Douglas Jacoby Podcast

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.

THE QUESTION: Why did the man Jesus come to earth? Why not a woman: the daughter of God—a female Messiah?

JESUS CAME AS A SON NOT BECAUSE:

• Male is better -- Galatians 3:28 contradicts this.
• God is only analogically masculine, not sexually masculine. When we pray Our Father, it’s not because God is male – since he isn’t a sexual being. If this intrigues you, please hear the podcast on The Shack.
• Random genetics (50/50).

LAMENTABLY, WOMEN WERE DISCOUNTED IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

• Christianity hadn't transformed attitudes towards minorities, the disenfranchised, foreigners, the needy, women--since Christianity did not exist yet. Jesus entered a Jewish world.
• Would be discounted in Roman eyes:
  • “Only foolish and low individuals, and persons devoid of perception, and slaves, and women, and children, of whom the teachers of the divine word wish to make converts” -- Celsus in Origen, Contra Celsus, 3.49
  • "...Augustus confined women to the back rows even at gladiatorial shows: the only ones exempt from this rule being the Vestal Virgins… No women at all were allowed to witness the athletic contests…" -- Suetonius, Twelve Caesars, Augustus 44.
• Would be discounted by Judaism:
  • "... happy is he whose children are males, and woe to him whose children are females." -- Talmud Kiddushim 82b
  • "But let not the testimony of women be admitted, on account of the levity and boldness of their sex, not let servants be admitted to give testimony on account of the ignobility of their soul, since it is probable that they may not speak truth, either out of hope of gain, or fear of punishment." -- Josephus Antiquities 4.8.15
  • "Sooner let the words of the Law be burnt than delivered to women." -- Talmud Sotah 19a
  • "Any evidence which a woman [gives] is not valid, also they are not valid [to offer]. This is equivalent to saying that one who is accounted by the rabbis as a robber is qualified to give the same evidence as a woman." -- Talmud Rosh Hashannah 1.8
  • Yet some Talmudic passages are more positive towards women, like Niddah 45 and Ketubot 2.6-7.
  • (Compare to Islamic view: Female legal witness worth half that of a male “because of deficiencies of a woman’s mind.”  -- Hadith of Bukhari, 3.826)
     

BUT BECAUSE ONLY A MAN COULD FREE BOTH MEN AND WOMEN

• Liberates males from stereotype (and rut) of maleness: "strong, dominating, independent, self-sufficient"
  • Jesus taught Paul the important lesson, that "Christ's power is perfected in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9).
  • Jesus taught, and lived out, servant leadership (Mark 10, John 13).
  • Jesus was emotionally vulnerable (e.g. John 11:35).
  • He was connected to others, not a lone wolf.
    • Delayed his ministry till he was in his 30s—as oldest of 8 or more children and head male in a family.
    • Worked with and through others. He knew men need friends, support. Jesus in this way is the paradigmatic male--showing us men how God meant for us to live all along.
    • Doesn’t just model it, but walks us through it.
    • Women typically understand this better than men—they're more relational.
  • Probably “macho” isn’t the word you’d first apply to Jesus, but in a way he was far more masculine than most men today who are viewed as powerful.
    • It takes strength not to go with the flow (get drunk at a party).
    • Physical fitness – manual labor as stonemason or carpenter; then walking all over Palestine for 3 years!
    • Jesus also showed great emotional strength:
      • It takes strength to forgive (Luke 23).
      • It takes strength to be patient when others repeatedly let you down.
      • It takes strength to receive ugly censure without lashing back, or at least defending yourself.
    • Jesus taught that true greatness doesn't lie in how others serve you, but in how you serve others.
      • We need this message to sound out not only in our communities, in the government, and in the workplace, and even
      • in the church, where the charismatic alpha-male senior pastor paradigm is dominant!
  • In short, women were expected to be nurturing, caring. One not expected to behave this way—namely, a man—was able to create a more subversively powerful example of love in action.
• Jesus frees women too, in several ways.
  • He shows that gender doesn’t determine worth or rank.
  • Treated women with highest respect – unlike the world.
  • Completely pure in how he viewed women: they were not objects, but subjects.
  • Traditional way of blessing women depended on childbirth – Luke 11:27 – Jesus contradicts this.
  • Discipleship:
    • Luke 10 – called women to spend some time away from daily chores to sit at his feet as disciples. See also Luke 8.
    • John 4 – the Samaritan woman is more the evangelist than the 12 apostles!

CONCLUSION

• Of course there’s more to be said:
  • We haven’t even discussed the doctrine of the Trinity – how Jesus Christ was eternally the Son of God. (God couldn't send a "daughter" if he didn't have one.)
  • or the scandal that would have surrounded an itinerant woman preacher gathering disciples…
  • And we've only just begun to work through the implications for the current feminist controversy.
  • I acknowledge the influence of Stanley Grentz's Theology for the Community of God, pp.289-292. For me his work was seminal, and helped me begin to think through this issue.
• In short, Jesus, in order to accomplish his mission, had to be a man.
  • Not because men are better than women,
  • but because otherwise life-bringing his message would have been:
    • discounted
    • diluted or obscured
  • And the most effective modeling could only take place—in a patriarchal society—by a man.
• Hopefully this perspective will prove useful to you in your evangelism, in answering questions from outsiders but also from insiders.

