Reviewed Book: Funk, Robert W. (Robert Walter). The five gospels: the search for the authentic words of Jesus: a new translation and commentary. [S.l.]: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997

Schlueter, Carol J.

English

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 21Issue 1 Women and Men in Theological Education:Exploring the Present, Creating the FutureArticle 175-1-1995The five gospels: the search for the authentic wordsof Jesus: a new translation and commentaryCarol J. SchlueterFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationSchlueter, Carol J. (1995) "The five gospels: the search for the authentic words of Jesus: a new translation and commentary," Consensus:Vol. 21 : Iss. 1 , Article 17.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol21/iss1/17Book Reviews 141later construction. The nature miracles, especially the sea miracles, cannot,I think, bear this interpretation, but given the importance of conquest ofthe sea, both figuratively and actually, in Imperial propaganda, fit betterinto Crossan’s anti-colonial reading of the exorcisms. And, while grantingthat much of the passion narratives is scripture-generated rather than his-torical recollection, many critics would argue for somewhat more historicalrecollection than Crossan allows.The great virtues of Crossan’s volume are its clarity and coherence ofargument. His conclusions are bound to be troubling, but throughout, it isclear that they derive from a carefully articulated method that strenuouslyresists producing a Jesus congenial with the writer. If Crossan’s Jesus is atroubling figure, perhaps it was that Jesus was a troubling figure.John S. KloppenborgUniversity of St. Michael’s College,Toronto School of TheologyThe Five Gospels, The Search for the Authentic Wordsof JesusTranslation and Commentary by Robert W. Funk and Roy W.HooverNew York: MacMillan Publishing Co., 1993Every critical edition of the Greek New Testament involves hundredsof thousands of individual judgments. The Fellows of the Jesus Seminarhave developed their own critical edition of the gospels called the ScholarsVersion. Now we can read the results from The Jesus Seminar publishedin The Five Gospels, The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus, anewtranslation and commentary by Robert W. Funk and Roy W. Hoover, andthe Jesus Seminar, (New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., 1993). In addi-tion to a fresh translation of the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John,it also includes the Gospel of Thomas, a translation from the Coptic Gospelof Thomas found in 1945 in Nag Hammadi and earlier Greek fragments.This addition helps to round out the historical picture of gospel writings.Called the Scholars Version, the book is organized with Mark leadingthe others since scholars believe that Mark is the earliest gospel. The workwas begun in 1985 with thirty scholars taking up the challenge. Eventuallymore than two hundred joined the Fellows of the Seminar. They met twicea year to discuss papers and to vote with coloured beads (from red as anunequivocal indicator through pink, gray, and finally black as not probable)to indicate the degree of alleged authenticity of Jesus’ words. The fact thatsome words attributed to Jesus were not likely spoken by him does notdiminish their importance.142 ConsensusThe work is significant because if attempts to give integrity to thestyle and content of each gospel in its own right without imposing modernstandards of smooth, polite writing upon the works. There is no attemptto level out the translations of the gospels and pious terms are avoided.In the case of Matthew 23:13, for example, since “Woe” is not part ofcontemporary conversation, the scholars chose to omit the word and toexpress the word in contemporary English. The Scholars Version reads,“You scholars and Pharisees, you impostors! Damn you! You slam thedoor of Heaven’s domain in people’s faces. You yourselves don’t enter, andyou block the way of those trying to enter.” In a different example, thesentence “He who has ears to hear let him hear!” is rendered “Anyonehere with two good ears had better listen!” The Scholars Version is a morecontemporary expression and it also preserves the assonance of the Greektext. Here/hear reminds the English ear of the other. “‘Anyone here withtwo good ears’ has the succession sounds— ere, ear, which suggests thejassonance of the Greek text, which may be transliterated as ota akoueinakoueto (the succession of akou-, akou- and of ota, -eto, with a shift invowels)” (p. xiv).IStyle is an important consideration in translation. The Scholars Ver- 'sion tries to keep Mark as close to street language as possible, saying thatthe King James Version distorts Mark’s orality by shifting present and im-perfect tenses to simple pasts. While the translation represents the originalGreek text more accurately in English translation, there was no attempt toedit out the social and cultural features of the text. For example, there arestill slaves in the text, uncomplimentary stereotypes, and a male-dominatedworldview.The Seminar intends to make its research more available to churchesand synagogues and to ordinary folk than scholars usually do. They believethat TV evangelists, other media, and slick magazines prey on the fears ofthe uninformed.Seven pillars of scholarly wisdom are discussed in the introduction. Inbrief, they include: the recognition of the difference between the Jesus ofhistory and the Christ of faith of the creeds, the recognition of the Jesusof the Synoptic gospels as closer than the Gospel of John to the historicalJesus, the recognition of the gospel of Mark as prior to Matthew and Luke,the hypothesis of the source Q as the explanation for the material whichMatthew and Luke have in common in addition to dependence on Mark, theliberation of the non-eschatological Jesus from Schweitzer’s eschatologicalJesus, the acknowledgement of the Jesus of the gospels as an imaginativetheological construct and therefore the search for his words as a search forthe historical Jesus, the recognition of the fundamental difference betweenoral culture and a print culture, and that the burden of proof for historicityof the gospels rests upon the scholars.While the Jesus Seminar investigated the narratives in minute detailand published their findings, they readily acknowledge that there are neverguarantees of results. One of the most insightful questions they pose isBook Reviews 143whether the Jesus we have found is the Jesus we wanted to find. “The lasttemptation is to create Jesus in our own image, to marshal the facts tosupport preconceived convictions” (p. 5). It is this temptation which hasled the Jesus Seminar as its final general rule: Beware of finding a Jesusentirely congenial to you. This is a message each of us who preaches andteaches in the church needs to hear. I think that this book is a necessity inthe library of every pastor.Carol J. SchlueterWaterloo Lutheran SeminaryIsrael and the Politics of Land: A Theological CaseStudyW. Eugene MarchForeword by Walter BrueggemannLouisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994112 pp. $12.99 U.S. paperThis timely book reached my desk fresh from the publisher one weekbefore leaving on a Study Tour to Israel and the Occupied Territories. Theauthor takes the reader on a fascinating historical and theological jour-ney beginning with Abraham and Sarah and ending with the dramaticIsraeli-Palestinian Liberation Organization peace accord signed in Septem-ber, 1993.The author’s thesis is that “[L]and is best understood as a divine loanintended for responsible (righteous and just) use. Human communitiesrequire land, but they can never claim full ownership and are ever to bejudged by how they exercise dominion over the land” (p. xi).“People and Land: Many Faces, Many Voices” heads the engaging firstchapter sketching the profiles of several true-to-life Arabs and Jews whodaily wend their way through the Damascus and Jaffa gates.Chapter 2, “The Realities of History: People, Power, and Palestine”,sketches the history of the land from Roman times, ending with the Arafatand Rabin handshake in Washington, D.C. on September 13, 1993. Marchevoked shivering chills in this reviewer at the memory of September, 1982,when Lebanese Christian militiamen entered two Palestinian refugee camps,Sabra and Shatila, under protective cover of Israeli army units, and merci-lessly slaughtered hundreds of people, mostly women and children.Chapter 3, “God and Earth-keeping: Biblical Perspectives on Land”,presents a standard from which to assess earth-keeping, i.e. “[T]he successor failure of every attempt at dominion can be measured against the Bible’scall for righteousness, for love, for mercy, for justice” (p. 47).In Chapter 4, “God’s Way and Israel: Theological Reflections on a Par-ticular Land”, March meets his greatest challenge. He claims that “[A]ny

