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The Parables of Jesus: A Report of the Jesus Seminar
A concise and readable introduction to the parables for all readers, this first report of the Jesus Seminar reviews the authenticity of all gospel versions of the thirty-three parables attributed to Jesus. Individual versions of each parable are grouped together and arranged for easy reference and comparison.
- GenresChristianity
130 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1988
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About the author
Robert W. Funk
60 books12 followersRobert Walter Funk (July 18, 1926 – September 3, 2005), was an American biblical scholar, founder of the controversial Jesus Seminar and the non-profit Westar Institute in Santa Rosa, California. Funk, an academic, sought to promote research and education on what he called biblical literacy. His approach to hermeneutics was historical-critical, with a strongly sceptical view of orthodox Christian belief, particularly concerning historical Jesus. He and his peers described Jesus' parables as containing shocking messages that contradicted established religious attitudes.
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September 29, 2017
The stories and spiritual concepts of the Gospels
This book is a result of an academic evaluation of what Jesus said in the form parables in the five gospels (including the Gospel of Thomas), and if any scholarly consensus exists about the truth and veracity of these sayings. The King James Version of Bible is based on inferior Hebrew and Greek manuscripts and its translators had little knowledge of ancient Israel. No one has ever compiled a list of words attributed to Jesus following his death. In Jesus seminar, the sayings and parables (A parable is a succinct story that illustrates an instructive principle) attributed to Jesus in the first 300 years were analyzed and compared in terms of history, the culture and traditions that existed at that time. The workbook called "Sayings Parallels" was created in the process and it contained more than a thousand versions of 503 items classified as parables, aphorisms, dialogues, and stories. Looking at the historical development of the four canonical gospels and the apocrypha; it becomes clear that there are many uncertainties in Jesus parables. Jesus was a Galilean peasant who wrote nothing; his native tongue was Aramaic. The records created by other were only in Greek, later translated into Latin, Coptic and other ancient languages. At best, the sayings of Jesus in Aramaic were translated into these languages 35 years after his death (Gospel of Mark and Q manuscripts). The original copies have been completely lost and the oldest fragment of any portion of the New Testament in current existence is probably the Gospel of John dated 125 C.E., and the other three versions of canonical gospels (synoptic gospels) belongs to about 200 C.E. There are about 5,000 Greek manuscripts that contain part or all of the New Testament. No two are exactly alike since they were all copied by hand and usually from dictation. It was not until 1454 C.E., that the identical copies of Bible were reproduced in large scale. In addition to the gospel of Mark, there were three other ancient manuscripts called Q, M and L were used for the creation of the gospels of Mathew and Luke. The M and L documents probably came from oral traditions.
Gospel of Thomas is a sayings gospel with virtually no narrative content. In the gospel of John, Jesus is known to give long aphorisms, unlike synoptic gospels and Thomas, where Jesus speaks parables and aphorisms. In the latter gospels, Jesus espouses the causes of the poor and downtrodden but has little to say about himself. In John, Jesus reflects on his own mission and person and has little to say about the poor and oppressed. Parables attributed to Jesus are also found in other documents apart from the Bible. Some of these overlap with those in the canonical gospels and some are not part of the Bible. The non-canonical Gospel of Thomas contains up to fifteen parables, eleven of which have parallels in the four canonical Gospels. Those unique to Thomas include the Parable of the Assassin and the Parable of the Empty Jar.
Based on the nature of metaphor and its application, oral composition, tight, lean, and compressed style of the text, uncomplicated plots, concrete vivid images, and abstractions of parables, the Jesus seminar evaluated them and expressed their consensus in one of the four categories, either as; Jesus almost certainly said it (red (3 points)) to he did not say it (black (0)), with two intermediate categories, he said something like this (pink (2 points)) or he did not say this but the ideas of this parable is probably his own (grey (1 point)). The votes were counted of all members of Jesus seminar and the final weighted average of all votes decided the color of the parable.
A total of 33 parables were discussed, voted and the results analyzed. The Jesus seminar could come up with only five parables that is in the "red" category; the parable of Leaven (Matthew 13.33b; Luke 13.20b-21; and Thomas 96:1) got the highest vote and deemed most likely said by Jesus. This category also includes the parable of Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30b-35), the parable of Dishonest Steward (Luke 16:1-8a); the parable of Vineyard laborers (Mathew 20: 1-15), and parable of Mustard seed (Thomas 20:2). For each parable, Jesus Seminar gives a commentary as to why this is colored in such a category. Most of these commentaries are very illuminating to read. It is interesting in that the parable Good Samaritan in Luke 10:37-37; Dishonest Seward (Luke 16:8b-9) is voted black; and parable of Leven (Thomas 96:1, Mark 4:31-32, and Luke 13:19) are in the pink category. The seminar states that the wordings in these parables contained in these gospels don't seem to be authentic sayings of Jesus. The Good Samaritan parable according to Luke (10:30b-35) states that a traveler is beaten, robbed, and left half dead along the road. First a priest and then a Levite come by, but both avoid the man; finally, a Samaritan comes by and helps the injured man. Jesus tells this parable in response to a question regarding the identity of the "neighbor" which Leviticus 19:18 says should be loved.
