KWL

Subject: The Life and Teaching of Jesus	Level: Graduate
Topic: Introduction to Historical Jesus	Date: February 6, 2019
Major Strategy: KWL	Class Duration: 10 Minutes

Materials:

1. Data set (4 copies of article and a short video about Historical Jesus)

2. Whiteboard and white board marker

Instructional Objectives:

By the end of the class, students will be able to

1. Identify the problem in historical Jesus.

2. Analyze the aspect and the approach of historical Jesus.

3. Identify some tools for the case of Historical Jesus.

4. Participate actively in the activity.

5. Accurately define the framework of the historical Jesus.

Introduction:

Last class we have studied about the resurrection of Jesus as a historical event. Our topic for Today’s class is Introduction to the Historical Jesus. I want you to be more excited by doing some activities.  

Presentation:

Teacher Activity	Student Activity
1. Introduction	Listen
2. Write the table of KWL (Know, Want to know, Learned) in the board	Look at the board
3. Explain the student of what to do with the KWL table	Listen to the explanation
4. Asked the student of what they know about the topic and write the answer in the column “Know”	Give some opinion of what they know about Historical Jesus.
5. After done with fill in the column “Know” (indicated by repeating the same idea), ask the student of what they want to know about the topic and write it down in column “Want to know”	Tell what they want to know about the topic.
6. After done with fill in the column “Want to know” (indicated by repeating the same idea), distribute the readings and ask them to read it and compare the information in the reading with the information in the table/chart.	Read the readings about historical Jesus and compare it to the chart.
7. Ask them to watch additional information from a short video about the Historical Jesus and compare it also with the information in the table/chart.	Watch a short video about historical Jesus and compare it with the information in the chart.
8. Verify their answer in column “Know” and What they want to learn in column “Want to know”, marking each one of them as true, false or not given according to the information from the readings and video.	Verify the information in the chart with the facts in the reading and video with teacher.
9. Ask for new information they found in the reading or video and write it down altogether with the answer of what they want to know in the column “Learned”. If the information they want to know in column “Want to know” cannot be found in the reading and the video, asked them to do further research as an assignment.	Tell the new information that they have just found.
10. Close with a conclusion	Listen the conclusion

KWL Chart

KNOW	WANT TO KNOW	LEARNED

Lesson

Introduction to Historical Jesus

The term historical Jesus refers to attempts to reconstruct the life and teachings of Jesus by critical historical methods. This attempt needs of verifying the Christological definitions (the dogmatic Christ) and other Christian accounts of Jesus (the Jesus of faith) as whether it real or a kind of myth. It also considers the historical and cultural context in which Jesus lived.

Virtually all scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed, although they differ about the life and teachings of Jesus as well as the accuracy of the biblical accounts. It starts from two events subject to “almost universal assent” that are Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and was crucified by the order of the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate. Historical Jesus scholars typically contend that he was a Galilean Jew living in a time of messianic and apocalyptic expectations. Some scholars credit the apocalyptic declarations of the gospels to him, while others portray his “Kingdom of God” as a moral one, and not apocalyptic in nature.

Since the 18th century, three separate scholarly quests for the historical Jesus have taken place, each with distinct characteristics and developing new and different research criteria. The portraits of Jesus that have been constructed in these processes have often differed from each other, and from the dogmatic image portrayed in the gospel accounts. These portraits include that of Jesus as an apocalyptic prophet, charismatic healer, Cynic philosopher, Jewish messiah and prophet of social change, but there is little scholarly agreement on a single portrait, or the methods needed to construct it. There are, however, overlapping attributes among the various portraits, and scholars who differ on some attributes may agree on others.

By the 21st century, the “maximalist” approaches of the 19th century, which accepted all the gospels, and the “minimalist” trends of the early 20th century, which totally rejected them, were abandoned and scholars began to focus on what is historically probable and plausible about Jesus and extended the study to other possible ancient manuscripts that provide information about Jesus. The question, therefore, could the claim of Jesus in the NT be proved historically?

Assignments:

1. Journal #2

2. Read Material for next class

3. Conduct further research for some unsolved questions.

Reflections:

1. I really love the strategy. I think it is really helpful for both the student and teacher.

2. I think it makes me easier to teach a heavy lesson to the student.

3. I want to come with better material next time.