The five gospels: the search for the authentic words of Jesus: a new translation and commentary

Scholars Commons

Consensus
Volume 21
Issue 1 Women and Men in Theological Education:
Exploring the Present, Creating the Future
Article 17
5-1-1995
The five gospels: the search for the authentic words
of Jesus: a new translation and commentary
Carol J. Schlueter
Follow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus
This Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by an
authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.
Recommended Citation
Schlueter, Carol J. (1995) "The five gospels: the search for the authentic words of Jesus: a new translation and commentary," Consensus:
Vol. 21 : Iss. 1 , Article 17.
Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol21/iss1/17
Book Reviews 141
later construction. The nature miracles, especially the sea miracles, cannot,
I think, bear this interpretation, but given the importance of conquest of
the sea, both figuratively and actually, in Imperial propaganda, fit better
into Crossan’s anti-colonial reading of the exorcisms. And, while granting
that much of the passion narratives is scripture-generated rather than his-
torical recollection, many critics would argue for somewhat more historical
recollection than Crossan allows.
The great virtues of Crossan’s volume are its clarity and coherence of
argument. His conclusions are bound to be troubling, but throughout, it is
clear that they derive from a carefully articulated method that strenuously
resists producing a Jesus congenial with the writer. If Crossan’s Jesus is a
troubling figure, perhaps it was that Jesus was a troubling figure.
John S. Kloppenborg
University of St. Michael’s College,
Toronto School of Theology
The Five Gospels, The Search for the Authentic Words
of Jesus
Translation and Commentary by Robert W. Funk and Roy W.
Hoover
New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., 1993
Every critical edition of the Greek New Testament involves hundreds
of thousands of individual judgments. The Fellows of the Jesus Seminar
have developed their own critical edition of the gospels called the Scholars
Version. Now we can read the results from The Jesus Seminar published
in The Five Gospels, The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus, anew
translation and commentary by Robert W. Funk and Roy W. Hoover, and
the Jesus Seminar, (New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., 1993). In addi-
tion to a fresh translation of the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John,
it also includes the Gospel of Thomas, a translation from the Coptic Gospel
of Thomas found in 1945 in Nag Hammadi and earlier Greek fragments.
This addition helps to round out the historical picture of gospel writings.
Called the Scholars Version, the book is organized with Mark leading
the others since scholars believe that Mark is the earliest gospel. The work
was begun in 1985 with thirty scholars taking up the challenge. Eventually
more than two hundred joined the Fellows of the Seminar. They met twice
a year to discuss papers and to vote with coloured beads (from red as an
unequivocal indicator through pink, gray, and finally black as not probable)
to indicate the degree of alleged authenticity of Jesus’ words. The fact that
some words attributed to Jesus were not likely spoken by him does not
diminish their importance.
142 Consensus
The work is significant because if attempts to give integrity to the
style and content of each gospel in its own right without imposing modern
standards of smooth, polite writing upon the works. There is no attempt
to level out the translations of the gospels and pious terms are avoided.
In the case of Matthew 23:13, for example, since “Woe” is not part of
contemporary conversation, the scholars chose to omit the word and to
express the word in contemporary English. The Scholars Version reads,
“You scholars and Pharisees, you impostors! Damn you! You slam the
door of Heaven’s domain in people’s faces. You yourselves don’t enter, and
you block the way of those trying to enter.” In a different example, the
sentence “He who has ears to hear let him hear!” is rendered “Anyone
here with two good ears had better listen!” The Scholars Version is a more
contemporary expression and it also preserves the assonance of the Greek
text. Here/hear reminds the English ear of the other. “‘Anyone here with
two good ears’ has the succession sounds— ere, ear, which suggests the
j
assonance of the Greek text, which may be transliterated as ota akouein
