The Case For Christ

This chapter marks the beginning of Part 2 of The Case for Christ, titled “Analyzing Jesus.” Strobel begins by introducing readers to John Douglas, the original psychological profiler for the FBI. Douglas pioneered using crime scene evidence to extrapolate information about the person who committed the crime. More importantly for Strobel’s purposes, Douglas proves that a person can deduce an “individual’s psychological makeup” (186) from their actions. Strobel wants to know whether Jesus thought of himself as a rabbi, or teacher, or whether he truly believed himself to be the Son of God.

Strobel turns to Dr. Ben Witherington, a profess or at Asbury Theological Seminary, for answers. Witherington has spent most of his career researching the life of Jesus, so when Strobel asks whether Jesus thought he was the Son of God, Witherington answers in the affirmative. He walks Strobel through multiple pieces of evidence from the gospels and explains that Jesus rarely called himself the Son of God in public to avoid charges of blasphemy, which would have been “counterproductive to […] his efforts to get people to listen” (178). But Jesus clearly thought of himself as both separate and above even his closest followers, the twelve disciples, which Witherington says exemplifies Jesus’s belief in his own divinity.