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Choo! 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.