As the center of the Christian faith, early Christians didn’t hesitate to bring all sorts of stories about Jesus and his life. These stories were floating around during the first several centuries after his death. His followers envisaged him as a wise teacher, an influential role model, and a great philosopher. Most of those legendary stories, as critical scholars have known for centuries, have nothing to do with the historical Jesus. In what follows, I will highlight two examples so that you (the blessed reader) can get an insight into the world of early Christians and their creative imagination!

JESUS’ CORRESPONDENCE WITH A KING OF EDESSA?

The first example comes from Eusebius. He was a church father and a historian who lived in the 4th century. In his magnum opus, Eusebius claims to have found the letters of the correspondence between Jesus and king Abgar Uchama in the archives of Edessa and to have translated them literally from their original Syriac into Greek. Abgar was a king of Edessa in eastern Syria who ruled during Jesus’ ministry in the 1st century CE. The first letter is sort of a praise to Jesus. Abgar acknowledged Jesus’ miraculous powers and asked him if he could visit him in Edessa and heal him:

I have concluded one of two things: either you are God and do these things having descended from heaven, or you do them as the Son of God.  For this reason, now I am writing you, asking that you take the trouble to come to me and heal my illness.

The second letter quoted by Eusebius contains an alleged response from Jesus who praises Abgar for his strong faith but has to reject his invitation because he has to fulfill his mission by being crucified:

But concerning your request for me to come to you: I must accomplish everything I was sent here to do, and after accomplishing them ascend to the One who sent me.  After I have ascended I will send you one of my disciples to heal your illness and to provide life both to you and to those who are with you.

Dominican friar Giordano Polisicchio (18th century) was the first to prove that this correspondence never happened. Needless to say, contemporary scholars (even the most conservative!) are convinced that the correspondence is apocryphal. An apocryphal means that a story is probably untrue although it was circulated as being true. According to the theory developed by H. J. W. Drijvers in his article “Facts and Problems in Early Syriac-Speaking Christianity”, the legend about the correspondence between Jesus and king Abgar was created at the end of the third century among the proto-orthodox minority of Christians in eastern Syria, to counter the religious claims that Manichaeans shared about Mani, the founder of their religion.

LEGENDARY STORIES ABOUT JESUS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT?

When I first encountered such apocryphal stories about Jesus that were floating around in the centuries following his death, I couldn’t resist asking myself a simple question: If it is a case that stories about what Jesus said and did were invented in the centuries after his death, is it possible that we could find that kind of stories in the New Testament Gospels as well? All of this was, of course, at the beginning of my academic journey while I was still exploring the big question about Christianity, God, faith, and religion. I have to admit I struggled with the possibility of apocryphal stories in the New Testament Gospels. How could that be if the Scripture is inspired Word of God?! Why would God allow untrue stories about Jesus to creep into the New Testament gospels? As I soon found out, historians are quite sure that some stories in the New Testament Gospels never happened. I won’t go into the details of the quest for the historical Jesus since I’ve dealt with that in my earlier posts (see: here). Here I’ll just emphasize one example known to all of those who have read the New Testament Gospels.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus has a philosophical conversation with Nicodemus who was, as a Pharisee, a member of the Jewish ruling council. Nicodemus came to Jesus and told him: Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him. Jesus responded by saying: Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born above. Nicodemus misunderstands him to mean: You must be born again. Consequently, he asks Jesus: How can someone be born when they are old? Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born! The misunderstanding arises from the fact that the Greek word for “from above” also means “again” (ἄνωθεν). Then, Jesus goes into the extended discourse to explain to Nicodemus what he was talking about. The basic historical problem with the authenticity of this story lies in the fact that Jesus spoke Aramaic. So, if this conversation ever happened, it had to be in Aramaic. But, in Aramaic, the word for “from above” doesn’t also mean “again”. Thus, if this conversation did take place, it could not have occurred exactly in the way described by John’s account. Most scholars think that it was a later tradition that was anachronistically put on to the lips of Jesus.

There are, of course, other such examples from the New Testament. As it turns out, people told stories about Jesus, his words, and his deeds. In that process, they often generated fictional stories and put them into the months of their respected teacher and Saviour. In their view, it wasn’t a wrong thing. For them, Jesus would probably agree with the things he, for example, said to Nicodemus. It is a curious feature of human history that strong charismatic leaders such as Jesus generate (after their death) the development of all sorts of stories about them. Those stories are not just there to tickle someone’s fancy, but to encourage communities and revitalize the memory of their founder. How does one reconcile historical analysis and conclusions with faith? Well, it depends on your faith! If your faith demands you to believe that everything in the New Testament Gospels happened just as it was described (from A to Z) without any mistake (100 % accurate), then you do have a problem. But the problem isn’t in historical scholarship. It is in your conception of the Christian faith!