The most useful criterion was the “Criterion of Credibility.” This criterion looks at certain social and historical facts around the time in which Jesus lived and compares it with the sources being observed or studied to possibly negate a certain aspect. For me, this criterion was the most useful due to the fact that it uses more authentic information than assumptions to analyze Jesus of Nazareth (i.e. the “Q” source). Approaching the text in this fashion just made more logical sense to me than the others. There seems to be a good amount of historical documents pertaining to this time period within this region, which makes it somewhat easier to obtain an a better understanding of the Jesus of Nazareth was like and how he thought.
One of the best examples of using this criterion would be in Matthew 18. This chapter talks about the Church and Church law. We know that during…show more content… The biggest issue with this though is the types of sources we are using and how many we have. It was pointed out in the book that many of the religious texts outside of the New Testament do not really portray what the historical Jesus was like. Even if they do, they are widely refuted (i.e. The Infancy Gospel of Thomas). Another issue I have with this criterion is the fact that it possibly sets up a motive for using the “Q” source. Calling something a source that does not actually exist seems paradoxical and using it seems more like a guess or an assumption than actual historical fact. Another issue that occurs with this is that you still cannot accurately discern from a piece if the historical Jesus was properly represented, or if the text contained information from an already established
