The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say? The Search For The Authentic Words Of Jesus

The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say? The Search For The Authentic Words Of Jesus

Did Jesus claim to be the Messiah?Did he promise to return and usher in a new age?How did Jesus envision the Kingdom of God?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.Review"This book is a probing, penetrating, and deeply spiritual journey into the heart of the gospels. It brings to the reading public many of the issues that are commonplace among Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish scholars, and might well become the means whereby the secularized post-Christian world discovers its own deepest roots."--The Rt. Rev. John Shelby Spong, Episcopal bishop of Newark, author of "Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism""At a time when the airwaves were full of televangelists touting the New Testament as God-inspired, inerrant...and supportive of right-wing views, here was a channel for another viewpoint..."The Five Gospels "said it loud and proud."--"Time""The Jesus Seminar is simply one of the most exhilarating developments in the recent history of scholarly books on the New Testament."--"Publishers Weekly"About the Author Robert W. Funk is founder of the Jesus Seminar and Director of the Westar Institute in Santa Rosa, California. He has been a distinguished leader in biblical scholorship for more than thirty years. A Guggenheim Fellow and Fulbright Senior Scholar, he is the author of a dozen books, including Honest to Jesus and The Five Gospels.