Jesus the Great Philosopher by Jonathan T. PenningtonSample

Day One: Jesus is Shepherd, King, Savior, and . . . Philosopher?

Imagine a Christian church today where, as you enter the sanctuary, beautiful banners or pieces of art remind churchgoers of precious truths about the One they are here to worship, Jesus. These hangings each proclaim a name or description of the Lord drawn from the Bible. Your eyes scan across the many names, each of which communicates something important—Shepherd, King, Savior, Messiah, Friend of sinners, Immanuel. 

And Philosopher.

Philosopher? Not likely. What would your reaction be? 

Now, if we compare today’s churches with that of an ancient city church in Dura-Europos, what similarities or differences do we find? 1800 years ago, this city was remarkably diverse in culture, language, and religion, with places of worship for Christians, Jews, and various Greek and Roman cults—a truly metropolitan place to live and raise a family and plant gardens and worship one’s god. 

However, it wasn’t until right after World War I that European archaeologists stumbled upon Dura-Europos. When they did, they found buildings that were an archaeologist’s dream! They were completely intact, preserved, and untouched because of stuffed debris. Among other important discoveries, the researchers found a house church, frozen in time.

Such a discovery allows us to look at their church walls. The painted images in this ancient church depict Jesus in various ways, as the Good Shepherd, the Great Physician, and the Water Walker. And as a Philosopher. In fact, in all the pictures of Jesus healing, teaching, and performing miracles, he is wearing the telltale philosopher’s robes, has the haircut that indicated his status as a philosopher, and is standing in the posture of a philosophy teacher.

Philosopher. Painted on the walls of the church. Why? When we examine the long space of Christian history between ancient archeological discoveries and modern day philosophical responses, we find a rich tradition of Christians answering the same way. 

In statues, altar pieces, sarcophagus carvings, sermons, theological treatises, and popular stories, when standing before emperors and governors, Christians have long talked about Jesus as a philosopher and Christianity as the true philosophy of life. Christianity is not just a set of doctrines but a divine whole-life philosophy worth dying for, if need be. The Bible presents itself as the greatest philosophy of the world, in fact, the truest philosophy in all of life that answers the great questions and teaches us how to live well.

Have you given thought before to Jesus as philosopher? What is your response to this idea?