Expository Files 3.9
September 1996
By Warren E. Berkley
In 1985 Robert Funk organized a group of scholars now called The Jesus Seminar. With a high public profile, these academic associates meet on a semi-annual basis to discuss and debate "the Historical Jesus." Under the sponsorship of the Westar Institute (Sonoma, California), these men apply their scholarly methods of analysis to the New Testament record of Jesus. Out of this research they offer to the public their consensus about who Jesus really was and what He actually said. In 1994 they released a book entitled "The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say?" In this work the Jesus Seminar scholars argue ...
![]() | that Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah and did not predict the end of the world. |
![]() | Jesus probably did share a symbolic last meal with his disciples just before his death. But they think that the words attributed to Jesus in the Bible, comparing himself to the bread and fruit of the vine, were probably fabricated by followers after his death. |
![]() | The "Lord's Prayer," which the Bible says Jesus taught to his followers, was also probably composed by Christians after his time on Earth had ended. |
More recently, the Jesus Seminar has conducted meetings with great public fanfare in several cities. Each Christmas and Easter season the media need a religious feature story, so there have been reports about the Jesus Seminar and their conclusions by all the major magazines and newspapers. Likewise, there have been at least two major publications answering the Jesus Seminar methods and arguments. "Jesus Under Fire" by Moreland and Wilkins (Zondervan), and "The Real Jesus" by Luke Timothy Johnson (HarperCollins). Also, for online computer users, there are WEB PAGES with Jesus Seminar information ( http://www.harpercollins.com/sanfran/js.htm).*
For those who have been exposed to this, or want to be prepared to deal with it, consider ...
So, when confronted with the scholarly excesses of the Jesus Seminar, weigh in on the questions without fear. Know where they are "coming from," and know what you believe.
Frederick Kenyon, a renowned paleographer and textual critic, affirmed: "The Christian can take the whole Bible in his hand and say without fear or hesitation that he holds in it the true Word of God, handed down without essential loss from generation to generation through the centuries," (Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts, 55).
"And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." (Jno. 20:30,31, NKJV).
*My WEB SITE on the Internet contains this article and other resources regarding the Jesus Seminar: http://www.hiline.net/~wberkley/
{Documentation: THE REAL JESUS, by Luke Timothy Johnson, HarperCollins. THE MYSTERY OF A RESURRECTED RABBI, by David A. Wade, Sojourners, Jan.-Feb., 1996, Vol. 25, No. 1.}
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