Scholar: New Testament is valuable, but fictional

by Patricia Mish

GRAND RAPIDS—The Jesus Seminar, a group of liberal Scripture scholars, set off a controversy in the 1990s by concluding that fewer than one in five of the sayings and actions attributed to Jesus Christ in the Bible actually happened.

“I tend to think that is wildly over-optimistic,” Robert Price, a New Testament scholar and seminar member told the Grand Rapids Freethought Association.

The former Baptist pastor contends “virtually nothing” reported in the Gospels happened.

“I think there’s real doubt as to whether Jesus existed or not,” he said.

But Price, a professor at Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary in Florida, said the writings have value.

“It says what it says, whether it’s Jesus Christ who said it or it’s the product of a roomful of monkeys randomly pecking on typewriters,” he said.

In his recent talk, Price cited the account of Jesus’ resurrection in the Gospel of Mark: Although a young man clad in white told Mary Magdalene and her companions to spread the word that Jesus rose from the dead, they kept quiet.

Price said Mark wrote his version that way to cover up the fact the story was made up.

“Nobody had heard of it before they opened the covers of this book,” he said. “That automatically makes it sound very suspicious as history.”

Price, who attends an Episcopal church, said he doesn’t intend to cast a negative judgment on the words and actions attributed to Jesus.

“It’s about the kind of life that extends toward other people,” he said. “Whether Jesus or John the Baptist or FDR said it doesn’t matter. ... It’s the soundness that matters.”

Audience members Phil and Jane Goodspeed, who attend Fountain Street Church, said they agreed many of the stories in the Bible are “myths” written after Jesus’ lifetime.

But even if Jesus did not exist, that would not undercut her beliefs, Jane Goodspeed said.

“My religion isn’t based on the resurrection or the virgin birth or things right-wing Christians would take as literal truths,” she said.

“It’s the teachings of Jesus that you have to live by.”