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