Interestingly, Paul’s new gospel was supposedly founded on Jesus of Nazareth, yet Paul’s gospel was distinctly different from Jesus’s teaching. According to Paul, he met with the Jerusalem Christians a couple of times in his life, but his own teaching was not based on anything learned from them. That is believable, as Paul seemed to know nothing about the Jesus of history. The figure Paul preached was a theological interpretation of Jesus. He refers to Christ, Jesus Christ, or the Lord Jesus numerous times, but in his authentic letters, he refers to Jesus without any modifier a mere ten times. Paul tells us nothing about the historical Jesus that would not be part of what every listener already knew.

It seems likely that early Christianity was really two movements: one centered in Jerusalem and one centered in Antioch. As one might expect, the Jerusalem movement was very Jewish. This movement could be seen as a messianic sect of Pharisaic Judaism—they claimed that the Messiah had already come in the person of Jesus. This group appears to have centered itself on the temple in Jerusalem.

The Jesus movement centered in Antioch and later in Alexandria reflected Hellenic Judaism. It met in synagogues throughout Asia Minor and Northern Africa. It felt it had a mission to bring the Jesus movement (what later morphed into Christianity) to Gentiles. There were numerous Gentiles who were attracted to the moral basis of Judaism but unwilling to adopt the purity laws, kosher law, and circumcision.

In 66 CE, the Palestinian Jews revolted against Roman domination and were put down decisively by Roman forces. In 67 CE, Galilee fell; in 70 CE, Jerusalem and the Second Temple were destroyed; and in 73 CE, Masada fell. The Jewish homeland was left in ruins. The Jews were forced to escape from Palestine and settle in communities in the greater Diaspora. What had been the Jesus movement in Jerusalem was reabsorbed into Rabbinical Judaism. Within a few years, Jewish Christians were banished from the synagogues. From henceforth, the Jesus followers were Hellenistic Jews and a growing number of Gentiles. Within a few more years, converted pagan Gentiles greatly outnumbered Hellenistic Jews. They became the backbone of the early Christian communities and it was these converted pagan Gentiles who wrote the Christian scriptures.

The Jesus movement in Jerusalem would have had nothing to do with a divine Jesus. It is difficult to say how they saw Jesus because they left no written accounts of their faith. Their legacy to Christianity was to preserve many of the parables and aphorisms of Jesus in oral form—possibly in written form although no such codices have survived from the first century.

The pagan converts to Christianity were largely responsible for the survival of Christianity. They had no compunctions about turning Jesus into a divine figure. They already had a divine figure in their religious history—Augustus Caesar. Augustus took personal control of Roman domains following the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE. He ruled as Rome’s first emperor until his death in 14 CE.

Augustus initiated the era of peace known as Pax Romana. Until this time, civil wars and wars over imperial succession kept the empire in turmoil. Augustus dramatically enlarged the empire. He secured the empire by creating buffer regions known as client states around the empire. He created a standing army and deployed them to troubled spots throughout the territory. He reformed the Roman system of taxation. He developed a network of roads and built aqueducts. He built a fleet of merchant ships and ports around the Mediterranean. He built a firefighting service for Rome and other major cities. He made peace with the Parthian Empire through diplomatic means. He created a legal system, provided the courts with functional autonomy, and established (somewhat) free elections.

Throughout history, kings and emperors have assumed divine titles and made preposterous claims for their own deity. Conversely, this did not happen in Palestine, the Jewish national identity being theocratic (God is the legitimate head of the state). In Rome, however, there was no separation of religious and secular authority. The emperor was both head of state and head of all religious bodies. All was subordinate to the emperor. In fact, later history has given the name caesaropapism to this single power of governance.

When Paul and others took Christianity into the Roman-Hellenistic world, they had to deal with imperial thinking. To the Gentiles in the Roman territory, it was natural to have a divine, or semidivine, figure as the head of state. They did not resent it. They expected it and welcomed it. Augustus was proclaimed Son of God, Redeemer, Savior, God of God, Lord, Lords of Lords, and Prince of Peace as a way of declaring his divinity. Again, let me emphasize that Augustus did not have to fight his pagan subjects to maintain these majestic titles. They were happy to deify Augustus. In their culture, deification of a hero was expected.

