Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #134408 in Books
• Published on: 1997-01-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

From Library Journal
The Jesus Seminar, a group of scholars who have attempted to locate the authentic words of Jesus, made headlines two years ago by reporting that, of the entire Lord's Prayer as found in Matthew, the only words that could conclusively be attributed to Jesus are "Our Father." In this book they have published their results. This new translation of the four gospels, augmented by the noncanonical Gospel of Thomas, presents Jesus' words printed in colored code: red for words Jesus almost certainly spoke, pink for his probable locutions, gray for the less than likely, and black for the implausible. The translation itself is far more colloquial than most. More germane, though, is that the four levels of authenticity were determined by the casting of ballots, which the editors admit is problematic and represents the fundamental weakness of the book. Whether Jesus actually spoke certain words matters little in the long view of Christianity, making this book a theological curiosity and religiously superfluous.
- W. Alan Froggatt, Bridgewater, Ct.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Based on the work of the Jesus Seminar, which brought together a group of biblical scholars, this new translation of and commentary on the five Gospels offers an answer to the perennial question, What did Jesus really say? The group not only surveyed all the surviving ancient texts for words attributed to Jesus, but also examined the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas. Then, juxtaposing the Synoptic Gospels against John and Thomas, the seminar scholars began a long and arduous process to see if they could discover which sayings are close to what Jesus said, which might have originated with Jesus, those that are not his (though the ideas may be), and those that were created by his followers or borrowed from folklore. The story of how the scholars put together this translation is fascinating in its own right, but even more so is the color-coded New Testament itself, bolstered by enlightening commentary that explains why and how category decisions were made. A strong addition to religion collections. Ilene Cooper

Ingram
A controversial bestseller argues that only twenty percent of the sayings attributed to Jesus in the New Testament were actually spoken by him and is based on a translation of original Greek and Coptic texts of the five gospels, including that of Thomas, discovered in 1945. Reprint.

Customer Reviews

Can we ever look at the Gospels the same?
There have been many critics of the Jesus seminar, many of which wouldn't be able to tell you the first thing about it, other then that it consists of a bunch of "Damn liberals".
With the release of "The Five Gospels" the ground breaking work of the Jesus seminar is finally allowed to speak for itself.

The introductory sections to the Five Gospels are worth the ticket price alone, concise summaries of modern research and theories on the Gospels.
I also found the "Scholars version" a highly readable translation. Where the Greek contains a colloquism, a play on words or outright bluntness, the translators have sought to reproduce this in English, the "present tense" originally found in Mark is also preserved. One of my favourite examples is when Jesus is brought before the High priest and asked if he is teh Messiah, he responds "You said it".

But to me, the real value of "The Five Gospels" is the insight into the construction of the Gospels "Matthew" and "Luke".
After examining the parellels between the source text Mark and Matthew and Luke, I cannot imagine any self respecting scholar denying Markan priority or the existance of Q while keeping a straight face.
Previously, I was unaware that Matthew uses an amazing 90% of Mark, with Luke totalling around 50%, and noting instances where Mark is either left out altogether, "softened", or "improved" is a most revealing insight into the mindset of the Authors.

After rereading the synoptics I was shocked at how foreign the Gospel of John is in comparison. As noted in the introduction, in the synoptics Jesus never talks about himself and speaks in parables. In John, Jesus tells no parables and talks about no one else except himself!

Perhaps most striking of all is The Gospel of Thomas. The orthodox Church continues to rail against Thomas as " pure heresy" while more and more Christians are turning to the text for insights beyond anything in the canonised account.
After examining the parallels between Thomas and the synoptics, it is impossible to call Thomas a work of "pure heresy", at worst it is 60% heresy!

It is easy to criticise the criteria by which the Jesus Seminar worked, but no criteria was ever going to please everyone.
For example, Matthew's sayings about maintaining the Law of Moses were voted "black" with the fellows believing Matthew was a "Rejudaiser", on the contrary it is my opinion that thse saying were an authentic part of Q and Luke ignored these passages for his Hellenistic audience.

To the people who work themselves up in a tizzy because their favourite saying was voted black, I have a very simple solution.
Get out your red highlighter and correct the "mistakes" of the fellows, but by no means throw the baby out with the bathwater!

Stephenhanes@yahoo.com

Interesting on many levels
The Five Gospels is the end product of years of research, thought, discussion, and voting by the Jesus Seminar. Description of how decisions were made and the color coding of text for estimated authenticity were fascinating in themselves. the Jesus Seminar is much more tranparent about how it works and the weaknesses of their method than any scholarly group I am aware of. ENRON could learn from this. News reports that only a small precentage of accepted texts could be attributed to Jesus were somewhat misleading in that the seminar did not include common phrases and amphorisms that Jesus may have used but that were not unique to him. The story of the Gnostic Gopel of Thomas was intriguing. Or you can ignore the controversies and just read a careful modern translation that is much more understandable than most.

Check your preconceptions at the door
Even it you disagree with the conclusions, it is worth considering the work and thought of the Jesus Seminar scholars to help you get a fresh "take" on your own beliefs. If you can keep your blood presure under control, the translations are interesting and well thought out. You learn more than you think you need top know about the voting procedure and how the seminare opporates, but I guess from being criticised they felt they needed to be transparent. I find it exciting to attempt to locate the human man before he became the Messiah.