The story and accounts of Jesus is a topic that has fascinated people from all walks of life. It is also a story that one that has fascinated many historians. This is because the belief in Jesus and his writings have shaped history and continues to shape the world in many ways. Many people thus scrutinize the Bible to identify its historical reliability. One group that has strived to scrutinize the teachings, sayings, and accounts of Jesus is the Jesus Seminar. The Jesus Seminar was formed to separate historical fact from mythology. It is composed of a group of scholars between 50 and 75 who vote on their view of the historicity of the sayings and deeds of Jesus of Nazareth. The Jesus Seminar started off as an authentic exploration of the gospel but has led to disastrous effects of leading many astray and discrediting the bible.
Merits of the Jesus Seminar Movement
One merit of the Jesus Seminar movement is that it presents strong arguments that call for a keen scrutiny of the Bible. The arguments can be used by different people who study the bible to gain a deeper understanding of scripture. The arguments by the Jesus Seminar are built on several assumptions. One example of the assumptions is based on the fact that the Gospels record the occurrences like that of miracles like food multiplying and dead people coming alive. However, miracles cannot scientifically happen and thus the New Testament could be fabrications. This means that the gospels may not be entirely historical.
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The arguments by the Jesus Seminar present arguments that can be used to separate historical science and mythology. This can be useful in later studies when trying to separate accounts of the bible that could be purely factual or some that could appear to be mythological. Robert Funk founded the Jesus Seminar in order to uncover the historical person of Jesus of Nazareth using the best proven methods of scientific and biblical criticism. 1 The view separates the Christian legend and myth from the historical accounts that could have factual evidence that they may occur today. The separation of history and mythology would allow for a keen analysis and study of mythology. For instance, the Jesus Seminar puts to question the resurrection of Jesus. This opens up a new debate about the historical truth of the resurrection. It opens up new teachings to the debate and may provide a better understanding on the topic of resurrection.
The Jesus Seminar is also advantageous because it presents arguments that are easy to be understood by the common man. A large part of the secular world understands very little about the accounts of the New Testament. Many people also question whether the miracles performed by Jesus were actually true. Many Americans today are also being swept away by the secular environment as many find religion to be quite bizarre. The Jesus Seminar appeals to the common man in different ways. This could create curiosity about the bible and its teachings and lead the common man to a study and understanding of scripture.
The Jesus Seminar also presents an acceptable form of Jesus to many. The Jesus presented by the Jesus Seminar involves having Jesus as a form of guru figure. He is an interesting and savvy teacher that has wise things to say from time to time. Jesus made different people feel good about themselves and left other people to carry on with the task. This presents a new construction of looking at Christianity that is acceptable to other religions. The Jesus Seminar can thus be used to reconcile different religions.
Weaknesses of the Jesus Seminar
One of the weaknesses of the Jesus Seminar is that they discredit critical sections of the New Testament that holds the Bible together. Discrediting the New Testament is would ultimately lead to rejecting the entire account of the bible. One of the reasons is that the entire New Testament would be discredited if Jesus never rose from the dead. The Jesus Seminar dismiss the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ because it cannot be explained by natural means. They note that the resurrection is false but only has a significance because of the story it would tell. However, Apostle Paul disagrees with this statement by stating that “If "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.” (1 Corinthians 15:17).
The statement by Robert Funk that Christ did not rise from the dead would make Christians have nothing to celebrate. Robert Funk notes that Christ was buried in a shallow grave and was later dug up where he was eaten by dogs 2 . This would also lose the entire point of Christianity. Christians would have to be pitied because they may have believed in stories that are not grounded on facts. The risen savior is the only way that he defeated death and is the foundation of the Christian faith.
The Jesus Seminar lead to a misrepresentation of the bible which has been found to be historically, geographically, and culturally accurate. The accounts of the witnesses can be trusted because they have been found by archeological evidence to be true. The Jesus Seminar assumes that the gospels were fabricated and that they were seriously distorted. However, the New Testament writers claim that the writings were based on eyewitness accounts of the fact. 3 They give an abundance of cultural and geographic details that are accurate and were not available to other writers of the next century. Some of the recent findings in archaeology show that funerals in Galilee and Jerusalem were conducted differently. A person that is fabricating the story after the fact would not know the exact details in later years. While this does not prove that Jesus rose from the dead, it builds a case for the fact that most accounts in the Gospel are accurate.
