Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 31:4 (Dec 1988)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

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JETS 31:4 (December 1988) p. 473

Book Reviews

The Evidence for Jesus. By R. T. France. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1986, 192 pp., $6.94 paper.

When I first received this book I expected to find a one-sided apologetic treatise attempting to convince me that the Jesus of the gospels was supported by an overwhelming amount of corroborative evidence. There are several popular works that treat the “evidence” in just such a manner. However, I underestimated the discriminating sincerity of France’s task. As it turns out France treats the evidence as a scholar with a fair and critical assessment of the data’s worth. For example, the redaction-critical treatment of Josephus’ Antiquities 18 passage is insightful and convincing (pp. 27-32).

The main thrust of the book is to evaluate the historical value of the gospels (both canonical and apocryphal) and the additional testimony of the non-Christian writers, inscriptions and archeology. In accomplishing this task, France’s work is a refreshing respite from the historical skepticism that has been fashionable in recent gospel research. Coming from a British series apparently written for laity and students, France has produce a superb work melding scholarship together with a communicable style.

There are a few instances, however, where more caution should have been exercised or where the case is simply overstated. For example, when France discusses Christian evidence outside the NT one gains the impression that it is next to impossible for researchers to discover anything genuine in the extra-canonical materials. This appears to be rather misleading. France does not want to deny that these writings may contain some genuine sayings of Jesus. The point that France argues, however, is that “it is hard to see how such genuineness might be established other than by a purely subjective impression.” Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that with great difficulty scholars are able to arrive at only a certain degree of probability regarding the authenticity of the noncanonical sayings of Jesus. Certainly the criteria of dissimilarity and coherence help us to eliminate sayings that are obviously spurious and at least point us in the right direction.

Also, France’s discussion of the gnostic writings does little justice to the diversity within gnosticism (p. 63). He asserts that docetic teaching is fundamental to these writings but fails to note that in some writings (such as The Treatise on Resurrection, 1.44:13–34) Jesus actually takes on a body of flesh. Similarly, when it is stated that “the undesirability of women is a common Gnostic theme” (p. 76) France fails to note passages like The Gospel of Philip, 2. 63:32–64:5, and The Gospel of Mary where women are exalted above even the ma...

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