Jesus Seminar

Re "Scholars Cite Lack of Resurrection Evidence," March 11: The Jesus Seminar has asserted most of the words attributed to Jesus in the Gospels are fabrications. They also advised us of their opinion that the physical Resurrection of Jesus is also a fabrication. It's only a matter of time before they decide there was no crucifixion and, from there, it's just a short hop to the declaration there was no Jesus at all. Why are they fudging? Instead of chipping away at the Christian faith, why not just declare the whole thing a hoax and be done with it?

"Our father ?" Most Christians can fill in the words that follow: " ? who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done ?" But wait ? let's rewind. John Dominic Crossan , a renowned, if controversial, scholar of Christianity, says the essence of the Lord's Prayer can be found in those first two words, in fact, in the single word "father," which, he believes, encapsulates an entire 1st century worldview lost to modern churchgoers. "After that," he says, "everything would follow.

I am somewhat distressed by the view of the Jesus Seminar presented by Dana Parsons' column ("Jesus Seminar? Believers Stress the Message, Not Words," March 6) and K.C. Williams' letter to the editor ("For Many, Faith in Scriptures Still Firm," March 17). Both give the impression that the seminar is part of some secular humanist plot to undermine the faith of all good Christians. Williams suggests that the seminar's findings portray Christianity as "outdated" and Christ as "irrelevant."

Re "Jesus skeptics on the run," Current, Dec. 18 Thank you for your unbiased glimpse at the person of Jesus. Without a doubt, Jesus was the most divisive figure in history. For that reason I suspect that the Jesus Seminar scholars have their own agenda when addressing the validity of Jesus' claims. First and foremost, Jesus claimed to be the son of God. This sets up a tension for we humans. If, as he claims, he is the son of God, then the implications for us are enormous.

Catherine Casey had never heard of the Jesus Seminar, which surprised me. I thought there was a good chance she would see the group of biblical scholars as the devil's henchmen. Casey is part of a five-family conglomerate of couples that opened a Christian bookstore 16 years ago. Four of the couples still operate it today, tucked into the corner of a strip mall on Westminster Boulevard in Westminster. It's a business built on faith and sustained by people who keep the faith.

A professor at Point Loma Nazarene College, an evangelical Protestant college, has resigned after being told to drop out of a long-term project involving 75 scholars studying the authenticity of sayings attributed to Jesus in the New Testament and other sources. John Lown, 44, professor of philosophy and religion, said Tuesday he resigned shortly after the president of the 1,900-student college told him to end his participation in the so-called Jesus Seminar.

The Jesus Seminar, a controversial group of scholars that evaluates the New Testament in the harsh light of historical review, has concluded that there is no evidence that the Easter Resurrection was a physical reality. More likely, they decided, the story of the historical Jesus ended with his death on the cross and the decay of his body. The scholars also agreed that there probably was no tomb and that Jesus' body probably was disposed of by his crucifiers--not his followers.

Through the centuries observant readers as well as biblical scholars have recognized major differences (often called "contradictions") in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These differences have always raised questions about the nature and integrity of the Gospels as witnesses to Jesus and his ministry. During the last six years the Jesus Seminar has sought to make a public matter of the reliability of the Gospels as a source for the teachings of Jesus.

The recent "findings" of the Jesus Seminar have evoked a deluge of disbelief--not disbelief in the Jesus of the Gospels as the panel advocates, but disbelief that esteemed Bible scholars would discount the obvious historical value of the Gospels. How did it happen? The "analytical tools" of seminar members are seriously flawed.

Was Jesus the first Jewish comedian? Did he deliver the Sermon on the Mount and, if so, why was it so short? Is the Resurrection a true event or an example of early Christian mass hysteria? As Easter Sunday approaches, the search for the historic Jesus--the man, not the Gospel figure of miracle and mystery--has hit the U.S. media with a loud, some would say blasphemous, thunderclap, leading to questions that many orthodox Christians would never have dreamed of asking. All three major U.S.

ANNE RICE'S "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt," her novel about the boy Jesus whose family has not gotten around to telling him that he is the messiah, is a national bestseller. That's not surprising. Rice is a seasoned storyteller whose 26 previous novels on subjects ranging from vampires to sadomasochistic erotica have sold more than 75 million copies.

Robert W. Funk, founder of the controversial Jesus Seminar, which called into question New Testament miracle stories and the authenticity of many of the statements attributed to Jesus, has died. He was 79. Associates at the Westar Institute, which sponsored the Jesus Seminar, said Tuesday that Funk died Saturday at his Santa Rosa, Calif., home of lung failure. He had undergone surgery in July to remove a malignant brain tumor.

Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" may well be the best movie about Jesus Christ ever made.

Imagine a convocation of New Testament scholars in the next century poring over a recently discovered cache of ancient scrolls. What a delightful, mystical figure Jesus cuts here! He's hardly like the fire-and-brimstone version promoted in the establishment Gospels. Surely this is the real Jesus, the one suppressed for so long by a rigid hierarchy. Sad, isn't it, this group realizes, that all previous generations of scholars were too hidebound and fundamentalist to perceive the truth.

"Who do you say that I am?" Christ asked his followers in the Gospels, and scholars have been struggling to answer that question ever since. Few scholars or theologians, however, have dealt with an obvious fact: Jesus was Jewish. But in recent years, thanks to breakthroughs in archeology as well as in our understanding of Aramaic and Hellenistic Greek, the Jewishness of Jesus has been excavated.

"This is what I have learned between Ireland and America, monastery and university, priesthood and marriage," writes John Dominic Crossan at a characteristically confessional moment in his memoir, "A Long Way From Tipperary." "I have learned that God is more radical than we can ever imagine, that a divine utopia on this Earth is more subversive than we can ever accept, and that Pilate acted for all of us when he executed Jesus."

More than two centuries of critical biblical scholarship has produced a significant array of criteria for judging the reliability of the Gospel reports of what Jesus said and did. The author of Mark, the oldest Gospel, for instance, was not an eyewitness of the events and words he records. Indeed, Mark may have employed hearsay evidence that passed through several persons. The voice of Jesus has been muffled to a greater or lesser extent by those who revered him.

The controversial Jesus Seminar, which recently declared that Jesus did not say 80% of what is attributed to him, is turning its analytical eye toward how many of the biblical accounts of his life, death and resurrection actually happened. The group of liberal-to-moderate biblical scholars will examine everything from healing the sick and walking on water to the climactic episodes when followers find Jesus' burial tomb empty.

Plunging into sensitive and potentially controversial territory in an upcoming prime-time news special, ABC News and anchor Peter Jennings will examine what scholars believe is true, and not true, about Jesus' life as detailed by the New Testament. The unusual two-hour documentary, "Peter Jennings Reporting: The Search for Jesus" scheduled for Monday night, has been in the works, off and on, for nearly three years.

Chapman University will host a program Thursday called "Honest to Jesus: An Evening with the Jesus Seminar," featuring Robert Funk, founding member of a controversial group of biblical scholars. The group's conclusions include findings that not only did Jesus not walk on water, he also didn't feed flocks of believers with wine and bread, nor did he raise Lazarus from the dead.