The dismissal of miracles also presents several questions about the foundation of Christianity which is centered on the belief in the spiritual and physical world 4 . Members of the Jesus Seminar dismiss any miracles of Jesus and note that they were just stories used to spark interest. The problem is that miracles were used to show that Jesus was a supernatural being. The entire bible about the presence and occurrence of God is based on God being supernatural. This would discredit various accounts of supernatural appearances in both the New Testament and Old Testament.
The arguments presented by the Jesus Seminar reject the fact that Jesus is the son of God. Rejecting this fact would mean that all other historical accounts are not true. For instance, they reject the fact that Jesus performed miracles and the resurrection. However, the miracles of Jesus Christ were used to show that Jesus is the son of God. According to Martin, this undermines who Jesus truly is and Jesus becomes just like another man 5 . The Jesus Seminar also rejects more than 80 percent of sayings which could have been attributed to Jesus. One example is the Lord’s Prayer which the reviewed for accuracy based on the words of Jesus. They reviewed the Lord's prayer and only found that “our father” were the only words that could have been said by Jesus.
What is unfortunate about the about the discrediting of the bible is that it could lead many astray and make many believe in a lie. The Jesus Seminar has become highly popular in the past few decades and it has gained a significant amount of popularity. Their works have been used to stray many people from the actual gospel. This is in accordance with scripture that states that “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” (2 Timothy 4:3). The verse appears as a prophecy of what would occur in the later centuries. There are many individuals and teachers that cannot put sound doctrine but put teachings that suit their own desires.
One of the critics of the Jesus Seminar is Miller who notes that the teachings of the Jesus Seminar are not subjective in their findings. 6 The findings first eliminate any evidence of the bible that cannot be simply explained through the use of modern scientific principles. One cannot have a fair assessment of the truth by first discrediting all items at the start. Eliminating the supernatural realm as being inaccurate at the start of the argument presents a biased argument. One has to take account of the miracles and the teachings of Jesus Christ and the fact that he is the Son of God.
In conclusion, the Jesus Seminar started off as an authentic exploration of the gospel but has led to disastrous effects of leading many astray and discrediting the bible. The Jesus Seminar has had merits of raising questions that lead to a deeper study and analysis of the bible. The movement has also appealed to the larger common man. However, the teachings of the Jesus Seminar discredit miracles, sayings, and resurrection of Jesus. This can discredit the entire teachings of the bible. The Jesus Seminar is thus false and does not present a fair judgment and factual view of the bible.
Bibliography
Corner, M. (2017). Signs of God: Miracles and their interpretation . Routledge.
Funk, R. W., & Hoover, R. W. (1993). the Jesus Seminar. The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus , 34 .
Keener, C. S. (2018). The Quest for the Historical Jesus after the Demise of Authenticity: Toward a Critical Realist Philosophy of History in Jesus Studies, written by Jonathan Bernier, 2016. Biblical Interpretation , 26 (3), 428-431.
Martin, R. (2018). The Elusive Messiah: A philosophical overview of the quest for the historical Jesus . Routledge.
Miller, R. J. (1999). The Jesus Seminar and its critics (pp. 65-79). Polebridge Press.
1 Robert Funk and Roy Hoover, "the Jesus Seminar." The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus , (1993).
2 Robert Funk and Roy Hoover, "the Jesus Seminar." The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus , (1993).
3 Craig Keener, "The Quest for the Historical Jesus after the Demise of Authenticity: Toward a Critical Realist Philosophy of History in Jesus Studies, written by Jonathan Bernier, 2016", ( 2018), 431.
4 Mark Corner, Signs of God: Miracles and their interpretation , 2017.
5 Raymond Martin, The elusive Messiah: A philosophical overview of the quest for the historical Jesus , 2018.
6 Robert Miller Joseph, The Jesus Seminar and its critics , (1999).
