Monday, June 7, 2010

The Jesus Seminar (The Red Letter Bible)

Students,
Here are two pages from the Jesus Seminar. Color coding, like I said in class, range from red, which means Jesus probably said it, to pink, which means it's less likely that Jesus said, to gray, which means it's unlikely Jesus said it but not impossible, to black, which means it's fairly certain Jesus did not say it. You can see the different colors coded in the attached pages.
    I should add that the Jesus Seminar has come under vocal criticism, needless to say. Their basic criteria are flawed. For example, how can we be sure what would have embarrassed the early church? Or the fact that a text is multiply attested (appears in several Gospels or elsewhere) does not necessarily give it a higher probability of being true. We know that many lies are multiply attested even today. By the way, "multiply attested" does not mean if the same passage, for example, appears in Luke and Matthew, because we know that both of them used a common source (the Q text), as well as Mark. So if a text appears in all 3 Gospels (say, Matthew and Luke copy from Mark=3 gospels) that would not constitute multiple attestation. Rather the sources have to be independent of each other.

   

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