Who Was Jesus Really? The Conclusion

Jesus was most likely a Jewish apocalyptic prophet who was executed for creating political trouble in Jerusalem. Matt Baker presents this as the broad conclusion of secular historical scholarship, particularly the work of Bart Ehrman. Jesus preached that the existing world order would soon end and be replaced by God's kingdom, but his activities during Passover brought him into conflict with Roman authority.

Bart Ehrman's research provides the main foundation for Baker's reconstruction of Jesus. Baker draws particularly on Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium and How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee. He distinguishes historical scholarship from Christian theological claims that Jesus was God incarnate.

The earliest biblical prophets addressed the survival of entire nations rather than the salvation of individuals. Amos, Hosea, and the earliest portions of Micah and Isaiah emerged during the eighth century BCE, when the northern kingdom of Israel faced conquest by Assyria. Their warnings focused on national religious loyalty rather than personal morality in general.

Idolatry was the central offense condemned by Israel's earliest prophets. They urged the Israelites to abandon other gods and worship YHWH exclusively, promising that renewed loyalty would bring divine protection against Assyria.

Assyria conquered the northern kingdom of Israel despite the prophetic warnings. The southern kingdom of Judah survived the Assyrian threat, allowing worship of YHWH to continue there.

Judah subsequently faced Babylonian conquest despite receiving similar prophetic warnings. Prophets again urged national loyalty to YHWH as the means of avoiding destruction, but Judah nevertheless fell to Babylonian power.

Persian rule allowed the Jewish population to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple without restoring political independence. Although the returned community emphasized exclusive worship of YHWH, foreign domination continued. Baker identifies this situation as an important influence on the development of Jewish religious thought.

Jewish prophetic teaching increasingly shifted from collective responsibility toward individual responsibility. Baker contrasts Exodus 20, which describes punishment extending to the third and fourth generations, with Ezekiel's declaration that children should not bear responsibility for their parents' sins.

Exodus and Ezekiel represent different understandings of divine justice in Baker's account. He dates the relevant Exodus tradition to approximately 750 BCE and the Ezekiel passage to approximately 450 BCE. The contrast illustrates his argument that religious responsibility increasingly came to be understood in personal rather than exclusively national terms.

Jewish apocalyptic thought developed partly as an explanation for continued suffering under foreign rule. If the people were worshipping their God correctly but remained oppressed, the explanation could shift from national religious failure toward an unfinished cosmic struggle between good and evil.

The word apocalypse originally means an unveiling or revelation of something hidden. Derived from the Greek apokalypsis, it refers to the disclosure of realities beyond ordinary human observation, rather than necessarily meaning the destruction of the physical world.

Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Joel contain early forms of the apocalyptic visions that later influenced Christianity. Instead of concentrating exclusively on approaching human armies, these traditions increasingly describe invisible spiritual forces involved in a conflict between good and evil.

Apocalyptic Judaism understood earthly suffering as temporary because the cosmic conflict had not yet been resolved. Evil could appear victorious in the present world, but divine forces would eventually prevail and establish justice on Earth.

Resurrection became part of the expectation of a future divine victory. The coming transformation would not benefit only the living: the righteous dead would also be restored to life.

The Book of Daniel developed a more elaborate vision of divine intervention and future world government. Baker identifies Daniel as the last book of the Hebrew Bible to have been composed. Its seventh chapter describes a figure resembling a human being who appears with the clouds and receives authority over the nations.

The expression "son of man" ordinarily refers to a human being in the Hebrew Bible. Baker notes that variations of the expression occur approximately 100 times and argues that the wording in Daniel is significant because the approaching figure is described as being like a human rather than simply being human.

Baker interprets Daniel's heavenly figure as a supernatural being resembling an angel. In his reconstruction, this figure is neither an ordinary human nor God himself, but an intermediary who receives authority from God.

Later apocalyptic traditions increasingly identified the heavenly ruler as the Son of Man. The future earthly order established through his intervention became associated with the Kingdom of God.

The central message of apocalyptic prophecy was that the existing evil order would soon disappear. People were therefore urged to repent and change their behavior immediately so they could participate in the coming Kingdom of God.

The earliest Gospel traditions present Jesus preaching themes closely associated with Jewish apocalyptic expectations. Baker gives particular weight to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which preserve earlier narrative traditions than the Gospel of John.

