Richard John Bauckham (born 22 September 1946) is an English Anglican scholar in theology, historical theology and New Testament studies, specialising in New Testament Christology and the Gospel of John. He is a senior scholar at Ridley Hall, Cambridge. Bauckham is a prolific author of books and journal articles. In 2006, Bauckham published his most widely-read work Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, a book that defends the historical reliability of the gospels. Bauckham argues that the synoptic gospels are based "quite closely" on the testimony of eyewitnesses, and the Gospel of John is written by an eyewitness. This is against the belief of some that the four gospels were written later and not via interviews with direct eyewitnesses, but were rather the result of a longer chain of transmission of stories of Jesus filtered through early Christian communities over time. This longer chain of transmission theory has gained traction in recent years due, in part, to its sensational nature. The theory has also gained traction since the late 1800s when German scholars began ignoring the Jewish Scriptures due to increased antisemitism. Many scholars have attempted to rectify this problem following World War II. In contrast, Bauckham’s theory is considered to be …
Richard Bauckham
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- Born:
- Sept. 22, 1946
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Richard John Bauckham (born 22 September 1946) is an English Anglican scholar in theology, historical theology and New Testament studies, specialising in New Testament Christology and the Gospel of John. He is a senior scholar at Ridley Hall, Cambridge. Bauckham is a prolific author of books and journal articles. In 2006, Bauckham published his most widely-read work Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, a book that defends the historical reliability of the gospels. Bauckham argues that the synoptic gospels are based "quite closely" on the testimony of eyewitnesses, and the Gospel of John is written by an eyewitness. This is against the belief of some that the four gospels were written later and not via interviews with direct eyewitnesses, but were rather the result of a longer chain of transmission of stories of Jesus filtered through early Christian communities over time. This longer chain of transmission theory has gained traction in recent years due, in part, to its sensational nature. The theory has also gained traction since the late 1800s when German scholars began ignoring the Jewish Scriptures due to increased antisemitism. Many scholars have attempted to rectify this problem following World War II. In contrast, Bauckham’s theory is considered to be more in line with biblical scholarship that includes the Jewish Scriptures. The book was well-received, earning the 2007 Christianity Today book award in biblical studies and the Michael Ramsey Prize in 2009. Bauckham updated and expanded the book to respond to critics in a second edition, published in 2017.
