JESUS IN HIS TIME AND

OURS
CLASS NOTES
 Jesus Virtues
• Mercy
• Forgiveness
• Compassion
• Patience
• Hope
• Love
• Grace
• Kindness
 Introduction
• Everett Ferguson in his work The Backgrounds
of Early Christianity sees the setting within which
Jesus and early Christianity grew up as being “a
series of concentric circles. The Roman world
provided the outer circle – the governmental,
legal and economic context. The Greek world
provided the cultural, educational and
philosophical context. The Jewish world was the
matrix of early Christianity, providing the
immediate religious context.”
• Thus, as we do this course we will be
focusing upon the world within which
Jesus grew up, His Sitz im Lebem, with a
view towards understanding the context
that impacted upon His life; and more so,
the people whose lives He impacted upon.
 The Historical Jesus:
• The “Quest of the Historical Jesus:”
during the nineteenth century there was
a concerted effort to “find” Jesus outside
of the Bible.
• Extra-biblical sources concerning Jesus:
– Pagan sources:
• Tacitus (55- 117): made a link between
the “name and origin of Christians with
Christus who in the reign of Tiberius” was
executed according to the sentence of
Pontius Pilate.
• Pliny: in 112 wrote a correspondence to Trajan,
the Emperor, seeking advice on how to deal
with Christians. He stated that Christians “sing
a song to Christ as to a God.”
• Suetonius: in his Lives of the Twelve Caesars:
Vita Claudius talks about the Jews being
expelled from Rome because of disturbances
that came about concerning Chrestos.
• Lucian (c. 125-190) wrote a satire on
Christians describing Christ as one “who was
crucified in Palestine” for starting “this new
cult.” He also poked fun at them for
“worshiping that crucified sophist.”
 Jewish sources:
• Josephus (c. 37-100): spoke about
James “the brother of Jesus, the so-
called Christ.”
• There is also another mention in his
writings of Christ but its authenticity is
highly debatable.
 Christian extra-biblical sources:
• There is a plethora of apocryphal
gospels, epistles, apocalypses, etc.,
which are based on the historicity of
Jesus.
• There are also numerous inscriptions of
early Christian symbols such as the dove
and the fish; these are to be found in the
catacombs.
 The Fullness of Time:
• Gal 4:4 talks about the “fullness of time.”
This phrase is used to mean when the
time was absolutely ripe. There was a
certain sense of expectancy with regard to
the coming of the Messiah.
The Romans:
• Political Contributions of the Romans
• The development of a “sense of the unity of
humanity under a universal law.”
• The pax Romana or Roman peace; was
introduced by Caesar Augustus whose reign
was from 27 BC to 14 AD.
• Roman roads: there were roads spanning the
empire. These all had Rome as the end point;
hence the saying “all roads lead to Rome.”
• The Roman army
• Roman conquests led many peoples to
lose belief in their gods since they were
unable to deliver them from defeat at the
hands of the Romans.
The Greeks:
• Greek became the universal tongue in
the ancient world. This kind of Greek was
Koine Greek; it was the language of the
common people.
• Greeks also made the world ready, in a
religious sense, to accept Christianity: its
materialistic philosophy destroyed the
“old polytheistic worship” described in
Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.
The Jews:
• Monotheism
• Messianic hope
• Ethical system
• Philosophy of History
The Messianic Hope:
• The word messianic is derived from the
word “messiah” and it means “anointed
one.” The Greek equivalent is Christos,
from which we get the English “Christ.”
Thus we need to make it clear that
Christ was not Jesus’ last name, rather,
it was a title. From since the time of the
OT there was a messianic expectation
and during the time of Jesus this
expectation had reached great heights.
Messianic Hope in Jesus’ Day:
• John 7:41; in this passage there is a
debate among the common people who
were in the Temple attending the Feast
of Tabernacles.
• John 4:25; in this one the Samaritan
woman told Jesus the she was aware of
the coming of the Messiah.
