The voice of Jesus has for centuries been obscured and his vision skewed even by well-intended gospel writers, who transmitted his words to serve their own concerns. The Gospel of Jesus frees Jesus' voice from the accretions of time and lets his challe

There were four different portraits of Paul in the early church: the non-authoritarian Paul of the great Letters, the authoritarian, misogynist Paul of the Pastoral Epistles, the frenetic missionary who single-handedly introduced Christianity to the Mediterranean world, and the proto- Gnostic Paul of Marcion and the Gnostic commentaries on Paul s letters. Which is the real Paul? The Christian church opted for the Pastoral Epistles, and so read Paul letters through that lens. But that image has become so problematic in the modern world that many contemporary readers are either put off by Paul or simply ignore him. But was Paul really such a frightful figure? In providing a fresh reading of Paul s authentic letters, the SV translators have attempted to liberate his words from those of Augustine, and later Martin Luther, who used Paul to cover their own guilty consciences. This Augustinian-Lutheran tradition of interpreting Paul s discourses about justification by faith as a way of dealing with their own sense of moral failure, for instance, represents but one way of translating Paul s letters. The Greek of Paul s writings can be understood rather differently so that Paul s message is not about personal guilt, but about the trustworthiness of God, and Jesus courageous faith in God as a role model for others. This is how Paul s letters are translated in this book. Here readers will encounter a very different view of Paul and his message.

The voice of Jesus has for centuries been obscured and his vision skewed even by well-intended gospel writers, who transmitted his words to serve their own concerns. The Gospel of Jesus frees Jesus' voice from the accretions of time and lets his challenging wisdom stand out as never before. This single composite gospel, created out of the sayings and reports that were deemed probably historical by the Jesus Seminar, is an essential resource for anyone seeking to detect the words of Jesus as they were heard by his earliest listeners. Features of the new edition: New introduction Updated translation and notes Expanded index of sayings and stories User-friendly format

An essential resource for the analytical study of the gospels, The Complete Gospel Parallels goes beyond the standard parallels. This book gives those who study the gospels in English a one-volume compendium of synopses not only for the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but also for the Gospels of Thomas and Peter, as well as for a few gospel fragments (the Egerton Gospel, Gospel Oxyrhynchus 1224, as well as the Jewish-Christian Gospels of the Hebrews and the Nazoreans). The Complete Gospel Parallels also includes a synopsis for the reconstructed Q Gospel, which enables the reader both to discern how the text of Q can be derived and how Q was adopted and adapted by Matthew and Luke. The Complete Gospel Parallels features the fresh and vibrant Scholars Version translation, which has been thoroughly revised and fine-tuned to facilitate the precise comparison of parallel passages, using consistent English for the same Greek and different English where the originals vary. The Complete Gospel Parallels lucid translation, its easy-to-use format, and its broad range of gospel materials will enhance and deepen the serious reader s appreciation of early Christian tradition and literature.

Many ideas once thought to be foundational to Christianity are now known to be false due to scientific discoveries regarding the nature of the universe and historical findings about how Christianity began. Is Christianity doomed to irrelevance or even extinction? How might Christianity reinvent itself so that it can address the real concerns of people in today's world? This collection of essays from such leading thinkers as Karen Armstrong and John Shelby Spong addresses questions such as life after death, the meaning of God, apocalypticism, and the significance of Jesus' death. Contributors: Karen Armstrong, Don Cupitt, Arthur J. Dewey, Robert W. Funk, Lloyd Geering, Roy W. Hoover, Robert J. Miller, Stephen J. Patterson, Bernard Brandon Scott, John Shelby Spong

In order to demonstrate how the crucifixion narrative emerged and changed over time, this historical primer on the death of Jesus includes an overview of the evidence that Jesus existed and was crucified, explanations of how crucifixion worked and why it was employed by the Romans, and descriptions of Jesus' death in early Christian literature in a logical progression from the earliest to latest.

Theology at its best lends rhythm and rhyme to the raw energy of life. It improvises on this world without trying to escape to a heaven somewhere else. In this curated collection of radio commentaries and editorials, Art Dewey invites readers to remain open to new meaning as it arises from our encounters with neighbors, strangers, and friends. Through anecdotes and modern parables touched with humor and curiosity, he blends ancient and modern attempts to make sense of who we are and where we're going.

The event of Jesus' resurrection is like the event of creation: There were no eye-witnesses. So how does one make sense of the story of the resurrection - or rather stories, for not one but many diverse reports survive from early Christianity? Brandon Scott suggests that we must begin by erasing all Christian art about the resurrection from our memory. And then forget all the sermons we heard at Easter. The best way to understand the resurrection, he argues, is to arrange the texts chronologically and observe how the story itself developed. ""The Resurrection of Jesus: A Sourcebook"" begins with just such a list, compiled with commentaries by Robert W. Funk.It proceeds to a report of the Jesus Seminar's votes on the resurrection, followed by a collection and discussion by Robert Price of resurrection stories found in the Greek culture of Jesus' day, and an in-depth study by Arthur Dewey of a little-known resurrection story in the ""Gospel of Peter"". Philosopher Thomas Sheehan concludes the volume with two essays that help put the pieces back together again, in ways that make sense in the modern world.

What difference does scholarship on the historical Jesus make for the way we think about the meaning of Christian faith in the twenty-first century? In "The Historical Jesus Goes To Church, biblical scholars--Fellows of the Jesus Seminar--speak directly to the ways in which new knowledge of the Jesus of history requires and enables us to think differently about the significance of Jesus and about the reliability and authority of the Bible. They also imagine what these new understandings imply for public worship, preaching, prayer and practice, and life in community. These articles evoke the spirit of Paul, Christianity's first theologian, who like us found himself standing at the intersection of two eras and knew that he had to let go of his past if he hoped to have a future.

Can the authentic words and deed of Jesus identified by the Jesus Seminar furnish a sufficient basis for a credible profile of the Jesus of history? That is the challenge faced by the contributors to this volume. Their efforts have resulted in a unique collection of studied impressions of Jesus. Here readers will see not Jesus the icon of myth and creed, but a provocative young man of first-century Palestine whose vision and determination to live the vision gave birth to a new form of faith and changed the course of history.

There were four different portraits of Paul in the early church: the non-authoritarian Paul of the great Letters, the authoritarian, misogynist Paul of the Pastoral Epistles, the frenetic missionary who single-handedly introduced Christianity to the Mediterranean world, and the proto- Gnostic Paul of Marcion and the Gnostic commentaries on Paul s letters. Which is the real Paul? The Christian church opted for the Pastoral Epistles, and so read Paul letters through that lens. But that image has become so problematic in the modern world that many contemporary readers are either put off by Paul or simply ignore him. But was Paul really such a frightful figure? In providing a fresh reading of Paul s authentic letters, the SV translators have attempted to liberate his words from those of Augustine, and later Martin Luther, who used Paul to cover their own guilty consciences. This Augustinian-Lutheran tradition of interpreting Paul s discourses about justification by faith as a way of dealing with their own sense of moral failure, for instance, represents but one way of translating Paul s letters. The Greek of Paul s writings can be understood rather differently so that Paul s message is not about personal guilt, but about the trustworthiness of God, and Jesus courageous faith in God as a role model for others. This is how Paul s letters are translated in this book. Here readers will encounter a very different view of Paul and his message.