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Battling Over the Jesus Seminar

Buyer Beware!

Sensationalist claims sold here

By Ben Witherington III

Robert Miller’s thoughtful response to critics of the Jesus Seminar, myself included, is of value not least because of its irenic tone. It was my aim when I wrote The Jesus Quest (InterVarsity Press, 1995) to approach the matter in the same way. Arguments should be answered with arguments, not mere rhetoric or polemics. I have no complaints whatsoever about open forums of discussion on the historical Jesus and his life, times and teachings. Public discourse is certainly not the problem. But the attempt to gain certain kinds of publicity by making dubious pronouncements is another matter. Miller’s tone […]

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Endnotes

1.

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.

2.

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

3.

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

4.

The Five Gospels (New York: Macmillan, 1993), p. 36.