Jesus Seminar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Seminar

The Jesus Seminar is a research team of about 135 New Testament scholars founded in 1985 by the late Robert Funk and John Dominic Crossan under the auspices of the Westar Institute.[1][2] One of the most active groups in biblical criticism,[3] the seminar uses historical methods to determine what Jesus, as a historical figure, may or may not have said or done. In addition, the seminar popularizes research into the historical Jesus. The public is welcome to attend the twice-yearly meetings. They produced new translations of the New Testament plus the Gospel of Thomas to use as textual sources. They published their results in three reports The Five Gospels (1993),[4] The Acts of Jesus (1998),[5] and The Gospel of Jesus (1999).[6] They also run a series of lectures and workshops in various U.S. cities.

The seminar's reconstruction of Jesus portrays him as a wandering wisdom sage who did not found a new religion or rise from the dead, but preached in startling parables and aphorisms. He often turned common ideas upside down, confounding the expectations of his audience. He preached of "Heaven's imperial rule" (traditionally translated as "Kingdom of God" ), which was already present but unseen. He depicts God as a loving father. He fraternizes with outsiders and criticizes insiders.

The seminar treats the gospels as historical artifacts, representing not only Jesus' actual words and deeds but also the inventions and elaborations of the early Christian community and of the gospel authors. The fellows placed the burden of proof on those who advocate any passage's historicity. Unconcerned with canonical boundaries, they asserted that the Gospel of Thomas has more authentic material than the Gospel of John.[7]

While analyzing the gospels as fallible human creations is a standard historical-critical method,[8] the seminar's premise that Jesus did not hold an apocalyptic world view is controversial. The fellows argue that the authentic words of Jesus indicate that he preached a sapiential eschatology (which encourages his disciples to repair the world) rather than an apocalyptic eschatology (which encourages his disciples to prepare for the end of the world).[9][10] This premise is in contrast to the one of contemporary evangelical scholars who maintain the image of Jesus as an apocalyptic figure preaching an inaugurated eschatology, which attempts to syncretize present and future expressions of the world to come.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Seminar

Today's featured article on Wikipedia is about the Ebionites,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebionites

The Ebionites were an early sect of mostly Jewish disciples of Jesus, who flourished in and around the land of Israel, as one of several Jewish Christian communities coexisting from the 1st to the 5th century of the Common Era. Where they took their name from is unclear, since the word appears in several religious texts, such as the Dead Sea scrolls, the Epistle of James, and the Gospel of Luke which features one of Jesus' most well-known blessings: "Congratulations, you poor! God's domain belongs to you." They are said to have dispossessed themselves of all their goods, and to have lived in religious communes. Since there is no authenticated archaeological evidence for the existence of the Ebionites, their nature and history cannot be definitely reconstructed from surviving references. The little that is known about them comes from critical references by early and influential theologians and writers in the Christian Church, who considered them to be "Judaizers" and "heretics". However, according to some of the modern scholars who have studied the historicity of the Ebionites, they may have been disciples of the early Jerusalem church, who were gradually marginalized by the followers of Paul of Tarsus despite possibly being more faithful to the authentic teachings of the historical Jesus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Jesus

A long, but interesting article. Of particular relevance to my purposes here is the following passage:

...Though John's teachings remained visible in those of Jesus, Jesus would emphasize the Kingdom of God not as imminent, but as already present and manifest through the movement's communal commitment to a relationship of equality among all members, and living by the laws of divine justice.

Originally posted by rwingett
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Jesus

A long, but interesting article. Of particular relevance to my purposes here is the following passage:

...Though John's teachings remained visible in those of Jesus, Jesus would emphasize the Kingdom of God not as imminent, but as already present and manifest through the movement's communal commitment to a relationship of equality among all members, and living by the laws of divine justice.

Originally posted by rwingett
Today's featured article on Wikipedia is about the Ebionites,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebionites

The Ebionites were an early sect of mostly Jewish disciples of Jesus, who flourished in and around the land of Israel, as one of several Jewish Christian communities coexisting from the 1st to the 5th centur ossibly being more faithful to the authentic teachings of the historical Jesus.[/b]

Originally posted by jaywill
Is this suppose to be like new information that a lot of Christian readers never noticed before ?

I mean [b]Matthew also says that He [Christ] gave to Peter the keys to the kingdom of the heavens. And the "church" and the "kingdom of the heavens" are used virtually interchangeably in Matthew 16:18,19.[/b]

Originally posted by ahosyney
I hope whodey reads this articles. It might tell him what some christians in the 1st century believed.

The majority of Church Fathers are in agreement in claiming that the Ebionites rejected many of the central Christian views of Jesus such as the pre-existence, divinity, virgin birth, atoning death, and physical resurrection of Jesus. The Ebionites a ...[text shortened]... as anointed with the holy spirit at his baptism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebionites

Originally posted by rwingett
It ties in with my ongoing theory that Jesus was a proto-socialist and that his teachings were directed toward establishing an egalitarian, communal reformation of society in the here and now. So, in that sense, yes, it is information that most christians have never noticed before.

Originally posted by ahosyney
I hope whodey reads this articles. It might tell him what some christians in the 1st century believed.

The majority of Church Fathers are in agreement in claiming that the Ebionites rejected many of the central Christian views of Jesus such as the pre-existence, divinity, virgin birth, atoning death, and physical resurrection of Jesus. The Ebionites a as anointed with the holy spirit at his baptism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebionites

Originally posted by rwingett
It ties in with my ongoing theory that Jesus was a proto-socialist and that his teachings were directed toward establishing an egalitarian, communal reformation of society in the here and now. So, in that sense, yes, it is information that most christians have never noticed before.

Originally posted by whodey
All in all I would say that the Ebionites come closer to the disciples than the gnostics, however, I am still largely unimpressed.

Originally posted by rwingett
I brought all this up once before in another thread, but got no reply from the orthodox christians.

Originally posted by josephw
Fundamentally, if one does not believe that Jesus rose from the dead, then one isn't a christian.

Originally posted by Nemesio
There are different ways in which people can believe in this (that Jesus rose from the dead). That
was what all the controversy was in the second century.

Nemesio

Originally posted by josephw
Jesus died and rose from the dead. Literally.