Jesus Seminar

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The Jesus Seminar is a controversial research team of about one hundred academic New Testament scholars founded in 1985 by the late Robert Funk under the auspices of the Westar Institute. The seminar's purpose is to determine what Jesus, as a historical figure, may or may not have said or done.

The scholars attending attempt to reconstruct the life of Jesus. They try to ask who he was, what he did, what he said, and what his sayings meant using all the evidence and available tools. Their reconstruction is based on the triple pillar of social anthropology, history and textual analysis. They use cross-cultural anthropological studies to set the general background; narrow in on the history and society of first-century Iudaea Province; and use textual analysis (along with more anthropology and history) to focus on Jesus himself. They use a combination of primary sources (original texts, but with archaeological evidence) and secondary sources (anthropological and historical studies). Their methodology, which was developed by a team of scholars (who expounded papers for the review of other Fellows and published many in Forum) and is explained in The Five Gospels, involves canvassing the records of the first four centuries for traditions about Jesus and sifting them by criteria such as multiple attestation, distinctiveness, and orality.

1 Seminar proceedings
2 Criticism of the Jesus Seminar
3 See also
4 External links:

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Seminar proceedings

The Seminar began by producing their own translation of the gospels into modern American English, called the Scholars Version. It freely uses updated colloquialisms and contemporary phrasing that attempts to match the author's style, so that one can hear the message as a first-century listener might have, rather than the more common translations' archaic, literal representation of the underlying language, or a superficial update of it.

Voting is the most efficient means of determining consensus in an assembled group. This is the technique employed by translation committees who created the King James Version and the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, and it was also chosen by the Jesus Seminar. Attendees of the seminar met semi-annually to debate the papers presented, and vote on the authenticity of about 500 statements/events using a bead system. The character of each vote was indicated by the colour of bead used.

Red beads – indicated the voter believed Jesus did say the passage quoted, or something very much like the passage. (3 Points)
Pink beads – indicated the voter believed Jesus probably said something like the passage. (2 Points)
Grey beads – indicated the voter believed Jesus did not say the passage, but it contains Jesus' ideas. (1 Point)
Black beads – indicated the voter believed Jesus did not say the passage—it comes from later admirers or a different tradition. (0 Points)

The consensus position was determined by the average weighted score, rather than by simple majority. This meant that all opinions were reflected in the decisions. The first findings of the Jesus Seminar were published in 1993 as The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say? The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus (ISBN 006063040X).[1]

The Red sayings (with % indicating the weighted average of those in agreement), given in the Seminar's own "Scholar's Version" translation, are:

1. Turn the other cheek (92%): Mt5:39, Lk6:29a

2. Coat & shirt: Mt5:40 (92%), Lk6:29b (90%)

3. Congratulations, poor!: Lk6:20 (91%), Th54 (90%), Mt5:3 (63%)

4. Second mile (90%): Mt5:41

5. Love your enemies: Lk6:27b (84%), Mt5:44b (77%), Lk6:32,35a (56%) {compare to "Pray for your enemies": POxy1224 6:1a; Didache 1:3; Poly-Phil 12:3}

6. Leaven: Lk13:20–21 (83%), Mt13:33 (83%), Th96:1–2 (65%)

7. Emperor & God (82%): Th100:2b–3, Mk12:17b, Lk20:25b, Mt22:21c

8. Give to beggars (81%): Lk6:30a, Mt5:42a, Didache1:5a

9. Good Samaritan (81%): Lk10:30–35

10. Congrats, hungry!: Lk6:21a (79%), Mt5:6 (59%), Th69:2 (53%)

11. Congrats, sad!: Lk6:21b (79%), Mt5:4 (73%)

12. Shrewd manager (77%): Lk16:1–8a

13. Vineyard laborers (77%): Mt20:1–15

14. Abba, Father (77%): Mt6:9b, Lk11:2c

15. The Mustard Seed : Th20:2–4 (76%), Mk4:30–32 (74%), Lk13:18–19 (69%), Mt13:31–32 (67%)

The top 15 (of 75) Pink sayings are:

16. On anxieties, don't fret (75%): Th36, Lk12:22–23, Mt6:25

17. Lost Coin (75%): Lk15:8–9

18. Foxes have dens: Lk9:58 (74%), Mt8:20 (74%), Th86 (67%)

19. No respect at home: Th31:1 (74%), Lk4:24(71%), Jn4:44 (67%)

20. Friend at midnight (72%): Lk11:5–8

21. Two masters (72%): Lk16:13a, Mt6:24a

22. Treasure: Mt13:44 (71%), Th109 (54%)

23. Lost sheep: Lk15:4–6 (70%), Mt18:12–13 (67%)

24. What goes in: Mk7:14–15 (70%), Th14:5 (67%)

25. Corrupt judge (70%): Lk18:2–5

26. Prodigal son (70%): Lk15:11–32

27. Leave the dead: Mt8:22 (70%), Lk9:59–60 (69%)

28. Castration for Heaven (see Origen) (70%): Mt19:12a

29. By their fruit (69%) (see Antinomianism): Mt7:16b, Th45:1a

30. The dinner party, The wedding celebration (69%): Th64:1–11

Template:Parables of Jesus

In 1998 the Jesus Seminar published The Acts of Jesus: The Search for the Authentic Deeds of Jesus (ISBN 0060629789).[2] In summary: Jesus was born in Nazareth during the reign of Herod the Great, his mother was Mary, and he had a human father who was probably not Joseph. He was baptized by John the Baptist, who was later beheaded by Herod Antipas. He was an "itinerant sage who shared meals with social outcasts" and "practiced healing without the use of ancient medicine or magic, relieving afflictions we now consider psychosomatic", though some claimed he did this in the name of Beelzebul. He proclaimed the coming of "God's imperial rule". He was arrested in Jerusalem and crucified as a "public nuisance", specifically for overturning tables at Herod's Temple, not for claiming to be the Son of God, during the period of Pontius Pilate and Caiaphas. Belief in the resurrection is based on the visionary experiences of Paul, Peter, and Mary Magdalene.

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Criticism of the Jesus Seminar

Several Conservative scholars, including Evangelical scholars, have questioned the methodology, assumptions and intent of the seminar.

Dale Allison of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, in his 1999 book Jesus of Nazareth: Millenarian Prophet (ISBN 0800631447), cited what he felt were problems with the work of (particularly) Funk, John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg, arguing that their conclusions were at least in part predetermined by their personal political views and theological positions. He also pointed out the limitations of their presumptions and methodology. Allison argued that despite the conclusions of the seminar, Jesus was a prophetic figure focused to a large extent on apocalyptic thinking.

Luke Timothy Johnson of the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, in his 1996 book The Real Jesus (ISBN 0060641665), voiced concerns with the seminar's work. He criticized the techniques of the Seminar, believing them to be far more limited for historical reconstruction than seminar members believe. Johnson argued that while many members of the seminar are reputable scholars (Borg, Crossan, Funk, others), others are relatively unknown and undistinguished. He also critiqued the seminar for its attempts to gain the attention of the media, most visibly on the 2000 ABC News program "The Search for Jesus" hosted by news anchor Peter Jennings.

Other scholars who have expressed concerns with the work of the Jesus Seminar are Richard Hays ("The Corrected Jesus" in First Things 43, May 1994), Ben Witherington (The Jesus Quest: The Third Search for the Jew of Nazareth ISBN 0830815449), N.T. Wright (Jesus and the Victory of God ISBN 0800626826), William Lane Craig (Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up?: A Debate Between William Lane Craig and John Dominic Crossan ISBN 0801021758) and Craig Blomberg, Darrell Bock, Edwin Yamauchi, et. al. (Jesus Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus ISBN 0310211395).

Members of the Jesus Seminar have responded to their critics in various books and dialogues, which typically defend both their methodology and their conclusions. Among these responses are The Jesus Seminar and Its Critics (ISBN 094434478X) by Robert J. Miller, a member of the Seminar; The Apocalyptic Jesus: A Debate (ISBN 0944344895), a dialogue with Allison, Borg, Crossan, and others; The Jesus Controversy: Perspectives in Conflict (ISBN 156338289X), a dialogue with Crossan and Johnson, among others; and The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions (ISBN 0060608765), by Borg and Wright.

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