Jesus repeatedly referred to the Son of Man as a figure who would arrive in the future. In Mark, Jesus warns that the Son of Man will reject those who are ashamed of Jesus and his teachings. Baker argues that the wording makes sense if Jesus was referring to another expected figure rather than identifying himself as the Son of Man.

The identification of Jesus with the Son of Man may reflect later Christian interpretation rather than the original meaning of every saying. Baker argues that Jesus' first listeners would already have been familiar with expectations surrounding a heavenly deliverer and could have understood his references accordingly.

Jesus announced that the Kingdom of God was approaching. Mark introduces his public preaching with a declaration that the appointed time has arrived and God's kingdom is near. Baker interprets this as a prediction of an imminent transformation of the existing world.

Jesus reportedly predicted that some of his listeners would live to see God's kingdom arrive in power. In Mark, he tells those present that some will not die before witnessing its arrival. Baker considers this particularly strong evidence that Jesus expected the transformation within the lifetime of his audience.

Baker distinguishes Jesus' apparent apocalyptic expectations from later Christian explanations of their fulfillment. He says Christians commonly connect the prophecy to Jesus' resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit, whereas first-century listeners could have understood it as the imminent overthrow of Roman domination and establishment of divine rule on Earth.

The expectation of an imminent divine kingdom explains the urgency of Jesus' demand for repentance. If the existing political and social order was about to end, people needed to change their lives immediately rather than postpone their response.

Jesus' healings can be understood as demonstrations of the future kingdom's freedom from disease. Baker interprets the healing accounts as symbolic previews of the conditions expected after God's intervention.

Jesus' teaching of nonviolence reflected the expectation that warfare would eventually disappear. His conduct and instructions demonstrated how people should behave in anticipation of a transformed world.

Jesus' instructions to give away possessions and help the poor anticipated a world without poverty. Baker connects these teachings to Jesus' expectation that the existing economic and social order would soon be replaced.

Jesus' disruption of activity at the Jerusalem Temple may have symbolized its coming replacement. Baker interprets the overturning of the money changers' tables as a public demonstration that the existing Temple order would give way to a new one.

The Temple disturbance may be one of the most historically significant events in Jesus' life. Although it occupies a relatively limited place in Christian theology, Baker argues that it helps explain why Roman authorities ultimately executed him.

The Temple disturbance appears in all four canonical Gospels. Baker considers this multiple attestation important evidence that the incident had a historical foundation.

The Temple confrontation sits uneasily alongside the familiar portrayal of Jesus as consistently gentle and nonviolent. Baker argues that an embarrassing or awkward incident is less likely to have been invented simply to promote an idealized image of Jesus, strengthening his case for its historicity.

Jesus may have privately expected to become the ruler of God's future kingdom. Baker argues that the Gospels preserve evidence of a claim Jesus kept largely within his closest circle rather than publicly announcing it.

The Twelve Disciples were expected to exercise authority beneath Jesus in the coming kingdom. In Baker's reconstruction, the disciples were not merely followers or teachers but prospective participants in the government that would replace the existing order.

The title Messiah originally referred to an anointed ruler rather than necessarily to God incarnate. Baker emphasizes its political and royal meaning in the Jewish setting, distinguishing it from the theological significance the title acquired in later Christianity.

A claim to future kingship would have created a political threat regardless of Jesus' intended method of achieving power. Roman officials did not have to accept the religious basis of Jesus' predictions to regard a potential alternative king as dangerous.

Passover created unusually sensitive security conditions in Jerusalem. The festival attracted large crowds, including visitors from outside the city, increasing Roman concerns about unrest.

Passover commemorated liberation from foreign domination, giving the celebration political significance under Roman occupation. Baker argues that authorities would have been particularly alert to movements promising another liberation during the festival.

Jesus' public confrontation at the Temple likely attracted official scrutiny at a dangerous moment. Baker reconstructs the disturbance as the event that brought Jesus and his disciples to the attention of Roman authorities during Passover.

Baker proposes that Judas disclosed Jesus' private claim to future kingship. In this reconstruction, Judas became frightened after the Temple disturbance increased scrutiny of the group and informed authorities about Jesus' ambitions. The proposed motive is an interpretation rather than an independently established historical fact.

Judas' alleged disclosure would explain why the authorities treated Jesus as more than a religious troublemaker. A disturbance involving Temple commerce might not ordinarily justify crucifixion, but information about a man claiming future political authority would have raised the stakes.

