Wikipedia:WikiProject Christianity/Jesus work group/Articles

This subpage of WikiProject Jesus was created in 2006, following repeated debate on Talk:Cultural and historical background of Jesus, for editors of the articles on Jesus to consider what articles are needed, and how the material contents might better be divided.

The subject has come up repeatedly for more than a year and is active once again at this time, with concerns that the present articles do not split the material in the best way possible. Since this affects multiple articles it seems logical to place debate here rather than on any one article's talk page, despite the Wikiproject officially being dormant.

Page created: FT2 (Talk 18:50, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

Present articles and their scope
At present Jesus and history are covered in four main articles:
 * {| class="wikitable" width="80%"


 * Historical Jesus
 * (details)
 * Cultural and historical background of Jesus
 * Background to the time of Jesus; overviews history and culture that led up to the times of Jesus, and how those played out after his death through to the split of Christianity and Judaism. Then looks at how historians and others look at source material before examining how jesus fitted into the structure laid out in earlier sections.
 * Quest for the Historical Jesus
 * Historicity of Jesus
 * (details)
 * }
 * Historicity of Jesus
 * (details)
 * }
 * }
 * }

Possible material to cover
This section lists the possible material that we might want to cover, before looking (next section) at how to cover it. Note that more than one article may overlap on the same material.


 * Historical and cultural backdrop to Jesus' times
 * Did Jesus exist
 * If so, who or what was he?
 * How Jesus and his life story (both religiously and historically considered) fitted into his 1st century culture - what's credible, what's contested, how it slotted in and fitted into that period
 * What historical knowledge about that period suggests about Jesus and his life (how historians interpret Jesus)
 * Reconstruction of Jesus and his life (reconciling the religious and historical Jesus -- may not be the same as the above!)
 * What light historical information sheds on the gospel and other stories of Jesus
 * How history played out after Jesus' death
 * Historical method (How historians interpret history generally and Jesus (or documents pertaining to Jesus) particularly)

Any other themes we need to cover? (One on each line) FT2 (Talk 19:00, 14 December 2006 (UTC)


 * My version. I think I retained all information.
 * Historical Jesus = Where the reader learns who (historians say) Jesus was. Who Jesus was (according to historical method) (equals: If so, who or what was he?) What historical knowledge about that period suggests about Jesus and his life (how historians interpret Jesus)
 * Culture of Jesus, description of Jesus' day and age: Jewish religious beliefs, Hellenization, the prophetic tradition, Roman occupation, etc. Includes how Jesus and his life story (both religiously and historically considered) fitted into his 1st century culture - what's credible, what's contested, how it slotted in and fitted into that period
 * Jesus as myth. Page devoted to the various accounts that have been put forth about Jesus not actually existing. Replaces: Did Jesus exist
 * Gospels analyszed historically. What light historical information sheds on the gospel and other stories of Jesus
 * Early Christian history. How history played out after Jesus' death. Part of "Early Christians" page.
 * Historical method and Jesus (How historians interpret history generally and Jesus (or documents pertaining to Jesus) particularly)
 * Reconstruction of Jesus and his life (reconciling the religious and historical Jesus -- may not be the same as the above!) (Not sure what this is.)
 * Historical Jesus is (for me) the hub of this constellation. Jonathan Tweet 06:57, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

Discussion
See Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject Jesus/Articles for the extended discussion.

Proposals
This section is for proposals by editors, what groupings of material into articles might work.

For content which is intended to only be in summary form, please put [S] after it, so it's clear if a full section or a summary section is envisaged.

Current proposal (as is)

 * (Did Jesus exist; If so, who or what was he) -> Historicity
 * (Historical and cultural backdrop ; How Jesus life fitted into this; how historians use sources to construct a view; what happened after his death) -> Historical and cultural background
 * (Reconstruction of Jesus and his life) -> Historical Jesus


 * Views and comments:

(Next proposal)

 * all articles in the Category:Jesus and its various subcategories. This would more or less agree with the above proposal in terms of direct scope, but would seek to also fix the categorization of some of the subcats, which is at present more than a bit confusing. John Carter (talk) 18:00, 28 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Views and comments: