| By: Dr. John Ankerberg with various Scholars; ©} |
| The Jesus Seminar |
Ed. note: This article is based upon the transcript from programs produced by the John Ankerberg Show. Additional material has been added for this print version.
Dr. John Ankerberg: In the coming weeks, you may read or hear the opinions of a group of scholars referred to as the Jesus Seminar. Well, many people assume that the opinions of this group represent what most scholars think about Jesus. We decided to ask how scholars evaluated the conclusions of the Jesus Seminar, and we heard might surprise you.
Dr. John Ankerberg: What about in scholarly circles in our own country? When you go to your meetings with the other scholars, do they lead the way?
Dr. Craig Evans: No, they do not. They try to be influential and they’ve had positions of leadership at the Society of Biblical Literature. I’m an active member of the Historical Jesus section of the Society of Biblical Literature. Three to four hundred typically show up typically at their meetings. That’s about ten times what typically show up at a Jesus Seminar meeting. And the Jesus Seminar guys, when they present their distinctive views like a non-eschatological Jesus or the gospel of Peter as a primary source for the other gospels, those views are simply—to put it in slang—blown out of the water. These are minority opinions and they do not hold sway in the larger cross-section of Gospel scholars throughout North America.