the limits of variety 183
which fitted least well with the outlook of the Christian communities
that preserved them are likely to have survived in the tradition simply
because they were true. Such criteria would permit us to state firmly
quite a number of nearly certain facts about Jesus. Jesus was born into
a village family in Galilee, quite low on the social scale. He came into
contact with John the Baptist, a charismatic Jewish teacher active at
least from c. 28 ce, who challenged Jews to repent their sins and mark
their repentance by immersion in the cleansing waters of the River Jor-
dan. Jesus preached only to Jews, showing little interest in gentiles. He
was crucified horribly and shamefully as a political threat by Pontius
Pilatus, the Roman governor. Some other stories told about Jesus, such
as his birth in a manger in Bethlehem, are more likely to be patent fictions
(in this case designed to associate Jesus with the royal city of David). In
between the probable details and the clearly fictitious are many stories
that are entirely plausible but less certain because they accord well with
the priorities of the early Christians who preserved them, such as Jesus’
preaching of repentance ‘for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’ and his
miraculous acts of healing and exorcism. But ‘less certain’ does not mean
‘not true’, and it is plausible enough, despite the apparent disjunction
between Jesus and Paul, that other parts of the Jesus movement after his
death declared themselves as his followers precisely because they felt
themselves to be subscribing to the same ideals.^36
Of all the aspects of Jesus’ life that mark him out from other Jewish
religious figures, the survival after his death of a group named after him
is the most remarkable. The closest parallel would be the Teacher of
Righteousness at Qumran, since his influence too continued down to
later generations, but the sectarian scrolls do not name the Teacher, and
in fact the surviving scrolls refer to him only rarely. As the Pharisee
Gamaliel is made to note by the author of Acts, other groups had faded
away once their leader was no more. In most other respects, Jesus him-
self is portrayed in the Gospels as being like any other Jew, from his
circumcision soon after birth through his observance of the Sabbath,
attendance at synagogue services to hear the Torah read, the observance
of festivals, and pilgrimage to the Temple. Despite later Christian doubts
about the efficacy of sacrifices, Jesus is portrayed in the Gospels as
accepting such offerings as normal, urging only that ‘when you are
offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sis-
ter has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and
go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer
your gift.’^37