Difference between revisions of "Category:Historical Jesus Studies--1700s"

The page: Historical Jesus Studies--1700s includes (in chronological order) scholarly and literary works in the field of Historical Jesus Studies made in the 18th century, or from 1700 to 1799.

• Matthäuspassion (1727 Bach), oratorio
• La passione di Gesù Cristo (1730 Metastasio), libretto
• The True Gospel of Jesus Christ Asserted (1738 Chubb), book
• The Messiah (1742 Haendel / Jennens), oratorio
• The Resurrection of Jesus (1743 Annet), book
• Von dem Zwecke Jesu und seiner Jünger (On the Aim of Jesus and His Disciples / 1778 Reimarus / Lessing), book
• Das Leben Jesu (Life of Jesus / 1795 Hegel), ms.

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Jesus remained an important subject in the arts, as attested especially by the production of numerous oratorios, including Bach's Matthäuspassion, Haendel's Messiah, and the many based on Metastasio's libretto, The Passion of Jesus Christ. In 1768 Scottish preacher John Cameron published what is regarded as the first modern novel on Jesus

The Enlightenment brought about a more rationalistic approach to scriptures. The historical investigation of the origins of CHristianity began with the English deists. At the beginning of the 18th century John Locke and John Toland spoke of progressive stages in the teaching of Jesus and his apostles, identifying distinct layers of development within the New Testament. In 1738 Thomas Chubb asserted that one must distinguish between the teaching of Jesus and that of the Apostles who wrote the Gospels, while Thomas Morgan admitted that Paul and the other apostles might have "accommodated" Christ's doctrine to the conditions of their own different environment. The general attitude was to dismiss as irrational any eschatological or supernatural element. The possibility of miracles was openly rejected by Thomas Woolston in 1727-30; following his steps, Thomas Morgan denied that Jesus predicted his resurrection and Peter Annet dismissed the historicity of the event, formulating the hypothesis of an apparent death. From the writings of Voltaire comes the portrait of Jesus as the head of a new Jewish sect opposed to the others and a stronger emphasis on the eschatological elements in early Christianity. By the end of the century the idea emerged that the gospels might not have told the "true" story of Jesus. Maybe Jesus was a political revolutionary, whose failure prompted his reinterpretation as a religious figure (Hermann Samuel Reimarus), or maybe Jesus did not even exist and his biography was a completely mythological construct (Constantin-François Volney).

The unpublished work of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel in 1795 shows how in light of Emanuel Kant's thought Jesus had become to be interpreted in German philosophical circles as a teacher of a morality founded on reason.

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  Thomas Chubb

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  Constantin-François Volney

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Second Temple Studies -- Enochic Studies -- Apocalyptic Studies -- Qumran Studies -- OT Apocrypha Studies -- Wisdom Studies -- OT Pseudepigrapha Studies -- Hellenistic-Jewish Studies -- Philo Studies -- Josephus Studies -- Historical Jesus Studies -- Pauline Studies -- Johannine Studies -- Petrine Studies -- Gospels Studies -- Christian Origins Studies -- New Testament Studies -- Early Christian Studies -- Early Jewish Studies -- Early Islamic Studies -- Early Samaritan Studies -- Hebrew Bible Studies