The criterion of contextual credibility, also variously called the criterion of Semitisms and Palestinian background
or the criterion of Semitic language phenomena and Palestinian environment, is a tool used by
Biblical scholars
Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible (the Old Testament and New Testament).''Introduction to Biblical Studies, Second Edition'' by Steve Moyise (Oct 27, 2004) pages 11–12 For ...
to help determine whether certain actions or sayings by
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
in the
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
are from the
Historical Jesus
The term "historical Jesus" refers to the reconstruction of the life and teachings of Jesus by critical historical methods, in contrast to religious interpretations. It also considers the historical and cultural contexts in which Jesus lived. ...
. Simply put, if a tradition about Jesus does not fit the linguistic, cultural, historical and social environment of Jewish
Aramaic
The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...
-speaking 1st-century Palestine, it is probably not authentic. The linguistic and the environmental criteria are treated separately by some scholars, but taken together by others.
The criterion emerged as separate but interrelated criteria: the 'criterion of Semitic language phenomena' (first introduced in 1925 by C. F. Burney),
followed by and linked to the 'criterion of Palestinian environment' by scholars such as
Joachim Jeremias
Joachim Jeremias (20 September 1900 – 6 September 1979) was a German Lutheran theologian, scholar of Near Eastern Studies and university professor for New Testament studies. He was abbot of Bursfelde, 1968–1971.
He was born in Dresden and sp ...
(1947), in the period between the so-called 'first' and 'second'
quest for the historical Jesus
The quest for the historical Jesus consists of academic efforts to determine what words and actions, if any, may be attributed to Jesus, and to use the findings to provide portraits of the historical Jesus.. Since the 18th century, three scholarl ...
(1906–1953).
Description
Several preliminary discussions and inquiries into whether and how the Greek phrases in the New Testament must be translatable back to Aramaic and make sense in that language in order to allow for the possibility that Jesus had really said them, go back to the 17th century, and some early attempts to do so were thoroughly assessed and dismissed by
Albert Schweitzer
Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (; 14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965) was an Alsatian-German/French polymath. He was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. A Lutheran minister, Schweit ...
in ''
The Quest of the Historical Jesus'' (1906).
[Stanley E. Porter, ]
Reading the Gospels Today
' (2004), p. 50. However, according to
Stanley E. Porter
Stanley E. Porter (born November 23, 1956) is a Canadian–American academic and New Testament scholar, specializing in the Koine Greek grammar and linguistics of the New Testament.
Life and career
Porter was born in Long Beach, California, on ...
, it was C. F. Burney (1925) who reignited the scholarly debate by formulating the 'criterion of Semitic language phenomena', soon joined by Jeremias who added the environmental features of Palestine, and then others.
Jeremias's 'criterion of traces of Aramaic' evaluates a biblical saying based on the presence of possibly Aramaic vocabulary or grammar, while the similar criterion of the Palestinian environment considers a saying authentic if it fits in the Palestinian setting of Jesus' time.
[''Who Is Jesus?'' by Thomas P. Rausch (Jul 1, 2003) pages 35-40] The linguistic criterion observes that the New Testament was written in
Koine Greek
Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...
but contains a high number of words and phrases called
Semitisms: a combination of poetic or vernacular ''koine'' Greek with Hebrew and Aramaic influences. A Semitism is the linguistic usage, in the Greek in a non-Greek fashion, of an expression or construction typical of Hebrew or Aramaic. In other words, a Semitism is Greek in Hebrew or Aramaic style. The environmental criterion observes features mentioned in the sources that point to origin of the tradition in Palestine. However, when combinations of certain linguistic, geographical or historical elements in a tradition produce
anachronism
An anachronism (from the Ancient Greek, Greek , 'against' and , 'time') is a chronology, chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time per ...
s,
anatopism
An anatopism (from the Ancient Greek , "against," and , "place") is something that is out of its proper place.
The concept of anatopism is less widely familiar than that of anachronism, perhaps because much that is anatopic is also anachronistic. ...
s or other impossibilities, the tradition defies contextual credibility.
John P. Meier
John Paul Meier (August 8, 1942 – October 18, 2022) was an American biblical scholar and Roman Catholic priest. He was author of the series ''A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus'' (5 v.), six other books, and more than 70 articles ...
(1991) defined a 'criterion of traces of Aramaic' and a 'criterion of Palestinian environment', noting they are closely connected.
Bart D. Ehrman
Bart Denton Ehrman (born 1955) is an American New Testament scholar focusing on textual criticism of the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the origins and development of early Christianity. He has written and edited 30 books, including t ...
(1999) combined them into the 'criterion of contextual credibility'.
This 'asserts that traditions are more likely to be reliable if they conform well to what is known of the historical and social situation of the time', namely 1st-century Palestine.
Arthur J. Bellinzoni (2016) distinguished a 'criterion of Semitism or Aramaism' for all linguistic issues, and a 'criterion of contextual credibility' for 'the historical, political, social, and religious contexts' of Jesus as 'a Galilean Jew (...) in Roman Palestine for a brief period around 30', with which documents must be consistent.