Jesus reportedly did not deny his royal claim when questioned by Pontius Pilate. Baker argues that the combination of the Temple disturbance, the alleged disclosure of his ambitions, and his response to Pilate made execution a plausible Roman precaution.

Pilate's decision to crucify Jesus is presented as political risk management rather than punishment for overturning tables alone. From the Roman perspective, eliminating a potential claimant to kingship during a volatile festival would have been a way to prevent disorder.

Jesus belonged to a wider first-century Jewish tradition of apocalyptic preaching. Baker rejects the idea that Jesus' expectation of an imminent divine transformation was historically unique. Other prophets and religious movements also anticipated dramatic intervention by God.

Jesus' execution created a major crisis for followers who expected him to rule the coming kingdom. His death appeared to contradict the belief that God had chosen him for an extraordinary political and religious role.

Jesus' followers could preserve their movement by reinterpreting his death rather than abandoning their beliefs. Baker compares their response to the tendency of committed religious groups to reinterpret failed expectations while maintaining their underlying convictions.

Experiences interpreted as appearances of the dead offer a possible explanation for early resurrection beliefs. Baker points to bereavement visions, particularly following unexpected or traumatic deaths, as a psychological phenomenon that could have influenced Jesus' followers.

Shared religious expectations may have reinforced reports of encounters with the risen Jesus. Baker argues that tightly connected believers can influence one another's interpretation of unusual experiences. He presents this as a possible natural explanation for resurrection testimony, not as a demonstrated account of each individual experience.

Existing Jewish resurrection beliefs provided a framework for interpreting reported appearances of Jesus. Followers who already expected the righteous dead to rise at the end of the age could conclude that Jesus had become the first person resurrected in anticipation of that event.

The resurrection belief could transform Jesus' apparent defeat into confirmation of his special status. If God had raised Jesus before the general resurrection, his followers could interpret this as evidence that he had been selected for an extraordinary role in the approaching kingdom.

Jesus could subsequently be identified with the heavenly Son of Man he had previously announced. Baker proposes that followers who originally expected a separate heavenly deliverer came to believe that the risen Jesus himself would return in that role.

The earliest Christian understanding of Jesus may have emphasized exaltation rather than incarnation. In the model Baker takes from Ehrman, Jesus began as a human being and received a higher heavenly status from God after his death.

Ehrman calls this early theological model "exaltation Christianity." Jesus was understood as a man elevated by God into a special supernatural position in preparation for the anticipated apocalypse, rather than as God who had always existed in human form.

Paul's letters preserve evidence of beliefs that may predate Paul's own writings. Baker identifies passages with unusual vocabulary and formal structure as possible early creeds inherited from Christian communities through oral transmission.

Romans 1 contains an early formula connecting Jesus' human ancestry with his subsequent divine appointment. The passage describes Jesus as descended from David according to the flesh and appointed Son of God in power according to the Spirit. Baker interprets this as evidence of an exaltation theology.

The reference to Davidic ancestry places Jesus within Jewish expectations of a royal Messiah. The early formula connects Jesus to the lineage traditionally associated with legitimate kingship while also describing his elevated religious status.

The early creed in Romans does not explicitly describe Jesus as a preexistent divine being. Baker emphasizes that its focus is on human descent and subsequent appointment, rather than a heavenly existence before birth.

The Romans formula does not mention the discovery of an empty tomb. Baker treats the omission as significant when distinguishing this early expression of Christian belief from the fuller resurrection narratives developed in the Gospels.

The title Son of God did not necessarily mean equality with God in ancient Jewish religious language. Baker points out that angels and other heavenly beings could receive similar descriptions, making it possible for early Christians to regard Jesus as God's exalted representative without identifying him as God himself.

Baker argues that Galatians 4:14 provides evidence that Paul associated Jesus with angels. Paul says the Galatians received him as an angel of God and as Christ Jesus. Baker favors the interpretation that Jesus is being compared to an angelic being rather than presented as someone categorically above angels.

The Greek wording of Galatians 4:14 is central to Baker's interpretation of Paul's beliefs. He challenges the common Christian reading that Paul describes progressively greater honors—receiving him like an angel, or even like Jesus—and instead argues that the wording can identify Jesus as an example of an angelic being.

