The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus - Softcover

Jesus Seminar

Softcover

ISBN 10: 006063040X ISBN 13: 9780060630409

Publisher: Harperone, 1997

Synopsis

Did Jesus claim to be the Messiah?
Did he promise to return and usher in a new age?
How did Jesus envision the Kingdom of God?

The Five Gospels answers these questions in a bold, dynamic work that will startle traditional readers of the Bible and rekindle interest in it among secular skeptics. In 1985 the Jesus Seminar, comprising a distinguished group of biblical scholars, was founded by Robert W. Funk. They embarked on a new translation and assessment of the gospels, including the recently discovered Gospel of Thomas. In pursuit of the historical Jesus, they used their collective expertise to determine the authenticity of more than fifteen hundred sayings attributed to him. Their remarkable findings appear in this book.

About this title

Review:

"This book is a probing, penetrating, and deeply spiritual journey into the heart of the gospels. It brings to the reading public many of the issues that are commonplace among Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish scholars, and might well become the means whereby the secularized post-Christian world discovers its own deepest roots."--The Rt. Rev. John Shelby Spong, Episcopal bishop of Newark, author of "Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism""At a time when the airwaves were full of televangelists touting the New Testament as God-inspired, inerrant...and supportive of right-wing views, here was a channel for another viewpoint..."The Five Gospels "said it loud and proud."--"Time""The Jesus Seminar is simply one of the most exhilarating developments in the recent history of scholarly books on the New Testament."--"Publishers Weekly"

Synopsis:

In 1985, the Jesus Seminar, a group of biblical scholars, embarked on a new translation of the gospels. In pursuit of the historical Jesus, they attempted to determine the authenticity of the more than 1500 sayings attributed to him. Did Jesus really give the Sermon on the Mount? Is the Lord's Prayer composed of his authentic words? This book aims to answer these questions. Each saying attributed to Jesus is presented in a colour-coded text. Only those sayings that appear in red type are considered by the Seminar to approximate what Jesus actually said. The words in pink, in the judgment of the Seminar, less certainly originated with Jesus. Those in grey are considered not his, though the ideas they contain are close to his own. Finally, the sayings that appear in black have been ruled to be embellishments by his followers, and entirely inauthentic. According to the Seminar, no more than 20 percent of the sayings historically attributed to Jesus were actually uttered by him. This book contains commentary and notes on the text of the gospels and explores the historical and literary factors that formed the basis for the Seminar's findings.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harperone
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 006063040X
• ISBN 13: 9780060630409
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 576