HISTORIOGRAPHY OF JESUS CHRIST AND JULIUS CAESAR

Historiography of Jesus Christ and Julius Caesar

Abstract

The study is based on the historiography of Jesus Christ and Julius Caesar. The story of the boy Jesus is often read and understood in relation to its inherently Jewish narrative setting. The probable recipients of Luke-Acts were, however, almost certainly Gentiles living in the cities of Asia Minor in the late first century CE, removed by at least a generation from the Jewish origins of Christianity. The social setting of the recipients is, then, shaped not by the rituals and symbols of late Second Temple Judaism, but those of imperial Rome and, in particular, the legacy and cult of the first of the imperial princeps, that of Caesar. Writing in this milieu, Luke seeks to present Jesus as a significant figure in history in accordance with the conventions of contemporary Greco-Roman biography, and to transmit through his infancy narrative those traditions about Jesus which assist in presenting him as the ultimate superior and successor to the deified Caesar. The episode in the temple is included by Luke in his infancy narrative because it is consistent with, and contributes to, this broader purpose.

Table of Content

ABSTRACTII

CHAPTER 01: INTRODUCTION1

Problem Statement1

Rationale1

Aims and Objectives2

Significance2

Research Question/Hypothesis3

Theoretical Frame work3

Ethical Concerns4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW7

Divus Caesar And The Son Of God10

The Historical Jesus, Faith, and Theology17

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY23

Research Design23

Literature Search23

CHAPTER 4: DISCUSSION25

Luke, Caesar, and the Imperial Cult27

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION34

REFERENCES38

CHAPTER 01: INTRODUCTION

Problem Statement

The study is based on the historiography of Jesus Christ and Julius Caesar. The research also focuses the compare and contrast between Jesus Christ and Julius Caesar. The social setting of the recipients is, then, shaped not by the rituals and symbols of late Second Temple Judaism, but those of imperial Rome and, in particular, the legacy and cult of the first of the imperial princeps, that of Caesar.

Rationale

The description of the boy Jesus, at the age of 12, astounding the teachers of the law and other assorted hearers in the temple (Luke 2:41-52) has often been read and interpreted in the context of its undoubted narrative setting, that of late Second Temple Judaism. The probable recipients of Luke-Acts are, however, likely to have been far removed from this narrative setting in terms of time, geographical proximity, and ethnicity. They were almost certainly residents of one or more of the large and flourishing cities of the eastern regions of the Roman empire, in the historical period of the last few decades of the first century CE. (Meier 2004:74) It is, furthermore, highly probable that the Lukan audience were not Jews and had never visited Jerusalem, and never seen or known the temple, which, in any case, was almost certainly destroyed by the time Luke wrote. 1 For the Lukan audience, the Jewish origins of the Christian community and of its first leaders are mediated through a body of tradition, such as that transmitted by Luke himself. Christianity was, by this time, a predominately gentile movement in a predominately pagan social ...