Posing the historical Jesus question and the goal of African biblical scholarship

Abstract

Using the historical Jesus research method, the aim of this paper is to pose the Historical Jesus question in Africa and to enumerate the goal of African Biblical scholarship. The study showed that while the first quest sought to reconstruct the biography of Jesus from the New Testament materials in the 19th century and  separated the Jesus of the New Testament from the Jesus of history, the second quest in the 20th century posed the question in terms of what, in the New Testament, can be attributed to the historical person of Jesus with some amount of certainty. Moreover, the third quest in the late 20th century, posed the question of understanding Jesus as a human person among his contemporaries and sought to reconstruct the historical figure of the man Jesus against the background of the history, culture and society of first century Palestine and the Roman Empire. The study also showed that the goal of African Biblical scholarship has to do with: making the bible available for the ordinary readers; uncritical reading to critical reading of the Bible, faith building; impacting society; integration; bridging gaps; and evangelization. The paper also argued that the western method used from the experience of the enlightenment in posing the Historical Jesus question cannot build African Christianity; hence it becomes pertinent to build a Christology that is both scholarly and congenial with African Christian experience. The study recommended that African scholars be allowed to develop and pose the Historical Jesus question and answer contextually from an African Christian perspective and as such, it should also be accorded its rightful respect among committee of scholars.