Customer Reviews

The Acts of Jesus: What Did Jesus Really Do?

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I have read several of the Jesus Seminar series now and have many more on the shelf to read as well as books from some of the individual scholars. But what intrigues me about this volume is the cross reference work and foot notes that help me to better understand the context of the what Jesus did and what was done to him.

After reading much of this volume, I can say that I was not disappointed in the thorough and logical way in which the case for the historical acts by and toward Jesus were developed. This book will find a prominent place on my reference shelf for those times when I need a detailed analysis to answer the question, "What would Jesus do?"

A must have for any serious New Testament work.

While I can't say I agree with every word Crossan and the other members of The Jesus Seminar have to say, I admire their courage to question the absurdity of a literal interpretation of the Bible in the face of so much hatred and ignorance. This book should be read not as the key to the kingdom, but simply as food for thought -- and after all, it was Jesus who said, "You have heads, use them."

An interesting and different perspective is being offered here -- not necessarily all true, but a launching pad for your own explorations of Jesus and his life, teachings, and works. If you're afraid of thought and of ideas, by all means stay away. The rest of you can buy this book and enjoy the experience of thinking about your Christian faith and the man who inspired it, rather than choosing to live your life wearing self-imposed blinders.

This book published by the Jesus Seminar, and edited by Robert Funk is an excellent volume for open minded Christians, scholars and students alike. This volume provides a good basis on which to base any future study of the gospels and other Jesus stories. The Jesus Seminar has done a thorough job of evaluating the sources for the gospels that many Christians read daily in their Bibles. They attempt to use not only the gospels, which have their problems as sources due to the synoptic problem, but they also include and evaluate a composition of Q, the gospel of Thomas, and infancy stories. All of these works have their problems as far as how they portray the historical Jesus, but the Seminar does a fine job of quantifying that for the reader. The one fault of the volume, is the fact that they may over compensate for the reader in an effort to find that same elusive historical Jesus. They tend to use outside source information that may not be deemed reliable such as Josephus who's passages in his Antiquties concerning Jesus sound much more like an early Christian apologist and not the writings of a Jew and a Roman of which he was both. Overall, however, this volume is an excellent work and one that should be applauded in it's intent and scope.

This a good book, one of many good books to read on the subject. Like it's companion book -- the Five Gospels what did Jesus really say -- it's an attempt to determine the historical veracity of the New Testament. Understandably, it's an inquiry that would be deemed offputting to the faithful. Interestingly enough, all too few realize that this type of scholarship started some two hundred years ago and was joined early on by no less than Thomas Jefferson himself whose Jefferson Bible (like the books here in question) deny the bonafides of New Testament miracles. Where the Jesus seminar writes their account of the miracles in black (their lowest designation of historical credibility), the Jefferson Bible (formally published after Jefferson's death) simply eliminates them.
For biblical exegis I must say that I prefer the method of Richard Friedman who's recent the Bible With Sources Revealed simply restates the first five books designating for each section the source from which Friedman believes the passage originated. Applying such a method to the New Testament, one could do what the seminar did, but recount each phrase indicating its source (e.g. the hypothetical Q document, Ur Mark and the like). In this fashion, speculation could be made at to the creation of the New Testament by revealing it in its various formative stages. In my humble opinion such an approach would more closely comport with a historical examination of the document.
Be that as it may, the books are fascinating reading and one of many to be considered in better understanding the historical Jesus.

Historically speaking, translations of the Gospels have obscured rather than elucidated their meaning and style. The 'characters' behind the compositions, their style, is typically lost in translation. The scholars version compiled by the Seminar allows the style and meaning of the original compositions to come through, in modern, unpretentious English, in a way which no other translation has ever done. Mark's grammatically rough Koine Greek comes through true to life, and Luke's superior compositional skills come through with clarity; The Acts of Jesus, like the rest of Funk's works, is set aside by its clarity, insight, and honesty. I would recommend it to anyone who is more interested in who and what Jesus really was rather than what the anonymous gospel writers in the late first century thought of him.

The Jesus Seminar is controversial, but deep down I think these guys are as faithful as anyone, in that they care deeply about Jesus' transformative message of neighbor love and social justice which Jesus described as God's rule on earth. If you are a literalist and think that the search for truth ends when your pastor opens his mouth, then maybe this book is not for you. But if you believe that God gave us all the ability to think, and if you wonder about the historical contexts in which the Gospels were written, then this book will fascinate you. You might not agree with their conclusions, but the Jesus Seminar will give you the information you need to decide for yourself.

As Jew married to a Christian, and who's children, given free will choose Christanity, I have always been put off by the New Testament either the King James or Revised Standard Edition.

So it was a marvelous suprise to find this book, As soon as I read the introduction I knew this is a book I yearned for for 53 years. Here is the real Jesus, minus the overlay of a Christian sect using him to there own agenda. I have lived my life using many of the teachings of Jesus especially the sermon on the Mount.

However, to convert to Christanity one needs to really understand the man. To me Jesus is not the Christ,created by Paul, Mary and Peter, but another great leader like Moses, Mohatma Ghandi, Mohammad, or Buddha. In that textual assumtion one can believe in Jesus and his teaching and not get caught up in theology. Too many Christians, like too many Jews, or Mohamadans profess their allegence to their faith but rarely follow it's teachings. Just imagine a world where we would all do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Hate,war, bigotry, man's inhumanity to their fellow man would vanish. Then one could truly beleive in a Messiah that changed the world. Now we can only understand the Acts of Jesus and try to practise what he preached.

The Biblical Scholars who contributed to this book demonstrate how little of what Jesus actually did is historically likely. While this may upset some people, the book looks at what is historically probable and how much is not. Independent of any particular Christian denomination, the book will likely upset some readers, but it gives one a feel for how and to what purpose the gospels, letters, etc. were written as well as the various practices of early Christians.

I can't believe all the wasted ink attacking these people. None of the historians reviewing the gospels is saying "If we don't think it happened, don't believe it." Every one that I've read (maybe 20 books) is only saying that, as historians, it's not their job to examine and analyze miracles (changing water to wine and coming back from the dead). That's the job of theologians. An historian's job is to compare the gospels and historical records and see what seems likely or unlikely. You want to believe in miracles? Fine. You believe Jesus was the son of God? Fine. Why waste your time attacking scholars on a subject they're, admittedly, not even trying to deal with.

That being said, here's my problem with this book. Since three of the gospels tell (with slight variation) the same story, why have the text of Mathew, Mark and Luke included separately? The reader covers the same ground and analysis three times. It would have been much easier for the reader to combine the story of the synoptic gospels and read the analysis once. My other problem is the translation. If Jesus was charismatic, as these scholars claim, then HOW he said things was just as important as WHAT he said. There is not an ownce of beauty or inspiration in this translation. It is broken down to the simplist, most comman language. No one not already a Christian would be converted by this boring, pedestrian version.

The collected efforts of the Jesus Seminar are wonderful, if only for the way they jolt us from religious insensibility and spark our own desire to learn Truth. Thank you for this inspiring work, Mr. Funk!

I read the other reviews here and would so much like to respond to the 'reviewer' in Carmichael, CA who hides behind anonymity.