ABSTRACT
Christian scholars, strongly divide as to which wonders, deeds, and sayings belong to the original or historical Jesus and which ones belong to the envisioned Jesus. Wells sees no reason to hold that either Paul or Peter believed that Jesus lived the life ascribed to him in the four canonical Gospels, which most New Testament scholars think were written after Paul’s literary career. Wells initial thesis appears to be the opposite of the nineteenth-century liberal Christian one that Jesus lived on earth as something of a remarkable human-like teacher who was later turned into a supernatural being. In a detailed analysis of Paul’s view of Jesus’ alleged last supper before his crucifixion, Professor Wells notes that Paul does not claim that he received the account from Peter or John. The Epistle of Jude borrows the Jewish legend of conflict between the archangel Michael and the devil over the possession of Moses’ body.