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.

1. Historicity
   1. Three possibilities
      1. Mythological
      2. Existed, but the Bible has reinvented him
      3. Existed, portrayed accurately in the Bible
   2. Jesus (2 BC-33 AD) v. Tiberius (emperor 14-37 AD), within 150 years of their lives.
      1. Jesus: 42 sources – 9 secular + 33 Christian
      2. Tiberius: 10 sources, including Gospel of Luke. (To be fair, there are also dozens of coins of Tiberius, naming him or portraying his image.)
   3. Historical facts accepted by most scholars (whether or not they believe in Christ)
      1. Born shortly before 1 BC (date of death of Herod the Great)
      2. From a large and poor family in the tribe of Judah
      3. Remained single
      4. Skilled in manual labor and physically tough (though of normal appearance)
      5. Critical of established religion, he aroused the wrath of the priesthood
      6. Executed by crucifixion (virtually no one survived this punishment) under Pontius Pilatus (26-36 AD)
      7. His first followers believed he’d been raised from the dead, and was the Messiah (anointed one)
2. Insider testimony
   1. New Testament
      1. Written approximately 50-100 AD.
      2. Sources of the New Testament (like 1 Cor 15:3-5, as well as various hymns, like Phil 2:5-11 and Eph 5:14, and sayings, like Acts 20:35)
      3. Numerous aspects argue against fabrication.
         1. Conversion of skeptics like James the brother of Jesus and Saul of Tarsus
         2. Hostile testimony (see below)
         3. Criterion of embarrassment
            1. Admission of ignorance in Mark 13:32
            2. Rejection by his own family (Mark 3:20; John 7:5).
            3. Having the Messiah go to the Cross -- a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks!
      4. Patristic writings (extrabiblical)
         1. 1st C: 1 Clement (96 AD)
         2. 2nd C: Ignatius (107 AD), 7 letters; Polycarp (69-155), letter to Philippians & martyrdom account; Justin Martyr (100-165), Apology [Defense]; and many more!
         3. Thousands of pages during the early church period (30-325 AD)
         4. We could virtually reconstruct the entire NT from quotations in early sources.
3. Outsider testimony
   1. Josephus (37-100 AD) – brother of James; claimed of Messiahship
   2. Mara bar-Serapion (73) – Syrian Stoic, writing to son from Romans prison: crucifixion of Jews’ wise king; loss of kingdom
   3. Thallus (52) – commented on daytime darkness at time of death of Jesus
   4. Phlegon (80-150?) – crucifixion; darkness; earthquake
   5. Suetonius (69-122) – instigation by “Chrestos” in time of Claudius (41-54)
   6. Tacitus (56-120) – Nero’s persecution, July 64
   7. Pliny the Younger (61-112) – asked emperor Trajan how to deal with Christians (112)
   8. Lucian (115-200) – wise man; crucified in Palestine
   9. Celsus (2nd) – ridiculed Christianity -- a foolish religion for foolish people
   10. Talmud (200-500) -- trial and crucifixion; charges Jesus with sorcery (Sanhedrin 43a).
4. Conclusion
   1. Myth? – No, since Jesus is rooted in history.
   2. “Good teacher”? – No, for this teacher claimed divinity. Unless that was true, he would have been dishonest – and hence not a good teacher.
   3. Same as other religious founders? – not at all!
      1. Confucius – civil servant who made shrewd observations; a sage, not a religious leader
      2. Buddha – agnostic / atheist; no individual existence; at the end, no relationships
      3. Muhammad – did not claim to be God; did not do miracles (so the Qur’an)
   4. Jesus was neither myth nor fabrication. The possibility that makes the most sense is that he existed, and his remarkable life was fairly and accurately portrayed in the Bible.

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.

Cool quotes on doubt:

• The beginning of wisdom is found in doubting; by doubting we come to the question, and by seeking we may come upon the truth. -- Pierre Abelard
• There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both ways save us from thinking. -- Alfred Korzybski
• "... both the believer and the unbeliever share, each in his own way, doubt and belief, if they do not hide from themselves and each other the truth of their being. Neither can quite escape either doubt or belief; for one, faith is present against doubt; for the other, through doubt and in the form of doubt." -- Pope Benedict XVI
• Sometimes doubts can do good in us. It can purify false beliefs that have crept into our faith. It can humble our arrogance. It can give us patience and compassion with other doubters. It can remind us how much truth matters. -- John Ortberg

Scriptures referred to:
 

• John 20:27
• Psalm 139:14
• Colossians 3:16
• Mark 9:24

Further:

• Chapter 12 ("Double Minded? Dealing with Doubt") in Compelling Evidence for God and the Bible: Finding Truth in an Age of Doubt
• From Facts to Faith, vols. I, II, and III (audio series, available from IPI)