Texts about Jesus are difficult, not because the words are hard to understand, but because what they say is shocking and either totally made up and a lie, or totally true. If false, we can ignore this message. If true, a response is required, because a lack of response has consequences. The Bible Bard is interested in what the Bible actually says, not in what critics say it says. These New Testament writings make people uncomfortable, because if Jesus is who he says he is, an alien sent here by God to give humanity an extraterrestrial message, then human beings should be careful to investigate this content and must rely on it for our response. In this episode the Bible Bard recounts the project of the Jesus Seminar from the 1980s. Their objective was to investigate the historical Jesus and distinguish his authentic words and deeds from the text of the New Testament. The Bible Bard Bard was a student of Dr. Dennis R. MacDonald, a New Testament Greek Jesus scholar, in a class he taught on the book of Mark in the University of Colorado, religious studies department. This episodes tells what happened in discussion with the professor. You'll want to listen to this.
