Dethroning Jesus: Exposing Popular Culture's Quest to Unseat the Biblical Christ by Darrell L. Bock

Author:Darrell L. Bock [Bock, Darrell L.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2007-11-06T00:00:00+00:00

This is the only parable of Jesus in which Jesus gives a detailed interpretation (Matt. 13:18–23; Mark 4:13–20; Luke 8:11–15). Marvin Meyer argues that “it is widely acknowledged among scholars that these allegorical interpretations”were put on the lips of Jesus by the early church, and that the absence of such interpretations in Thomas confirms that they were added later. “In the instance of the parable of the sower, the Gospel of Thomas thus presents the parable in a more original form than any of the New Testament gospels” (2004, 10).

Meyer’s confidence in this matter, however, might be mis-placed. First, many scholars see the interpretation of the parable as going back to Jesus himself. Thus, it could just as easily be said that it is widely acknowledged that these interpretations come from Jesus. Second, perhaps Thomas omitted the interpretation because it ran counter to his overall agenda. After all, the interpretation links understanding to faith and faith to repentance, while Thomas puts all of its emphasis on understanding alone. Indeed, it seems far more likely that the author of Thomas excised material that was incompatible with his viewpoint than that all three Synoptic Gospels put words on Jesus’ lips. Third, Thomas has some elements that may be telltale signs of later accretions: the Jesus of the Gospel of Thomas says that the sower “took a handful (of seeds)”; “worms ate” the seeds that fell on thorns; and the crop “yielded sixty per measure and one hundred and twenty per measure.” It is possible, as Meyer suggests, that the addition of the handful of seeds “may constitute a very early storyteller’s detail” (2004, 11), but in combination with the other features, such a notion is unlikely. In particular, the yield of the crop at “one hundred and twenty per measure” is a larger amount than any of the Synoptics suggests, and this kind of alteration is usually a sure sign that the larger number is an expansion on the tradition.

Our point in this exercise is not to argue that the Gospel of Thomas is necessarily dependent on the Synoptic Gospels. Rather, we are simply noting that even some of the best examples in favor of an early and independent Thomas may not be all they are cracked up to be.

There are other factors to consider, however, when thinking about issues of date and dependence. A curious turn of events has taken place in biblical scholarship. For many scholars, John’s gospel is regarded as having no reliable information about Jesus at all. Yet the date of John is certainly no later than the end of the first century. On the other hand, many scholars who consider Thomas to be a second-century document believe it contains some authentic sayings of Jesus. The question we need to ask is this: why should we give preferential treatment to Thomas if it most likely is later than John? When the Jesus Seminar considers far more sayings in Thomas to be authentic than those in John, this looks like a case of special pleading.

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