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In Matthew 16:13 Jesus asked his disciples a very simple question. The question was, “Who do the people say the Son of Man is?” This was and is a very interesting question. First, it tells me Jesus is concerned about how people view or maybe understand him. He knows better than anyone how important it is for a person to correctly know who Jesus is. The disciples answered that people think you are John the Baptist raised to life, or maybe another Old Testament prophet. In verse 15 Jesus said, “But what about you? Who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter gives us the correct answer in verse 16. He says, “You are the Christ, the on of the living God.” Jesus commends this answer as being correct.

Second, it reveals that Jesus identifies himself as being the “Son of Man”. This name is given to the one Daniel saw in a vision recorded in Daniel 7. If you will read that chapter, you'll see that the Son of Man is a very exalted figure. It was Jesus' favorite self-designation. The common understanding: he is both divine and he is human—two natures, one person. The term "Son of Man" doesn't merely depict his humanity, but also his deity.

Peter’s answer is basically, you are the Messiah, the Anointed One of God, our Deliverer. Jesus said that his goal was to seek and save the lost, Luke 19:10. If you do not have the proper understanding of who Jesus is, who he says he is, who God the Father says he is, you will not be able to enter the Kingdom of God.

Many people and religious groups have invented a Jesus that they feel is the real deal. In the late 18th century through the 19th century there were many attempts to define a fictious Jesus in order to fit a preconceived idea of who he was. These stories of who Jesus really was usually involve a secret society, organization or group that supposedly has the truth. One such example is of Karl Bahrdt who in roughly 1792 wrote that Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea were Essenes. Jesus got involved with the Essenes at a young age, and this group helped “stage” the miracles performed. Luke was involved in the healing miracles and drugged him to look like he was dead while on the cross. He then nursed him back to health, thus the resurrection.

There were many other variations of this story by writers such as Karl Venturini, Gfrorer, Hennell and Salvator involving the Essenes and others. However, there was and is no source documentation from the 1st or 2nd centuries to support such nonsense.

In the 19th century what is called “classical Protestant Liberalism” came in vogue, producing the largest amount of “lives of Jesus” narratives. Jesus was never portrayed as he is in the Gospels, which were eyewitness accounts, or first-person accounts. Supernatural miracles are treated as nonhistorical, rationalized away by various ideas of medicinal, and illusory mechanisms. Some such as David Stauss’ Life of Jesus implied the Gospel writers mythologized Jesus, thus denying the historical Jesus and the orthodox position held by the church for 19 centuries.

In the 20th century writers such as Karl Barth and Rudolf Bultmann took over challenging a literal, and historical view of Jesus, his miracles, and his deity. Although they disagreed on many theological positions and doctrine, they were in agreement that knowing for certain who the historical, and real Jesus was/is an illegitimate exercise in myth chasing.

Over the past 100 years there has been a cyclical interest in finding out who the real Jesus was/is apart from the Biblical sources. It is imperative that a person takes a real, honest and historically accurate look at the person of Jesus of Nazareth. What does the data tell us about him? Is there non-Christian material that one may look at? When did he live, what did he teach and how and when did he die are facts of history one must know to truly understand who this Son of Man really was. I hope over the next couple of months to delve into this subject. I hope you and I will learn from it. For now my question to you is, “Who do you say Jesus is?”

Dave Carroll is an area missionary with InFaith, America’s oldest Christian home mission agency, and Pastor of the Wolf Creek Baptist Church. Source material for this article comes from the book, “The Historical Jesus”, by Dr. Gary R. Habermas, 1999. You can contact Dave at 406.459.8935 or davecarroll@infaith.org.