It was likely Paul who seized upon these titles to present Jesus to the imperial world. His message was simply that whatever the claims made by Caesar, the real human-become-divine figure was one Paul variously referred to as Christ, Jesus Christ, or the Lord Jesus. Paul did not make Christ into another Caesar. Paul elevated Christ beyond the figure of Caesar. Paul’s intention was to replace Caesar as an object of worship with Jesus Christ. In other words, to worship Christ is to reject Caesar.

It was, however, tricky business. The more Paul elevated Christ as a contrast to Caesar, the more Christ began to look like Caesar to the Gentiles. The more Christ looked like Caesar, the further Jesus of Nazareth faded into the background. In time, Jesus was no longer a figure of history; he was a divinely imperial figure.

This has to be the most audacious misrepresentation in history. Jesus the Galilean sage, whose parables and aphorisms frequently parodied imperial rule, became a heavenly imperial ruler in the image of Caesar after his death. For centuries, Christians have shaped their lives around this imperial and divine figure. Instead of rejecting Caesar and imperialism, Christians have worshipped Caesar in Jesus without recognizing it. Imperialism is the path of Caesar. Jesus’s message concerned achieving full humanity. The Christian message ended up denigrating humanity and worshipping divinity. It was not Caesar who was to be rejected. Caesar lived in Jesus. It was the reverence and validation of humanity that was rejected.

This book is a study in how to take Caesar out of Jesus. It involves major theological revision as well as a vision of how to live as a follower of the historical Jesus, which virtually turns traditional Christian piety completely around. David Galston, a Canadian theologian, states it in stark terms:

Christianity is the tragedy of Jesus. It is the story of how his teaching slipped through his hands to become, for early Christians, disguised confessions about Augustus Caesar and his glory. When Christians today confess that the Lord is great and God rules over the earth, or that in Christ God created all things in wonderful beauty and order, the lines resonate with confessions about Caesar, who was similarly praised for bringing peace to the world and ruling over the lands and seas. They resonate with images of King David, who was the messianic paradigm of biblical times and Israel’s once and future King. Indeed, they resonate with virtually all royal figures of history whose power hungry drives or divine generosities forced confessions or invoke praises for their greatness.³

Galston adds:

The problem of the historical Jesus begins with the recognition that while an imperial Jesus became the sine qua non savior of the world, this imaginative figure never actually lived.⁴

This book bids Christians to reconsider traditional Christian beliefs based on a Christ figure that obliterates the historical Jesus and recasts him as a reproduction of Caesar. This book is also written for non-Christians, that they may learn of the historical Jesus who has been lost for centuries behind a misrepresented copy of the original man who calls everyone to the fullness of their humanity. Most of all, it is written for people raised in the Christian tradition who retain an interest in Christianity but have become skeptical about the message.

PART I

Reshaping Christian Faith

RESHAPING CHRISTIAN FAITH

J esus is the center of Christian faith, and the Bible is its holy book, its sacred scriptures. For hundreds of years, this meant that Jesus was divine and the Bible was a divine product.

The above judgment remains true for many Christians today. However, it has mutated appreciably for others. It is not that Jesus is no longer thought of as the center of Christian faith or the Bible as Christianity’s sacred scriptures. Those remain true for everyone. However, the studies regarding the historical Jesus have significantly changed how an increasing number of well educated Christians regard the divinity of Jesus and God’s relationship to the Bible.

The chapters of part 1 of this book provide explicit details that help the reader understand how contemporary biblical scholarship has painted a new portrait of Jesus—one as human as you and me.

What, however, is Christianity to do with a human being at its center? How did a human Jesus become divine in the first place? What do we do with those imperial titles by which he is known—Lord, Savior, Redeemer, and Son of God? A new portrait of Jesus changes our faith. Some will say it destroys Christianity. Some will say it robs Christian faith of its power. This book wrestles with a human Jesus and comes up with a faith that is neither supernatural nor humanistic. How to arrive at that middle ground is the focus of part 1.

