For about a century now, the world of academic Gospels studies has been dominated by the assumptions and methods of scholars known as form critics. These particular scholars believed that after the death and reported resurrection of Jesus, tales and sayings of the "Jesus of history" circulated for many years as anonymous community traditions until their central character finally evolved into the "Christ of faith." This form-critical approach achieved popular notoriety when a leading practitioner named Robert Funk formed the so-called Jesus Seminar and proceeded to decide, by voting with colored rocks, which sayings and deeds of Jesus in the Gospels are genuine and which are not.
But the claims of the form critics have since grown thin. In a ground-breaking book, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Eerdmans 2006), noted New Testament scholar Richard Bauckham chases the form critics from the temple and turns their assumptions upside down. Bauckham argues that the "Jesus of testimony" presented by the four Gospels is closely based on the eyewitness testimony of those who personally knew Jesus and who transmitted their testimony in their own names.
Professor Bauckham is scheduled to lecture on Wednesday, November 6, 2013 at Champion Forest Baptist Church, Houston, for which you can now register at www.LanierTheologicalLibrary.org . During Winter 2011-2012, Bauckham made a speaking tour of U.S. seminaries and universities and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville has posted videos of the four Bauckham lectures there. To view these videos, click here.