The earliest exaltation model assigned Jesus the role previously expected of the Son of Man. In this reconstruction, Jesus' elevation after death prepared him to return from heaven, establish God's kingdom, and participate in the resurrection of the dead.

Early Christians continued to expect the apocalypse within their own lifetimes. Jesus' death did not immediately eliminate the expectation that God's kingdom would arrive soon.

Paul's First Letter to the Thessalonians describes Jesus returning from heaven and the Christian dead rising first. Surviving believers would then join them in the clouds to meet Jesus. Baker treats this passage as evidence that resurrection and the return of Christ were understood as connected events.

Paul's language suggests that he expected some members of his generation to remain alive when Jesus returned. His reference to the living joining the resurrected dead is presented as evidence of an expectation of an imminent second coming.

Early Christians disagreed about when Jesus acquired his supernatural status. Some understood him as becoming exalted after death, while others considered whether he had already possessed an angelic identity during his earthly ministry.

A further interpretation held that Jesus existed as a heavenly being before his human birth. This moved Christian thinking beyond post-resurrection exaltation toward the idea of a preexistent supernatural figure entering human history.

Ehrman calls the belief in a preexistent heavenly Jesus "incarnation Christianity." Under this model, Jesus did not merely become a heavenly being after death; he had already existed in a supernatural form before taking on a human body.

Paul's theology incorporated the idea of Jesus' preexistence alongside the belief that his death addressed human sin. Baker presents Paul as an important figure in combining developing beliefs about Jesus' heavenly identity with the doctrine that Jesus' death provided atonement.

Christianity gradually developed explanations of Jesus that differed from the earliest exaltation model. The movement from a human prophet elevated after death toward a preexistent heavenly being marked a major change in how believers understood Jesus' identity.

The Gospel of John presents a more developed identification of Jesus with God. Baker dates John's composition to more than 70 years after Jesus' crucifixion and contrasts its theology with the earlier apocalyptic emphasis of the Synoptic Gospels.

Jerusalem and its Temple had been destroyed by the time John's Gospel was written. The destruction removed the central institution of Jewish religious life and changed the circumstances in which Christians interpreted Jesus' significance.

Jesus had not returned as expected when later Christian theology was developing. Baker identifies this unfulfilled expectation as an important factor in Christianity's gradual movement away from its original emphasis on an imminent apocalypse.

Christianity increasingly emphasized personal salvation instead of concentrating primarily on the approaching overthrow of the existing world order. Baker argues that this shift allowed the movement to reinterpret Jesus' death and continuing absence in ways that remained religiously meaningful.

Jesus increasingly came to be understood as fulfilling functions previously associated with the Jerusalem Temple. With the Temple destroyed, Christian theology could present Jesus as the means through which believers obtained access to God and salvation.

The identification of Jesus with God was not immediately accepted by every Christian community. Baker emphasizes that theological development involved prolonged disagreements rather than a single, universally accepted interpretation emerging immediately after Jesus' death.

Baker estimates that more than 200 additional years passed before most Christian leaders agreed on the theological position he associates with John's Gospel. He presents the eventual acceptance of Jesus' divine identity as the result of a lengthy process of debate and doctrinal consolidation.

Alternative forms of Christianity survived for centuries after the emergence of what became orthodox belief. According to Baker, additional centuries passed before competing interpretations were suppressed and the dominant theological tradition became firmly established.

The historical Jesus and the divine Jesus of later Christianity represent different stages in the development of the movement. Baker's reconstruction begins with a Jewish preacher expecting an imminent divine kingdom and follows the reinterpretation of his identity through resurrection beliefs, exaltation theology, preexistence, incarnation, and eventual identification with God.

Jesus' reported expectation of imminent divine rule helps connect his preaching, ethical demands, Temple confrontation, and execution. Baker's central interpretation is that these were not unrelated episodes: they formed part of a religious movement announcing the imminent replacement of the existing order.

The political meaning of messianic kingship provides Baker's proposed explanation for Jesus' crucifixion. Jesus' anticipated role in a future kingdom could be understood by Roman authorities as a threat to imperial rule, even if Jesus expected God rather than an armed rebellion to establish that kingdom.

The transformation of Jesus into a divine figure occurred through successive reinterpretations after his death. Baker argues that the earliest followers adapted existing Jewish beliefs about resurrection, heavenly beings, messianic kingship, and the approaching apocalypse to explain the death of their leader and preserve their expectation of God's coming kingdom. Pasted text