The complete black parables are; the Tower builder (Luke 14:28-30); Fishnet (Matthew 13:47-50; and Thomas 8:1); Grain of wheat (Apocrypha of James (ApJas) 6:11b)); Warring King (Luke 14:31-33), and Children in the field (Thomas 21:1-2). Jesus seminar believes that Jesus did not say these parables.
This book is a result of an academic evaluation of what Jesus said in the form parables in the five gospels (including the Gospel of Thomas), and if any scholarly consensus exists about the truth and veracity of these sayings. The King James Version of Bible is based on inferior Hebrew and Greek manuscripts and its translators had little knowledge of ancient Israel. No one has ever compiled a list of words attributed to Jesus following his death. In Jesus seminar, the sayings and parables (A parable is a succinct story that illustrates an instructive principle) attributed to Jesus in the first 300 years were analyzed and compared in terms of history, the culture and traditions that existed at that time. The workbook called "Sayings Parallels" was created in the process and it contained more than a thousand versions of 503 items classified as parables, aphorisms, dialogues, and stories. Looking at the historical development of the four canonical gospels and the apocrypha; it becomes clear that there are many uncertainties in Jesus parables. Jesus was a Galilean peasant who wrote nothing; his native tongue was Aramaic. The records created by other were only in Greek, later translated into Latin, Coptic and other ancient languages. At best, the sayings of Jesus in Aramaic were translated into these languages 35 years after his death (Gospel of Mark and Q manuscripts). The original copies have been completely lost and the oldest fragment of any portion of the New Testament in current existence is probably the Gospel of John dated 125 C.E., and the other three versions of canonical gospels (synoptic gospels) belongs to about 200 C.E. There are about 5,000 Greek manuscripts that contain part or all of the New Testament. No two are exactly alike since they were all copied by hand and usually from dictation. It was not until 1454 C.E., that the identical copies of Bible were reproduced in large scale. In addition to the gospel of Mark, there were three other ancient manuscripts called Q, M and L were used for the creation of the gospels of Mathew and Luke. The M and L documents probably came from oral traditions.
Gospel of Thomas is a sayings gospel with virtually no narrative content. In the gospel of John, Jesus is known to give long aphorisms, unlike synoptic gospels and Thomas, where Jesus speaks parables and aphorisms. In the latter gospels, Jesus espouses the causes of the poor and downtrodden but has little to say about himself. In John, Jesus reflects on his own mission and person and has little to say about the poor and oppressed. Parables attributed to Jesus are also found in other documents apart from the Bible. Some of these overlap with those in the canonical gospels and some are not part of the Bible. The non-canonical Gospel of Thomas contains up to fifteen parables, eleven of which have parallels in the four canonical Gospels. Those unique to Thomas include the Parable of the Assassin and the Parable of the Empty Jar.
Based on the nature of metaphor and its application, oral composition, tight, lean, and compressed style of the text, uncomplicated plots, concrete vivid images, and abstractions of parables, the Jesus seminar evaluated them and expressed their consensus in one of the four categories, either as; Jesus almost certainly said it (red (3 points)) to he did not say it (black (0)), with two intermediate categories, he said something like this (pink (2 points)) or he did not say this but the ideas of this parable is probably his own (grey (1 point)). The votes were counted of all members of Jesus seminar and the final weighted average of all votes decided the color of the parable.
A total of 33 parables were discussed, voted and the results analyzed. The Jesus seminar could come up with only five parables that is in the "red" category; the parable of Leaven (Matthew 13.33b; Luke 13.20b-21; and Thomas 96:1) got the highest vote and deemed most likely said by Jesus. This category also includes the parable of Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30b-35), the parable of Dishonest Steward (Luke 16:1-8a); the parable of Vineyard laborers (Mathew 20: 1-15), and parable of Mustard seed (Thomas 20:2). For each parable, Jesus Seminar gives a commentary as to why this is colored in such a category. Most of these commentaries are very illuminating to read. It is interesting in that the parable Good Samaritan in Luke 10:37-37; Dishonest Seward (Luke 16:8b-9) is voted black; and parable of Leven (Thomas 96:1, Mark 4:31-32, and Luke 13:19) are in the pink category. The seminar states that the wordings in these parables contained in these gospels don't seem to be authentic sayings of Jesus. The Good Samaritan parable according to Luke (10:30b-35) states that a traveler is beaten, robbed, and left half dead along the road. First a priest and then a Levite come by, but both avoid the man; finally, a Samaritan comes by and helps the injured man. Jesus tells this parable in response to a question regarding the identity of the "neighbor" which Leviticus 19:18 says should be loved.
The complete black parables are; the Tower builder (Luke 14:28-30); Fishnet (Matthew 13:47-50; and Thomas 8:1); Grain of wheat (Apocrypha of James (ApJas) 6:11b)); Warring King (Luke 14:31-33), and Children in the field (Thomas 21:1-2). Jesus seminar believes that Jesus did not say these parables.
February 13, 2019
Shatters Jesus' parables into many pieces.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews