Table Of ContentChoo! of |heology aatt C laremont
INNA
10017000996 75
ael=
~~ PARABLES
_THE'JESUS SEMINAR
THE
PARABLES
OF JESUS
THE JESUS SEMINAR SERIES
Editorial Board
Ron Cameron
Wesleyan University
Heinz O. Guenther
Emmanuel College
University of Toronto
Charles W. Hedrick
Southwest Missouri
State University
Roy W. Hoover
Whitman College
Robert J. Miller
Midway College
Editor
James R. Butts
PUBLISHED VOLUMES
The Parables of Jesus: Red Letter Edition
The Gospel of Mark: Red Letter Edition
Sw eeeeeeSSsSsS—
)
378.e
Fa
IAFe
WAS
PARABLES
OF JESUS
RED LETTER EDITION
THE JESUS SEMINAR
ROBERT W. FUNK
BERNARD BRANDON SCOTT
JAMES R. BUTTS
Pa
POLELBERB IDGE_ PR PRESS
SONOMA, CALIFORNIA
The cover illustrates the ancient Greek custom of using stones to cast secret ballots. In
procedures such as ostracism, Greek citizens dropped stones or shards into a ceramic jar.
This classical tradition provides a fitting precedent for the balloting of the Jesus Seminar.
Copyright © 1988 Polebridge Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of the copyright owner.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Funk, Robert Walter, 1926-
The parables of Jesus.
Bibliography: p.
1. Jesus Christ—Parables. I. Scott, Bernard
Brandon, 1941- .II. Butts, James R., 1953-
III. Title.
BT375.2.F86 1988 226'.80663 88-25521
ISBN 0-944344-07-0 (pbk.)
10° 9 3 PGs? ees Theology Library
CLAREMONT
SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
Claremont, CA
ontents
Acknowledgments Vii
The Origin of Red Letter Editions Vili
The Story of the Jesus Seminar 1X
Catalogue of Select Greek Manuscripts XVi
Catalogue of Written Gospels XVil
Introduction
What Is A Critical Red Letter Edition? 24
The Parables of Jesus ZS
Table 1: Table of Parables 26
Table 2: Authentic Parables 74
Table 3: Inauthentic Parables 10)
The Consensus To
Appendices
List of Parables by Source 82
Glossary of Names & Terms 83
Parable Scholars: History of Interpretation 85
Suggestions for Further Reading 89
Fellows of the Jesus Seminar O53
Table 4: Parables Ranked by Red Vote 98
Table 5: Parables Ranked by Black Vote 100
Table 6: Parables Ranked by Red Plus Pink Vote 102
Table 7: Parables Ranked by Weighted Average 104
Table 8: Parts of Parables Considered Black 106
Alternative Parable Names 107
IgUres
Layers of Tradition
The Four Source Theory
13
Time Line of the Gospels & Manuscripts
15
Formation of the Gospels
28
The Leaven in Greek & Coptic
35
The Triple Tradition
The Double Tradition 39
The Earliest New Testament Gospel Fragment, P*? 44
Parable of the Pearl in Thomas 47
53
How the Gospels Got Their Names
cknowledgments
The Jesus Seminar wishes to acknowledge the devoted service of its
tellers, who painstakingly collected and counted beads and ballots at each
Seminar meeting. They include: Carol Ford, Jim Johnson, Stephanie
Funk, Milfred Smith.
Professor James Hester of the University of Redlands provided the
Seminar with computer analyses of the voting on each occasion. His help
in identifying the consensus has been invaluable.
The Seminar has been dependent on its reporters for the detailed
accounts of each session published in the Forum. The reporters include:
Robert W. Funk, James R. Butts, Marcus Borg, Roy W. Hoover, and
Edward F. Beutner.
The Fellows and Associates of the Jesus Seminar are also indebted to
the following institutions for material assistance in hosting meetings:
Pacific School of Religion
St. Meinrad Seminary
University of Redlands
University of Notre Dame
Willamette University
Luther Northwestern Theological Seminary
The Parables of Jesus: Red Letter Edition is a collaborative effort.
Bernard Brandon Scott drafted the “Introduction” and “Notes,” with the
assistance of Robert W. Funk. Dr. Funk provided “The Story of the
Seminar” and “The Consensus.” Several of the appendices are the work
of James R. Butts, who also edited the whole.
Several Fellows and Associates read parts of the manuscript and
offered suggestions for improvement: J. Dominic Crossan, Carol Ford,
Sanford Lowe, Roy Hoover, Milfred Smith, and Hal Taussig.
The authors and editors thank the more than one hundred Fellows and
Associates who devoted three years to the creation of this critical edition
of the parables of Jesus.
Vii
Lo Origin of
Red Letter Editions
According to Laurence S. Heely, Jr., publisher of the Christian H erald,the
idea of ared letter edition originated with Louis Klopsch around the turn of
the century.
Mr. Klopsch was born in Germany ii n 1852 and was brought to America in
1854. He studied journalism at Columbia University. He worked his way up _
from stock boy to publisher of the American edition of the Christian Herald.
The idea of a red letter edition struck Klopsch as he read the words of Luke -
22:20: “This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.”
The sentence that provided the name for the second major division of the _
Bible—the New Testament—also offered Klopsch the 1 for printns the
words of Jesus in the color of his blood. —
The publisher invited scholars in America and Europe “to submit pas-
sages they regarded as spoken by Christ while on earth.” He thus convened —
the first Jesus Seminar and produced the first critical red letter edition.
Publishers subsequently abandoned the original limitation—words
spoken by Jesus while on earth—and expanded the red sections to all words ©
attributed to Jesus, while on earth, when appearing in visions, as resur-
rected. Indeed, the Red Letter Edition that supplied much of the infor- _
mation in this note (The Open Bible, published by Thomas Nelson, 1975) _
includes all words attributed to Jesus in whatever state. An edition of the
Revised Standard Version, publication date unknown, excludes words
attributed to Jesus in the Book of Revelation, but includes words spoken 1t o.
Paul in his visions (for example, Acts 22:6-21). This version was published .
and copyrighted by World Bible Publishers, Iowa Falls, Iowa. Inthisin-
stance, as in the case of The Open Bible, the publishers do not tell the reader _
_ who made the decision to print what in red.
Mr. Klopsch and the twentieth century were anticipated, however, bya
fourteenth-century manuscript of the four gospels written in Greek and
Latin. In this manuscript, the narrative text is written in vermilion, whereas
the words of Jesus, the genealogy of Jesus, and the wordsofangelsare _
"written in crimson. Words of the disciples, of Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary,
Simeon, and John the Baptist appear in blue; the words of the Pharisees, the _
centurion, Judas Iscariot, and the devil are in black. The idea fora red letter
_ edition had already occurred to some scribe 500 years earlier. -
This remarkable copy of the gospelsii s known: as — 16 a ndii ssh oused iin
the Bibliotheque Nationale iin Paris.
