A New Collaboration
Nate Hanson recently invited me to participate in some of his recent Faith Lab conversations featuring interviews with a wide variety of Christian scholars.
In an article that was published earlier this week in The Federalist, I told the story of Nate Hanson, the former pastor who lost his faith and created a popular deconstructionist podcast called Almost Heretical. Eight years later, however, he ended up losing faith in deconstructionism after he began his own detailed investigation of Christian origins. Though he had interacted with scholars like Bart Ehrman, once he began to seriously engage with scholars on the other side of the fence, such as Richard Bauckham, and many others like him, his faith was restored.
As a result, Nate then informed his followers that moving forward, his show would be called Faith Lab. Since its launch a few months ago, he has interviewed a variety of thinkers and scholars, such as Lydia McGrew, Tim Mackie, Rebecca McLaughlin, N.T. Wright, and even myself. “If things are still falling apart for you,” Nate told his listeners on his first episode, “you’re welcome here…And if you’ve been in church your whole life but realize you don’t actually know why you believe what you believe, this show is for you.”
Recently, Nate invited me to join him as a conversation partner for some of his upcoming interviews, and the first episode of this new collaboration is now available, and features a discussion with Nijay Gupta, professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary, and author of A Beginner’s Guide to New Testament Studies, Strange Religion, and, more recently, Paul for the World.
If you listen to this episode, I think you’ll see that I don’t necessarily agree with Dr. Gupta on every point.1 However, I do think it’s important to have conversations with people from across a wide theological and denominational spectrum, particularly when we do agree on foundational issues such as Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. Nate’s invitation to join him on Faith Lab allows me the opportunity to do just that.
One question I put to Dr. Gupta toward the end of our discussion relates to something he wrote in his book A Beginner’s Guide to New Testament Studies (2020). In his chapter on the Fourth Gospel, he noted that “many scholars in the last two hundred years have discounted this text as a useful source for the study of the historical Jesus,” since in their opinion, it “was so heavily embellished with John’s theology that…it provided nothing useful beyond what was already found in the Synoptics…”2 However, he also points out that “we have seen a major surge of interest and investment in these issues in the last twenty years.”3
Dr. Gupta then went on to highlight the work of Richard Bauckham, who “has argued that according to ancient standards, any text claiming association with history was expected to be generated from eyewitness testimony. And if one pays careful attention to the Fourth Gospel, ‘testimony,’ ‘witness,’ and ‘truth’ are often repeated keywords. John seems to go to some length, then, to verify that truth is genuinely important to his project.”4 He also points out that N.T. Wright is another theologian who has “recognized that there has been a shift in the guild today,” related to the way John’s Gospel is now being read and appreciated for its historical value.
So, in light of these statements, I decided to ask Nijay what he thinks about the way these issues have continued to develop, and more specifically, what he thinks about George van Kooten’s recent claim that John’s Gospel should be redated to the time before the start of the Jewish War (which was the subject of this recent post).
CLICK HERE TO JUMP TO THIS PART OF OUR CONVERSATION
RELATED RESOURCES
Articles
How To ‘Deconstruct’ And Rebuild Your Faith, Shane Rosenthal (The Federalist)
George van Kooten on the Date & Authorship of John’s Gospel, Shane Rosenthal
Things Completely Fulfilled Among Us, Shane Rosenthal
His Excellency, The High Priest, Shane Rosenthal
The Date of John’s Gospel, Revisited, Shane Rosenthal
Authenticating The Fourth Gospel, Shane Rosenthal
Outside the Gospels, What Can We Know About Jesus? Shane Rosenthal
Water Into Wine?, Shane Rosenthal
The Identity of the Beloved Disciple, Shane Rosenthal
Episodes
Lazarus, #84 with Richard Bauckham & T.C. Schmidt
Is John Late & Unreliable? Humble Skeptic #51 with Daniel Wallace
Which John Wrote John? Humble Skeptic #50
Who is Theophilus? #79 with Peter. Bolt
Did Josephus Ever Mention Jesus? with T.C. Schmidt
Stories of Jesus: Can They Be Trusted? Humble Skeptic #61 with Peter J. Williams
Are the Gospels History or Fiction? Humble Skeptic #52 with John Dickson
Faith Founded on Facts, Humble Skeptic #15
Videos
An Archaeological Discovery Sheds Light on Luke
History, Archaeology & Luke’s Most Excellent Theophilus
Have Archaeologists Discovered Biblical Bethsaida?
Books
A Beginner’s Guide to New Testament Studies, Nijay Gupta
Reverberations of Good News, George van Kooten
Redating the New Testament, John A.T. Robinson
Rethinking the Dates of the New Testament, Jonathan Bernier
Jesus & The Eyewitnesses, Richard Bauckham
Can We Trust The Gospels? Peter J. Williams
Is Jesus History? John Dickson
Testimonies to the Truth, Lydia McGrew
Luke’s Key Witness, Shane Rosenthal
Nijay studied under E.P. Sanders and is an advocate of the New Perspective on Paul. If you’d like to get a better understanding of this interpretive approach, along with a thoughtful critique, I discussed the NPP with T. David Gordon here. I also discussed the Galatian Controversy with Dr. Gordon here.
Nijay Gupta, A Beginner’s Guide to New Testament Studies (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2020), 34.
Ibid., 35.
Ibid., 37.