Introduction
There are only a few people perhaps who are interested in the historical Moses of the Bible. Even if Moses was credited for the establishment of Judaism, no one can hear of a movement or an organization dedicated to discovering Moses in history. There is also not much that can be heard in the Western world when it comes to the passionate search for the historical Buddha and not the deified person that now sits in Buddhist temples. There is also no debate when it comes to the historical Mohammed. But when it comes to the discussion regarding the historical Jesus, one can expect a heated exchange of ideas and opinions. It can be argued that the study of Jesus can provoke such reactions from historians, theologians, and even the average person is because he claimed to be God and he is currently worshipped as God by many of his adherents. How can one man cause such intense passion? This is the main reason why the question has to be raised, “Who is the historical Jesus? There is no easy way to answer this question because would like to Jesus’ contributions and impact in ancient history while supporters would want to make him more than a man.
Main body
The search for historical Jesus usually means the use of information outside the Bible. It is easy to understand why this is the stance of historians and critics of Christianity. The Bible is of course seen as the main document that established the Christian religion and therefore it is seen as an information source that is biased towards Jesus and his followers. Thus, it could not be used to understand the historical Jesus. On the other hand, it can also be argued that if one will take this position, he is biased against the Christian faith. The Bible should be an important source of information especially if the data that can be taken from it can be verified and more importantly not contradicted by well-established facts.
Many historians argue that Jesus was not known beyond Jewish circles. One noted history commentator, Ernest Renan argued that well-known historians like Philo who died in the year 50 A.D. had no idea who Jesus was (Renan, p. 72). He also added that Jesus did not create an impact in Israel and Greek and Roman countries Jesus was not heard of (Renan, p. 72). On the other hand, Renan’s views had to be carefully considered because in the early years of the Jesus movement the presence of Christians was so significant to cause persecutions and in fact, in 60 A.D. Roman Emperor Nero ordered the destruction of many Christians and included in the list of victims were the pillars of the Christian faith – St. Paul and St. Peter (Norman, p. 14).
How can the world be ignorant of Jesus when the greatest empire in the history of mankind was bothered by his teaching and disciples that they had to silence them? On top of that, the Roman Empire embraced Christianity later on. It can therefore be argued that the historical Jesus was hidden from plain sight because historians used a different standard to analyze history. They depended on Philo, Josephus, and the religious leaders of Judaism to verify an undeniable fact. But they will not find much information from these people because they have no incentive to write about Jesus.
To know more about the historical Jesus, historians had to dig deeper and go beyond Josephus, Philo, and Jewish scribes. They had to account for the popularity of Jesus Christ within Palestine and how is it possible for an obscure person to ignite such a movement if he did nothing of significance? It is against human nature to follow someone and do mighty deeds on behalf of that person if they did not see anything of value that they can get from following him. Renan stated that Roman and Greek cities have not heard of Jesus. Ironically, today there is such a thing as the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church (Norman, p. 31). Historians had to work harder to rediscover the historical Jesus.
The Significant Contributions of the Greeks in the context of the Western World
The Greeks were one of the first to articulate the idea of democracy and the need to be rational in one’s thoughts and actions. Greek scholars like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle provided a way for ancient people to make sense of the world around them and to rise above the fears of superstition. It was as if ancient people were about to go through a dark tunnel and everyone is afraid of the unknown. It was men like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle who provided the torchlight that gave them the courage to move forward one step at a time. By doing so they discovered things that they would later use to experiment on democracy and other ideas that would help catapult Europe into the Age of Discovery.
According to one commentator, the contributions of the Greeks can be summed up in one terse statement by saying that they were instrumental in liberating the human mind from the “…shadows of superstitions and bondage to the irrational” (Thornton, p.1). On the other hand, some view this kind of exuberance concerning Greek achievement as Eurocentric and have to be toned down (Thornton, p. 2). But honor must indeed be given to whom it is due (Thornton, p. 2). One of the most important aspects of Greek ways is their fearlessness to experiment and to push forward ideas that may seem repulsive at first but after much persistence will yield much fruit. This is not the time to point out the flaws of Greek thinking for sure many can be revealed by astute scholarship but the point of this discussion is to illuminate the obvious contributions of Greek scholars, for their insight into human nature and how the world operates is critical in understanding the Western World.
Democracy is one major contribution of the Greeks. If the Greeks did not do anything else but think about democracy then the whole human race is already greatly indebted to them. They were the first to plant the seed of democracy. Theirs was not a perfect idea and in fact, they could not provide the best example. It would take centuries of experimentation and more polishing before the modern world was able to produce highly successful democratic societies like the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, and others. The significance of their contribution is highlighted not only by the superpowers that were created out of following the principles laid down by the Greeks but the utter failure of other systems that tried to present an alternative solution to problems of political order and how to govern a nation.
The failure of the socialist system developed in great part in communist countries like the former Union Soviet Socialist Republic provided great contrast as to what will happen if power is concentrated in the hands of a few people. The beauty of democracy is not only found in the ability of the masses to participate in politics but it is the way democracy allows men and women from different backgrounds to contribute to nation-building. It is also a system of governance that allows people to know that they are part of the community by making them a significant component in the process of selecting national and local leaders.
Aside from democracy, another major contribution of the Greeks is the creation of a systematic way of analyzing the outside world as well as human nature. As mentioned earlier they had laid the groundwork that enabled modern man to break free from superstition and irrational thought. The result of that endeavor was to create a society where people are not afraid to go beyond the conventional. This gave men and women the ability to travel around the world and discover that it is not flat. This gave further impetus to work on discovering new things. Fear has been taken out from their minds and hearts and in the process breakthroughs in various fields of discipline were made possible. This ultimately benefited not only the Western World but even the whole planet.
Works Cited
Norman, Edward. The Roman Catholic Church: An Illustrated History. CA: University of California Press, 2007.
Renan, Ernest. “The essential nature of the work of Jesus.” The Historical Jesus. Ed. Craig Evans. New York: Routledge, 2004.