{"agent_id":"strauss","agent_name":"David Friedrich Strauss","slug":"the-mythical-reading","label":"The mythical reading: are the Gospel miracle narratives myth rather than either report or misunderstood fact?","topic":"The mythical reading","question":"Are the Gospel miracle narratives myth rather than either report or misunderstood fact?","position":"The supernatural narratives are myth: unconscious poetic production by a community that already held Jesus to be the Messiah, cast in the forms the Hebrew scriptures had made available.","paragraphs":[[{"t":"The supernatural narratives are myth: unconscious poetic production by a community that already held Jesus to be the Messiah, cast in the forms the Hebrew scriptures had made available.","n":[1,2,3]}]],"texts":"*Das Leben Jesu, kritisch bearbeitet* (1835–36; Eliot's English translation of the 4th edition, 1846), especially the Introduction and the treatment of the infancy, transfiguration and resurrection narratives; *Das Leben Jesu für das deutsche Volk bearbeitet* (1864). Reception: the immediate orthodox replies of Tholuck and Neander; Baur's Tübingen development of the tendency-criticism Strauss made possible; Schweitzer's judgement in *Von Reimarus zu Wrede* that the book is the most perfect thing in theological literature and that its author was destroyed by it.","works":["*Das Leben Jesu, kritisch bearbeitet* (1835–36","Eliot's English translation of the 4th edition, 1846), especially the Introduction and the treatment of the infancy, transfiguration and resurrection narratives","*Das Leben Jesu für das deutsche Volk bearbeitet* (1864)"],"reception":"the immediate orthodox replies of Tholuck and Neander; Baur's Tübingen development of the tendency-criticism Strauss made possible; Schweitzer's judgement in *Von Reimarus zu Wrede* that the book is the most perfect thing in theological literature and that its author was destroyed by it.","status":"The founding claim of the discipline, still contested in its strong form and largely absorbed in its weak one.","era":"1808-1874","discipline":"Theology, Philosophy","refs":[{"n":1,"work":"A New Life of Jesus, The Life of Jesus for the People Vol 1","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"It is in vain, I said, in the case of stories like that about the star of the wise men, about the transfiguration, about the miraculous feeding, and the like, to attempt to make them conceivable as natural events; but as it is quite as impossible to imagine things so unnatural to have really happened, all narratives of this kind must be considered as fictions.","label":"A New Life of Jesus, The Life of Jesus for the People Vol 1"},{"n":2,"work":"The Life of Jesus Critically Examined","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"For the immediate proofs that the Jews referred this passage to the Messiah are very uncertain; though, if we compare such passages as Ps. ii. 7, in which the words ‏בְּנִי אַתָּה‎ (thou art my son) are interpreted of the Messiah, it cannot appear incredible that the expression ‏לִבְנִי‎ (my son) in Hosea was supposed to have a messianic signification.","label":"The Life of Jesus Critically Examined"},{"n":3,"work":"The Life of Jesus Critically Examined","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"It is obvious, that the case is pretty nearly the same with regard to both representations. If the latter had an individual author, it was his opinion that the historical statement could be accounted for only upon the supposition of a communication with a superior being; as it was that of Livy, that its explanation must lie in political views.","label":"The Life of Jesus Critically Examined"}],"answer":null,"siblings":[{"slug":"the-hegelian-rescue","label":"The Hegelian rescue: can the idea of the God-man survive without a historical God-man?"},{"slug":"schleiermacher-s-christ","label":"Schleiermacher's Christ: can a faith-Christ be held alongside a historical Jesus the criticism has dissolved?"}]}