John Dominic Crossan: A “brilliant,” “keen mind,” Jesus scholar who “loves the Bible” or a blasphemer?
A couple of weeks ago after church, I came across the CNN article “John Dominic Crossan’s ‘Blasphemous’ Portrait of Jesus,” which offered a brief biographical sketch of the co-founder of the Jesus Seminar, an extremely liberal committee of Bible scholars whose research into the “historical Jesus” attempts to undermine the Christ of the historic Christian faith. Crossan’s own portrait of the “historical Jesus” is one of a Jewish peasant non-violent insurrectionist. Crossan does profess to be a “Christian,” believes he is “trying to understand the stories of Jesus, not refute them,” and says, “if people finish with my books and now see why Pilate executed him and why people died for him, then I’ve done my job.”
Is not John Dominic Crossan really selling the Jesus of his own imagination, one which can be rightly considered blasphemous? What the CNN article does not mention is that Crossan believes Jesus was crucified; however, contrary to the four Gospel writers and Paul’s affirmation in 1 Corinthians 15, the Jesus Seminar co-founder believes the corpse was left unburied and most likely eaten by wild dogs. As for the resurrection appearances, he dismisses them as “tales” and “wishful thinking.” Finally, the Jesus Seminar method of biblical interpretation is both fanciful and flawed in that it takes a particular scholar’s preconceived notion of the “historical Jesus,” and then distinguishes the passages that fit that imaginary portrait as representing the historical person from the passages that do not fit the imaginary portrait as later mythology. For John Dominic Crossan to deny the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and go to great lengths to twist Scriptures in support of his own imaginary portrait of Jesus, the title blasphemous fits.
— Warren Nozaki, Research
For further study on John Dominic Crossan, we recommend:
Answering More Prime Time Fallacies (FALSE Acronym)
The FEAT that Demonstrates the FACT of Resurrection
The Jesus Seminar: The Quest for the Imaginary Jesus
The Jesus Seminar and the Gospel of Thomas: Courting the Media at the Cost of Truth
Jesus and the Earliest Sources: An Answer to John Dominic Crossan