Smattering of This-and-That

This evening I'm venturing back into the world of hanging - out - with - guys - and - books - and - talking - about - things - that - are - deep - and - relevant. This is something I could get used to.

We're going to be reading/discussing the book "Simply Christian" by N.T. Wright.

I've never read one of his books, but have heard good things. And in doing a little research into who he is and all, I came across some things that I'd forgotten about. Here (along with links) are a few of those things:

The Jesus Seminar - The basic idea is that 200 "leading scholars" get together and debate every sentence and sentiment in the Bible related to Jesus and decide its authenticity. Here's there voting system:

The Fellows used a "bead system" to vote on the authenticity of about 500 statements and events. The color of the bead represented how sure the Fellow was that a saying or act was or was not authentic.

• Red beads – indicated the voter believed Jesus did say the passage quoted, or something very much like the passage. (3 Points)
• Pink beads – indicated the voter believed Jesus probably said something like the passage. (2 Points)
• Grey beads – indicated the voter believed Jesus did not say the passage, but it contains Jesus' ideas. (1 Point)
• Black beads – indicated the voter believed Jesus did not say the passage—it comes from later admirers or a different tradition. (0 Points)

They do averages, and weigh things. It turns out that they are 70% sure Jesus told the parable of Prodigal Son. All-in-all, about 18% of his sayings were "likely to be uttered" and authentic, according to this group. I'm just reminded of how absurd this all seems.


Church and State - I forget that the separation in the U.S. is not the way it always is and was. It turns out that N.T. Wright is the Bishop of Durham, one of the highest ranking bishoprics in the Church of England. What I failed to realize was that this means he is a member of the House of Lords, the British Parliament. How bazaar it is, to think what our country would look like if certain religious appointments came with a political office (I will admit that I don't wholly understand British politics and so therefore have no idea what effect his being in the House is in reality). Imagine just for a second Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, even Rob Bell or Joel Osteen being in Congress (I have an entire post on Osteen, just waiting in the wings). An interesting exercise in "What if."


Finally, the mysterious possibility of document Q.

Not all that interesting to most people, but in short it is "a postulated lost textual source for the Gospel of Matthew and Gospel of Luke." It reminded me that when I went to college, it was for "educational ministries." I took classes in New Testament, Discipleship, epistemology, eschatology, and others. We used to have 2 a.m. conversations in our boxers about these sorts of things. And at times, I miss it.

Maybe tonight can help with that.



p.s. Don't judge me for linking to Wikipedia. I'll defend if I have to.