Chapter 6 Discussion

Here are some responses to yesterday's questions.


1. Have you ever heard of the Jesus Seminar? I had not heard of them before this book but have noticed them being interviewed on shows on the History Channel and other stations now that I am aware of them.


2. If you heard a council was going to meat to discuss how authentic the four Gospel accounts are, what topics do you think would come up in the discussion? I would expect them to look at a document and figure out from the number of copies and archeology when the document was written and by who. Then they should compare with other known documents to determine which is the most authentic. The Jesus seminar just takes a vote with colored beads on their opinion. There is no scholarship to their techniques and they have the audacity to reject the Bible for manuscripts that are less authentic like the Gospel of Thomas that have only one copy, was written later and was not written by an eyewitness.


3. What are the concepts of "double dissimilarity" and "multiple attestation"? Double dissimilarity is when they say that what we know about Jesus was made up later by Christians and Jewish believers so they reject anthing Jesus said that was Jewish or Christian. That's a little ridiculous since Jesus was a Jew and started the Christian church. Multiple attestation is having more than one reference to an event. This is a good principle but they consider the Bible as one source rather than the multiple manuscripts it is derived from.


4. What documents do scholars that reject the Bible actually like to refer to as authentic in their minds? I mentioned above the Gospel of Thomas. There are also the Gospels of Barnabas and Judas and many other gnostic writings. I wander if they actually read these documents since they think Jesus was a feminist but the Gospel of Thomas says a female has to become male in order to be saved. (I guess Sonny and Cher's daughter is on the right path after all, oops, I'm gonna have to ask for forgiveness for that later.)


5. Does the Jesus Seminar have a valid point that the Jesus of history probably was quite different than the Jesus of Faith? Actually no! The New Testament manuscripts are all very authentic being written less than 30 years after events before legendary material could enter into them. Since most other ancient writings can't claim this then to doubt the Jesus of Faith you would have to doubt major historical figures such as Plato, Julius Caesar, Hannibal and Homer.