• Luke 24:21; after Jesus’ resurrection two
of His disciples were lamenting His death
due to the fact that they were confident
that He was the promised deliverer.
• Mark 14:61-64; at His trial before the
Sanhedrin Council the High Priest
pointedly asked Jesus to affirm whether or
not He was the Christ.
• Individuals living just about the time of
the first advent of Jesus believed that the
messiah was soon to come. This was
based on their understanding of texts
such as Genesis 3: 15.
• This text is known as the
protoeuangelium the Gospel before the
Gospel.
Other important texts pointing toward the messiah
are:
• Gen 49: 10 – 12;* the scepter is a symbol of
rulership/leadership. This text also further
emphasized that the promised seed was to
come through the tribe of Judah.
• Num 24: 17;* this is a prophecy which was
given by Baalam.
• Deut 18: 15 – 18; in this prophecy God
promised to rise up a special prophet, one like
unto Moses, (John 6:14).
• Isa 7: 10 – 17; a virgin shall bring forth a child.
• Jer 23: 5, 6;* “the Lord our righteousness.”
 Jesus in the Book of Isaiah
• Isaiah is called “the Gospel Prophet;”
this is so because he, more than any
other OT prophet, made a number of
prophetic statements regarding the first
coming of Jesus.
• Some of Isaiah’s prophecies concerning
Jesus:
• 7:14:* His birth.
• 9:6: His titles
• 11:1: His family
• 11:2; 60:1 – 3: His anointing
• 53; His suffering and death
 Some titles of Jesus contained in Isaiah:
• Immanuel; 7:14
• Mighty God; 9:6
• Everlasting Father; 9:6
• Prince of Peace; 9:6
• Divine Servant; 42:1
• Anointed Preacher; 61:1
• Mighty Servant; 63:1
Mission of Jesus as predicted by Isaiah:
• Judge; 11:3
• Reprover; 11:4
• Lawgiver; 42:4*
• Liberator; 42:7
• Burden Bearer; 53:4
• Suffering Servant; 53:5
• Sin-bearer; 53:6
• Intercessor; 53:12
Some characteristics of Jesus in Isaiah:
• Wisdom; 11:2
• Righteousness; 11:5
• Gentleness; 42:3
• Vicarious suffering; 52:14 – 53:10
• Compassion; 53:4
• Meekness; 53:9
Israel’s History of Disobedience
• Deut 28:13;* God promised to make
them the head and not the tail; however
this was a conditional promise. The
realization of this promise was to be
based on their obedience to God’s law
and direction for their lives.
• God had a plan for Israel but they did not
allow His plan to work out for them due
to their disobedience: they worshipped
other gods, intermarried with the
surrounding nations, followed after the
customs of the nations around them.
• Deut 6:10-12; God gave to them the
possessions of their enemies and even
though He loved the surrounding nations
He still destroyed them because: they
were given over to iniquity; and He
desired to preserve Israel as His own
peculiar people.
• Unfortunately, however, Israel did not live
up to its part of the deal and as a result
God was constrained to give them over
into captivity; the Northern Kingdom of
Israel was taken into captivity by Assyria in
722 B.C. and the Southern Kingdom of
Judah was taken into captivity by Babylon
in 606/5 B.C.
• Idolatry led to captivity so Israel decided
not to go that way anymore, unfortunately
after their captivity they turned to bigotry.
Some of the concomitants of this
included:
• The Sabbath became a burden with 39
laws made up to protect the Sabbath.
• A hedge was constructed around the
law, this fence was to protect the law
from being broken.
• They also constructed many avenues
whereby they were able to get pass the
hedge around the law.
• They placed a greater significance upon
the symbols than on the things being
symbolized.
• Roman dominance led to them desiring
deliverance but they wanted deliverance
from: the oppression of the Romans but
not deliverance from the oppression of
sin. Consequently, they did not
understand the mission of the Messiah;
they were looking for a conquering ruler
and not a deliverer from sin.