David Friedrich Strauss (1808–1874), born in Ludwigsburg, Germany, was a theologian, philosopher, and pioneer in the development of the study of the historical Jesus taking place in the course of the nineteenth century.

The First Quest for the Historical Jesus

The nineteenth century saw an increased interest on the part of scholars in providing a historically accurate biographical account of the historical Jesus of Nazareth (c. 6–4 BCE–30–33 CE). These interests formed what is known as the Quest for the Historical Jesus.

Over the past two centuries there have been three such quests, and Strauss was a significant theorist within the first. The first quest is noted for its “hermeneutic of suspicion,” a phrase capturing the skeptical approach scholars had to the New Testament and Gospel texts through which they learned about the historical Jesus.

A number of scholars viewed the biblical texts, especially the four canonical Gospels, as deceptive and containing religious falsehoods manufactured by their authors, and they wished to discover authentic sayings and events original to Jesus’ life and teachings by way of unmasking these deceptions. It was within this milieu that Strauss approached the Gospels from a naturalistic framework, intending to tell a “new story of Jesus, excluding the divinity of Christ and attributing anything in the gospels that does not fit into a naturalistic framework to the mythologizing work of the early Christian community” (Howard 2015, 300).

“The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined” (1856)

Strauss was influential, and many saw his controversial book, The Life of Jesus Critically Examined (1856), as a major step in the progress of the critical study of the Bible.

“The fundamental insight into the mythical element of the gospels, explosively controversial in the nineteenth century, would go on to become one of the core axioms in much contemporary biblical scholarship” (Howard 2015, 300).

Strauss’ naturalistic approach was a source of great discomfort for Christians. Any passage within the Gospels making reference to the supernatural could not be considered objectively historical, meaning Strauss challenged stories such as the accuracy of Jesus’ miraculous birth stories, his temptation by Satan, his baptism by John the Baptist, his plethora of miracles, his transfiguration on the mountain, his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension to heaven. These are all events and doctrines central to Christianity, which, should they be false (i.e., deceptions, fabrications, unhistorical, or myths), would leave the religion and the faith of many in ruins: “This entails that Jesus could not have foreseen his death and did not see himself as Saviour or founder of a new religion, let alone as a person of the Trinity” (Howard 2015, 300).

Strauss argued against the historical value of the Gospel accounts and described them as “historical myth.” They were a legendary embodiment of the primitive Christian community’s popular hopes. Christianity was created due to wish-making in an attempt to fulfill the desires of the earliest Christian community, which generated myths that were claimed to be historical truths revealed by God.

Strauss’ book did not go unchallenged. He received harsh criticism from partisans within Christian circles, was dismissed from his position as a lecturer at Tübingen, and had his appointment as the chair of theology at the University of Zurich rebuffed.

Importantly, Strauss did not consider religion or the Gospels useless or of no value. He affirmed that religion, despite being devoid of factuality in its essence, possessed capacities to inspire creativity and give rise to hope and aspirations. Where the Gospels are concerned, despite their myths and legends, they had moral and aesthetic value, which provided an image of the good life that could be obtained in the modern age with all its scientific and technological advancements.

Mythical Consciousness

Strauss believed that ancient people, which included those of the first century during the time of Jesus, conceived of the world in mythical terms. The people of biblical times had not evolved a historical consciousness that viewed the world in historical terms, which led them to express themselves in ways consistent with their intellectual capacities. However, people today, Strauss reasoned, have evolved a consciousness that views the world in historical and scientific terms, and thus they should no longer hold to a mythical view of the world as did the ancients. This sat well within Strauss’ view that religion constitutes mythology and therefore is not objectively, empirically, and historically real in its essence. In his later work The Old Faith and the New (1872), Strauss attempted to replace Christianity with scientific materialism, believing that “everything that happens, or ever happened, happened naturally.”

Critical Evaluation

There are several critical comments one may offer.

On the philosophical level, Strauss was a staunch naturalist, which colored his interpretation of ancient historical events, hence enhancing his philosophically prejudiced treatment of the Gospels. His was a prima facie rejection of all supernatural elements. Yet, this is philosophy, not history. Supernaturalism and miracles are metaphysical and philosophical discussions, and it is better for the historian, when applying historical criteria to ancient texts, to leave such questions open. This approach need not interfere with the historian’s work because it is possible for the historian to conclude that a particular reported miraculous event is independently attested in multiple historical sources and still leave the question of the miracle’s philosophical veracity open.

That said, a great number of critical historians take the miracles attributed to Jesus seriously since they are so widely and deeply embedded in the historical tradition (Meier 1994, 581-588; Ludemann 1995; Witherington 1995; Ehrman 1999, 231; Eve 2002, 378; Borg 2004; Habermas 2005), including in the earliest sources (Maier 2011). This would challenge Strauss’ view that the miracle stories were late additions, necessarily without some basis in history. For example, the earliest evidence of the resurrection proclamation dates as early as within five years of Jesus’ death (the creed in 1 Cor. 15), rendering it a very early belief in a miraculous event among various Jesus followers. Regardless, Strauss’ staunch skepticism would prove self-isolating in contemporary academia today.

Strauss’ philosophical naturalism would also require lots of explaining if he intended to undercut the purported veracity of central Christian beliefs. In terms of the resurrection of Jesus, if Strauss intended to maintain that the resurrection is a late addition devoid of truth, he would have to offer an adequate hypothesis to account for some of the most credible events pertaining to Jesus’ final moments, such as his death by crucifixion, burial, empty tomb, various resurrection appearances, and the origin of the Christian faith. He would need to explain why these data are embedded in all the sources, especially early and independent ones.

References

Borg, Marcus. 2004. “The Mighty Deeds of Jesus.” beliefnet. Available.

Meier, John. 1994. A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus — Vol. 2: Mentor, Message and Miracles. New York, United States: Doubleday.

Ehrman, Bart. 1999. Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium. Oxford, England, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.

Habermas, Gary. 2005. “Recent Perspectives on the Reliability of the Gospels.” LBTS Faculty Publications and Presentations.

Howard, Damian. 2015. “‘Who Do You Say that I Am?’: Christians and Muslims Disputing the Historical Jesus.” Neotestamentica: New Testament Society of Southern Africa 49(2):300–301.

Ludemann, Gerd. 1995. What Really Happened to Jesus: A Historical Approach to the Resurrection. Louisville, Kentucky, United States: Westminster John Knox Press,

Paul Maier quoted by Craig Keener in Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts (2011). Ada, Michigan, United States: Baker Books

Witherington III, Ben. 1995. The Jesus Quest. Downers Grove, Illinois, United States: InterVarsity.