CHAPTER 1

The Bible: Historical-Critical Perspective

U nquestionably, the Bible is the core witness to Christian faith. However, it is not the heart of Christianity. Christian faith is anchored in a person, Jesus Christ. The question raised in this book is should Jesus Christ occupy that position. The question must be raised because over the past century, a new and advanced way to read the Bible has emerged out of biblical scholarship. It is called the historical-critical method, and it approaches the Bible contextually rather than literally. This chapter introduces this approach to understanding the Bible. Subsequent chapters will show that the figure Jesus Christ is not a historical figure. Christianity, however, has an authentic historical figure in Jesus of Nazareth, a Galilean peasant who is a very different character from the Christ figure, who is the product of theological speculation. Since the Bible is the principle witness to Christian faith, it is essential to read that witness with the highest degree of understanding possible.

Ordinary people did not read the Bible until the end of the fifteenth century CE. In Old Testament times, the scriptures, as they were called, were for the elite, the only people able to read them. They were handwritten either on scrolls or codices and available only in certain libraries and places of worship. Scrolls existed as separate manuscripts, written on leather or parchment, usually between nine and eleven inches in height and no longer than thirty feet in length. Scrolls were rolled and usually kept in clay pots. A long work could require several rolls, which accounts for the fact that the Pentateuch is divided into five sections. Most New Testament writings were made on sheets of papyrus, bound together, and called a codex.

Most of the Old Testament Books were written in Hebrew. In the second century BCE (Before the Common Era), the Hebrew Bible was translated into Koine, or marketplace, Greek. This is undoubtedly the Bible of St. Paul and other New Testament writers. The New Testament manuscripts were written between 50 and 150 CE in Koine Greek. However, the original versions were undoubtedly edited many times over the next two hundred years before they received general acceptance across the Christian world in the mid–fourth century. The New Testament scriptures did not receive official authorization until the Second Council of Trullan in 692 CE.

The Greek Bible was translated into Latin in the early years of Christendom, but it was not until the late fourth century that Jerome, a monastic scholar, produced the Latin version of the Bible that received official sanction from the church. Throughout the Middle Ages, there were few in the Western world who could read Latin. Reading was confined to a small group of the elite in the Middle Ages (only 10 percent of the population of Italy in the early fourteenth century). Most Westerners learned about the stories of the Bible through art and by listening to visiting friars preach.

This changed in 1440 CE with Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press. This made the Bible accessible to anybody and encouraged literacy to the extent that, by the seventeenth century, 30 percent of the people in England could read, growing to 60 percent during the nineteenth century.

From early modernity (1500s) to modern times (up to the mid-1900s), the Bible was read as largely a narrative history, except where it was clearly poetry, legend, or story. By historical narrative, it was meant that the Bible as a whole was considered historically accurate wherever it seemed to report historical events. More than this, the New Testament gospels were thought to be eyewitness accounts of the life of Jesus.

Protestants were usually Bible readers. Roman Catholics were not. In fact, in 1199, Pope Innocent III reproved vernacular Bible translations and stated that only gifted and educated clergy should explain the Bible to anyone. The Council of Toulouse, in 1229, prohibited the laity from possessing any of the books of the Bible. Even today, Bible interpretation is the prerogative of clergy in the Roman Catholic tradition.

In the twentieth century, mainline Protestants neglected serious Bible reading. By midcentury, many mainline Christians were considered illiterate with regard to the Bible. Serious Bible reading, albeit literal, became the forte of evangelicals who took pride in memorizing large portions of scripture.

Over the past twenty years, the major issue for American Christians has no longer been simply reading the Bible. Now it is how to read the Bible. Formerly, Christians regarded the Bible as Holy Scripture, meaning that it held powerful, mysterious, and ineffable properties unlike any ordinary book. It was sacred. It contained truth revealed by God. Thus, the Bible was a divine product.

The view of the Bible as having divine origins came under critical examination as early as the mid–eighteenth century. German professor of Oriental languages Hermann Samuel Reimarus was convinced that what the gospel writers said about Jesus could be distinguished from the actual words of Jesus. Thomas Jefferson undertook a similar approach to the gospels, separating