Editing Jesus Seminar (section)

==="Seven pillars of scholarly wisdom"===
''The Five Gospels'' lists seven bases for the modern critical scholarship of Jesus, claiming these "pillars" have developed since the end of the 18th century:<ref name = "5GIntro">[[Robert W. Funk|Funk, Robert W.]], Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar. ''The five gospels.'' Harper San Francisco. 1993. "Introduction," p 1-30.</ref>
# Distinguishing between the [[historical Jesus]] and the stories that the gospels tell about him. [[Hermann Samuel Reimarus]] (1694–1768) started the [[quest for the historical Jesus]] and [[David Friedrich Strauss]] established it as part of biblical criticism with his book ''Life of Jesus Critically Examined'' (1835).
# Distinguishing between the [[Synoptic Gospels|Synoptics]] and [[Gospel of John|John]]. Since the 1800s, Bible scholars have distinguished between the Jesus of the Synoptic gospels ([[Gospel of Mark|Mark]], [[Gospel of Matthew|Matthew]], and [[Gospel of Luke|Luke]]) and the Jesus in John, generally favoring the synoptics as more historical and seeing John as more [[spirituality|spiritual]].
# Identifying Mark as the [[Markan priority|first gospel]]. By 1900, critical scholars had largely concluded that Mark came before Matthew and Luke and served as a source for each.
# Identifying the hypothetical [[Two-source hypothesis|Q document]]. By 1900, scholars had hypothesized this lost collection of Jesus' sayings, thought to be the source of material found in Matthew and Luke but not in Mark.
# Questioning eschatological (apocalyptic) Jesus. In 1906, [[Albert Schweitzer]] portrayed Jesus as a failed apocalyptic prophet, and this analysis virtually put an end to historical inquiry into Jesus. In the 1970s and 1980s, however, critical historians returned to the topic of historical Jesus. Some of these scholars identified the apocalyptic imagery in the gospels as originating with [[John the Baptist]], and not authentic to Jesus.
# Distinguishing between oral and print cultures. Since Jesus lived and preached in an oral culture, scholars expect that short, memorable stories or phrases are more likely to be historical.
# Reversing the burden of proof. In his day, Strauss had to offer evidence to question the historicity of any part of the gospels because his audience assumed that the gospels were historical. Today, the assumption is nearly the opposite, with the gospels understood to be so thoroughly embellished that one needs evidence to suppose that anything in them is historical.

====Noneschatological Jesus====
''The Five Gospels'' says that the non-apocalyptic view of the historical Jesus gained ground in the 1970s and 1980s when research into Jesus shifted out of religious environments and into secular academia. [[Marcus Borg]] says "the old consensus that Jesus was an eschatological prophet who proclaimed the imminent end of the world has disappeared", and identifies two reasons for this change:<ref>[http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/oct1988/v45-3-article2.htm#13 A renaissance in Jesus studies] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204055910/http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/oct1988/v45-3-article2.htm#13 |date=2012-02-04 }} [[Princeton Theological Seminary]], October 1988.</ref>
# Since the 1960s, some scholars have started to view the gospel references to the coming [[Son of Man]] as insertions by the early Christian community.
# Some scholars have begun to see Jesus' [[kingdom of God]] as a present reality, a "[[realized eschatology]]", rather than an imminent end of the world (cf. Luke 17:20–21).

The apocalyptic elements attributed to Jesus, according to ''The Five Gospels'', come from [[John the Baptist]] and the [[early Christian]] community (p.&nbsp;4).

Scholars involved in the third and next quests for the historical Jesus have constructed a variety of portraits and profiles for Jesus.<ref>The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament by Andreas J. Köstenberger, L. Scott Kellum 2009 ISBN 978-0-8054-4365-3 pp. 124–125</ref><ref>Mitchell, Margaret M.; Young, Frances M., eds. (2006). The Cambridge History of Christianity. Vol. 1. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-521-81239-9.</ref><ref>Prophet and Teacher: An Introduction to the Historical Jesus by William R. Herzog (Jul 4, 2005) ISBN 0664225284 p. 8</ref> However, there is little scholarly agreement on the portraits, or the methods used in constructing them.<ref>Theissen, Gerd; Winter, Dagmar (2002). The Quest for the Plausible Jesus: The Question of Criteria (1st American ed.). Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 0-664-22537-3. OCLC 49805829</ref><ref>Charlesworth, James H.; Pokorny, Petr, eds. (2009). Jesus Research: An International Perspective (Princeton–Prague Symposia Series on the Historical Jesus). pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-0-8028-6353-9.</ref><ref>Porter, Stanley E.; Hayes, Michael A.; Tombs, David (2004). Images of Christ (Academic Paperback). T&T Clark. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-567-04460-0.</ref> But according to Theissen and Merz, writing in 1996, while the noneschatological Jesus is a significant trend in contemporary research into the historical Jesus, most scholars affirm the traditional view that Jesus prophesied the imminent end of the world.<ref name = "TM1998 1">
{{cite book
| last1 = Theissen
| first1 = Gerd
| author-link1 = Gerd Theissen
| last2 = Merz
| first2 = Annette
| author-link2 = Annette Merz
| translator1-last = Bowden
| translator1-first = John
| translator-link = John Bowden (theologian)
| year = 1996
| chapter = 1: Quest of the historical Jesus
| title = The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide
| trans-title = Der historische Jesus
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=MIglAQAAIAAJ
| location = Minneapolis, Minnesota
| publisher = Fortress Press
| publication-date = 1998
| pages = 1–16
| isbn = 9780800631239
| access-date = 2018-06-27
}}
(translated from the German)
</ref> Since the 1990s, however, other scholars have pointed out the complexity of apocalypticism within [[Second Temple Judaism]],<ref>J. Klawans, Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple: Symbolism and Supersessionism in the Study of Ancient Judaism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 111-14</ref><ref>[[N.T. Wright]] (2018), Hope Deferred? Against the Dogma of Delay, page 51-52, University of St. Andrews</ref> and grant that Jesus did make "apocalyptic" predictions, but in relation to the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 AD, and not the end of the world.<ref>[[N. T. Wright]], Jesus and the Victory of God (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996), pp. 329–365</ref><ref>Green, J.B., Brown, J., & Perrin, N. (2018). Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels: A Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship. IVP.</ref><ref>Kinman, B. (1999). Parousia, Jesus "A-Triumphal" Entry, and the Fate of Jerusalem. Journal of Biblical Literature, 118(2), 279-294</ref><ref>[[R. T. France]], The Gospel of Mark, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 498–543</ref>