Consensus, Disagreement, and the Criteria of Authenticity

Recent scholarship has challenged the use of the so-called ‘criteria of authenticity’ in historical Jesus studies. One common argument draws attention to the fact that those who employ the criteria have produced an abundance of radically incompatible portraits of Jesus. The failure to generate any s...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Archer, Joel (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2025
In: Journal for the study of the historical Jesus
Year: 2025, Volume: 23, Issue: 1, Pages: 5-25
Further subjects:B criteria of authenticity
B Historiography
B Historical Jesus
B scholarly disagreement
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Summary:Recent scholarship has challenged the use of the so-called ‘criteria of authenticity’ in historical Jesus studies. One common argument draws attention to the fact that those who employ the criteria have produced an abundance of radically incompatible portraits of Jesus. The failure to generate any significant consensus in Jesus studies is therefore attributed to the criteria themselves. In response, I distinguish three versions of this line of reasoning, and I argue that none is persuasive. Scholarly disagreement, I argue, is ubiquitous across academic fields, and historical Jesus studies is not unique in this respect. There may be compelling reasons to discard or downplay the criteria of authenticity, but scholarly disagreement is not among them.
ISSN:1745-5197
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal for the study of the historical Jesus
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/17455197-bja10037