15. The Jesus Seminar does not speak for biblical scholarship.
Ankerberg: What is the opinion of the European scholars, many of them that we’re going to interview in Europe, concerning our American Jesus Seminar group?
Evans: The opinion is not very good, to put it mildly. Continental scholarship, they either haven’t heard of the Jesus Seminar or if they have, they dismiss it derisively. British scholarship, it’s just the same way. They.... "They Jesus Seminar! Oh, you must be kidding. Does anybody take them seriously?" That’s the European response. I’ve seen that firsthand.
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?
Evans: No. They do not. They try to be influential and they’ve had positions of leadership; but I’m an active member of the Historical Jesus section of the Society of Biblical Literature. Three, four hundred show up typically at their meetings. That’s about 10 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 with 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.
Ankerberg: Then are the scholars astonished that they get such great press?
Evans: I think they are, but then I think they look at that as that’s the way the media operates and they’re not impressed. |
