What is the state of study on the historical Jesus? Why has there been skepticism in the past about the historical contribution of documents like the Gospel of John?

How does the fourth gospel actually make a difference in how we view the historical Jesus?

We'll answer these questions more with our guest, Dr Craig Blomberg,

distinguished Professor Emeritus of New Testament at Denver Seminary in his new book called Jesus

The Purifier, John's Gospel, and the fourth quest for the historical Jesus.

I'm your host Scott Ray and I'm your co-host Sean McDow

this is Thinkiblically a

podcast from Talbot School of Theology at Biola University. Craig,

thanks so much for being with us and so appreciate your work in this book and

looking forward to getting into this for our listeners.

Well thank you for having me.

Yeah now you've been studying the historical Jesus for a very long time.

How would you assess the current state of scholarship around the issue of the historical Jesus.

I am very encouraged. If I look back to when I was an undergraduate in liberal Protestant liberal arts college and the amount of things I was taught were all that we could know about Jesus from historical research.

I am very encouraged by how far we've come.

I'm less encouraged at how well the story is known because what gets publicized is the avant

guard, the radical, the exotic and the exciting and research that brings us closer in line with

historical orthodoxy doesn't normally fit those categories.

That's a really interesting way to look at it.

There's a difference between the research itself and what scholars are discovering, and

we'll just say the marketing campaign of what the popular culture understands.

So let me press on that a little bit further.

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