Bible Review

The Gospel According to John, with introduction, translation and notes by Raymond E. Brown (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1966), p. L.

Funk, Honest to Jesus (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996), p. 20.

The Parables of Jesus: Red Letter Edition, Robert Walter Funk, Bernard Brandon Scott and James R. Butts, eds. (Sonoma, CA: Polebridge Press, 1988), p. xiii.

Of the seminar’s critics, only Luke Johnson rejects this premise. But he rejects the legitimacy of all historical Jesus research. Commenting on the inclusion of Thomas in The Five Gospels, he charges, “Its inclusion seems to make primarily a political or ‘culture wars’ point: the Gospels are to be considered of value only insofar as they are sources for the historical Jesus” (“Jesus Seminar’s misguided quest,” pp. 19–20). If this were so, John would not have been included.

Birger Pearson, “The Gospel According to the Jesus Seminar,” Religion 25 (1995), p. 322.

Howard Clark Kee, “A Century of Quests for the Culturally Compatible Jesus,” Theology Today 25 (April 1995), p. 25.

Witherington, Jesus Quest, p. 57.

Witherington, Jesus Quest, p. 44.