THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE JESUS SEMINAR, PART III

We continue in our consideration of the Gospel of the Jesus Seminar, those sayings that the Seminar believe that Jesus undoubtedly said or said something like it, with Mark 4:25 “In fact, to those who have, more will be given, and from those who don’t have, even what they do have will be taken away!” So the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, but is this a purely social and economic statement. If not, then WHAT is it that will be given... Read more

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE JESUS SEMINAR, PART II

The next verse, the fifth, that we shall consider comes from Mark 3:27. Yet again, this verse is pink (reds are apparently hard to come by indeed): “No one can enter a powerful man’s house to steal his belongings unless he first ties him up. Only then does he loot his house.” Say what? Is this man Jesus a thief? So far he’s talked about being a physician and a bridegroom and he’s talked about making wine. He’s made a pretty outrageous... Read more

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE JESUS SEMINAR, PART I

Supposing we accept the work of the Jesus Seminar and base our faith and spirituality only on the red or pink words of Jesus, do we really have anything of meaning? (Red meaning “Jesus undoubtedly said this or something very like it” and pink meaning “Jesus probably said something like this.”) I went through the red and pink of the Gospel of Mark recently to see if I could make any sense of what was left. In what follows, I’ll use the... Read more

THE GOD OF JESUS CHRIST ACCORDING TO Q

I’ve been studying the Book of Q – the version produced by Burton Mack of the supposed “Sayings Gospel”, source for the common material of Luke and Matthew not found in Mark. Again, supposedly, they have been stripped of any taint of the hypothetical “Christ Cult.” I wanted to see if there was anything we could learn about God – God, not ethics or morality – from just these sayings of Jesus, since this comes from a very liberal wing... Read more

REIMARUS MISUNDERSTANDS FAITH

Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694-1768) is thought by some to be the godfather of the search for the Historical Jesus.   Robert W. Funk, founder of the Jesus Seminar says that the search began with this Hamburg professor of oriental languages.   His greatest contribution, the Wolfenbuttel Fragments (”Fragments from an Anonymous Writer”), wasn’t published until after his death; during his life he worked under the pretense of reconciling... Read more

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO Q: DEVELOPING A THEOLOGY AND ESCHATOLOGY

The book of Q, so named from the German word for source, which is quelle, is the supposed lost book of the Bible from which the authors of Matthew and possibly Luke drew and combined with the Gospel of Mark to produce their respective works. Burton Mack claims that the book was written by the first followers of Jesus, but instead of telling the story of Jesus’ life, it would contain only his teachings so that it was a “sayings gospel.” The... Read more