akoueto (the succession of akou-, akou- and of ota, -eto, with a shift in
vowels)” (p. xiv).
I
Style is an important consideration in translation. The Scholars Ver- '
sion tries to keep Mark as close to street language as possible, saying that
the King James Version distorts Mark’s orality by shifting present and im-
perfect tenses to simple pasts. While the translation represents the original
Greek text more accurately in English translation, there was no attempt to
edit out the social and cultural features of the text. For example, there are
still slaves in the text, uncomplimentary stereotypes, and a male-dominated
worldview.
The Seminar intends to make its research more available to churches
and synagogues and to ordinary folk than scholars usually do. They believe
that TV evangelists, other media, and slick magazines prey on the fears of
the uninformed.
Seven pillars of scholarly wisdom are discussed in the introduction. In
brief, they include: the recognition of the difference between the Jesus of
history and the Christ of faith of the creeds, the recognition of the Jesus
of the Synoptic gospels as closer than the Gospel of John to the historical
Jesus, the recognition of the gospel of Mark as prior to Matthew and Luke,
the hypothesis of the source Q as the explanation for the material which
Matthew and Luke have in common in addition to dependence on Mark, the
liberation of the non-eschatological Jesus from Schweitzer’s eschatological
Jesus, the acknowledgement of the Jesus of the gospels as an imaginative
theological construct and therefore the search for his words as a search for
the historical Jesus, the recognition of the fundamental difference between
oral culture and a print culture, and that the burden of proof for historicity
of the gospels rests upon the scholars.
While the Jesus Seminar investigated the narratives in minute detail
and published their findings, they readily acknowledge that there are never
guarantees of results. One of the most insightful questions they pose is
Book Reviews 143
whether the Jesus we have found is the Jesus we wanted to find. “The last
temptation is to create Jesus in our own image, to marshal the facts to
support preconceived convictions” (p. 5). It is this temptation which has
led the Jesus Seminar as its final general rule: Beware of finding a Jesus
entirely congenial to you. This is a message each of us who preaches and
teaches in the church needs to hear. I think that this book is a necessity in
the library of every pastor.
Carol J. Schlueter
Waterloo Lutheran Seminary
Israel and the Politics of Land: A Theological Case
Study
W. Eugene March
Foreword by Walter Brueggemann
Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994
112 pp. $12.99 U.S. paper
This timely book reached my desk fresh from the publisher one week
before leaving on a Study Tour to Israel and the Occupied Territories. The
author takes the reader on a fascinating historical and theological jour-
ney beginning with Abraham and Sarah and ending with the dramatic
Israeli-Palestinian Liberation Organization peace accord signed in Septem-
ber, 1993.
The author’s thesis is that “[L]and is best understood as a divine loan
intended for responsible (righteous and just) use. Human communities
require land, but they can never claim full ownership and are ever to be
judged by how they exercise dominion over the land” (p. xi).
“People and Land: Many Faces, Many Voices” heads the engaging first
chapter sketching the profiles of several true-to-life Arabs and Jews who
daily wend their way through the Damascus and Jaffa gates.
Chapter 2, “The Realities of History: People, Power, and Palestine”,
sketches the history of the land from Roman times, ending with the Arafat
and Rabin handshake in Washington, D.C. on September 13, 1993. March
evoked shivering chills in this reviewer at the memory of September, 1982,
when Lebanese Christian militiamen entered two Palestinian refugee camps,
Sabra and Shatila, under protective cover of Israeli army units, and merci-
lessly slaughtered hundreds of people, mostly women and children.
Chapter 3, “God and Earth-keeping: Biblical Perspectives on Land”,
presents a standard from which to assess earth-keeping, i.e. “[T]he success
or failure of every attempt at dominion can be measured against the Bible’s
call for righteousness, for love, for mercy, for justice” (p. 47).
In Chapter 4, “God’s Way and Israel: Theological Reflections on a Par-
ticular Land”, March meets his greatest challenge. He claims that “[A]ny


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