Biblical Archaeology Review Magazine - Biblical Archaeology Society. Biblical Archaeology Society. The Jesus Seminar « Westar Institute Westar Institute. The Jesus Seminar was organized in 1985 to renew the quest of the historical Jesus and to report the results of its research to the general public, rather than just to a handful of gospel specialists. Initially, the goal of the Seminar was to review each of the sayings and deeds attributed to Jesus in the gospels and determine which of them could be considered authentic. Thirty scholars took up the challenge at the initial meeting in Berkeley, California. Eventually more than 200 professionally trained specialists, called Fellows, joined the group at various phases. As the editors of the Seminar’s 1993 book The Five Gospels explain in their Preface, the Fellows of the Jesus Seminar represent a wide array of Western religious traditions and academic institutions. The Seminar met twice a year to debate technical papers that were prepared and circulated in advance.
The Jesus Seminar comprised three phases: In the Beginning “We are about to embark on a momentous enterprise. The Gospel of Thomas Collection -- The Gnostic Society Library. Introduction There is a growing consensus among scholars that the Gospel of Thomas – discovered over a half century ago in the Egyptian desert – dates to the very beginnings of the Christian era and may well have taken first form before any of the four traditional canonical Gospels. During the first few decades after its discovery several voices representing established orthodox biases argued that the Gospel of Thomas (abbreviated, GTh) was a late-second or third century Gnostic forgery. Scholars currently involved in Thomas studies now largely reject that view, though such arguments will still be heard from orthodox apologists and are encountered in some of the earlier publications about Thomas.
Today most students would agree that the Thomas Gospel has opened a new perspective on the first voice of the Christian tradition. Recent studies centered on GTh have led to a stark reappraisal of the forces and events forming "orthodoxy" during the second and third centuries. Gospel of Thomas (Lambdin Translation) -- The Nag Hammadi Library. Marcus J. Borg official website.