Examples of its use
![Henry Ossawa Tanner - Jesus and nicodemus](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Henry_Ossawa_Tanner_-_Jesus_and_nicodemus.jpg)
Matthew begins with a Hebrew ''gematria'' (a method of interpreting Hebrew by computing the numerical value of words). In
Matthew 1:1, Jesus is designated "the son of David, the son of Abraham". The numerical value of David's name in Hebrew is 14; so this genealogy has 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the Babylonian exile, and 14 from the exile to the Christ (
Matthew 1:17). Such linguistic peculiarities tie New Testament texts to Aramaic-speaking Jews (with knowledge of the
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;["Tanach"](_blank)
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...
, or
Septuagint
The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...
translations) in 1st-century Palestine.
Ehrman (1999) cited the conversation between
Nicodemus
Nicodemus (; grc-gre, Νικόδημος, Nikódēmos) was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin mentioned in three places in the Gospel of John:
* He first visits Jesus one night to discuss Jesus' teachings ().
* The second time Nicodemu ...
and Jesus in chapter 3 of the Gospel of John: their confusion is based on the multiple meanings of the Greek word ανωθεν/''anothen'' ('again' and 'from above'), but in 1st-century Palestine, they would have spoken Aramaic, which has no word with the same double meaning; therefore, the conversation could not have taken place as narrated.
Another example given is saying 37 of the
Coptic Gospel of Thomas
The Gospel of Thomas (also known as the Coptic Gospel of Thomas) is an extra-canonical sayings gospel. It was discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945 among a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library. Scholars speculate ...
, which says: "When you undress without being ashamed, and you take your clothes and put them under your feet as little children and tramp on them, then you shall see the Son of the Living one, and you shall not fear." This saying fits the (Egyptian) 2nd-century context, when a
Gnostic myth, which could make sense of the saying, was influential, but it does not fit the early 1st-century Palestinian context of Jesus.
Likewise, the
Gospel of Peter
The Gospel of Peter ( grc, κατά Πέτρον ευαγγέλιον, kata Petron euangelion), or the Gospel according to Peter, is an ancient text concerning Jesus Christ, only partially known today. It is considered a non-canonical gospel and w ...
claims that Jesus was crucified by
Herod Antipas (tetrarch of Galilee and Perea), rather than
Pontius Pilate
Pontius Pilate (; grc-gre, Πόντιος Πιλᾶτος, ) was the fifth governor of the Roman province of Judaea, serving under Emperor Tiberius from 26/27 to 36/37 AD. He is best known for being the official who presided over the trial of J ...
(Roman governor of Judea), which contradicts what is known about how the Romans governed their provinces and thus fails the criterion of contextual credibility,
aside from also failing the
criteria of independent attestation (because all other early sources hold Pilate responsible) and
dissimilarity (because it serves the author's demonstrable anti-Jewish bias).
Bellinzoni (2016) argued that the words "take up their cross" in
Mark 8:34 failed the criterion of dissimilarity and may thus represent an
interpolation (perhaps inserted into the tradition before the author of the Gospel of Mark wrote it down), but that, when these words are removed, the rest of the verse ("If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves ... and follow me") 'meets the criterion of Aramaism or Semitism and the criterion of contextual credibility, meaning that Jesus could definitely have spoken these words to his followers in Aramaic.'
Limitations
Meier (1991) warned that the linguistic and the environmental criteria are best applied in the negative sense, as the linguistic, social, and cultural environment of Palestine did not suddenly change after the death of Jesus and so traditions that were invented in Palestine during the first few decades after Jesus's death may misleadingly appear contextually authentic. Ehrman (1999) agreed: 'Unlike the other two criteria
independent_attestation_and_Criterion_of_dissimilarity.html" ;"title="Criterion of multiple attestation">independent attestation and
dissimilarity.html" ;"title="Criterion of dissimilarity">dissimilarity">Criterion of dissimilarity">dissimilarity this one serves a strictly negative function (...) to argue ''against'' a tradition, on the grounds that it does not conform to what we know about the historical and social context of Jesus' life.'
See also
*
Criterion of dissimilarity
The criterion of dissimilarity (often used as a shorthand for criterion of double dissimilarity;''The Historical Jesus and the Final Judgment Sayings in Q'' (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen Zum Neuen Testament) by Brian Han Gregg (30 June 2006) ...
*
Criterion of embarrassment
The criterion of embarrassment is a type of historical analysis in which a historical account is deemed likely to be true under the inference that that the author would have no reason to invent a historical account which might embarrass them. Cer ...
*
Criterion of multiple attestation The criterion of multiple attestation, also called the criterion of independent attestation or the cross-section method, is a tool used by Biblical scholars to help determine whether certain actions or sayings by Jesus in the New Testament are from ...
or independent attestation
References
Literature
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*
*
*
* {{cite book , last=Shepherd, first=Michael B., year=2018 , chapter=Semitic Wordplay behind the Greek of the New Testament , editor1-last=Winstead , editor1-first=Melton Bennett , title=New Testament Philology: Essays in Honor of David Alan Black , publisher=Pickwick Publications , location=Eugene, Oregon , isbn=978-1-4982-4487-9, chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OrT9tQEACAAJ
Historiography
Quest for the historical Jesus
Biblical criticism