Meet a controversial Jesus scholar

By TOM KISKEN / Scripps Howard News Service

Pastors sit straighter, clutch their notepads tighter and sweat a little harder when Marcus Borg talks.

The best-selling Jesus historian recently brought his message about the literal inaccuracy of many Bible stories to a California Lutheran University seminar in Thousand Oaks. Bouncing lightly on his feet as he spoke, the cigar-smoking, pool-shooting professor argued people can maintain a spiritual relationship with God through Jesus without believing every passage in the New Testament is fact.

Borg said he still believes Christ lives in the hearts and souls of followers and is the manifestation of God. But as a historian, he argues Jesus was:

-- Born not in a Bethlehem manger, but probably in Nazareth.

-- Was the product not of an immaculate conception but of a union between man and woman.

-- Probably a mystic and a faith healer but didn't walk on water. Didn't turn five loaves of bread into food for 5,000. Didn't leave his tomb empty after his death.

It's all metaphor, says Borg, who is working on his 10th book and later this year will appear in a television discussion of the historical Jesus hosted by Peter Jennings. He's also one of the original members of the Jesus Seminar, a 75-member group of scholars who meet twice a year and use colored beads to express their opinions on whether statements and acts attributed to Jesus really happened.

The search for the historical Jesus isn't new. The Jesus Seminar has been meeting since 1985 and five books on the historical Jesus have hit the religion best-selling list over the past several years, including Borg's "Meeting Jesus Again for The First Time."

But it remains as controversial as drawing red slashes through portions of the New Testament. To those who believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible, it constitutes blasphemy.

"It's liberal theology that discredits the authenticity of the Gospel," said evangelical Pastor Ken Craft of Sonrise Christian Fellowship in Simi Valley, Calif., disdain punctuating his words. "I think people are robbing others of the essence of the Gospel."

Even clergy who believe the essence of the New Testament is more important than literal facts have problems with the historical Jesus. At a California Lutheran University lecture, after Borg asserted that Jesus never believed himself to be the son of God, a Lutheran pastor stood up to contest the point.

"Jesus is going to return," said Rod Hansen, "and boy is he going to be mad at you."

Marcus Borg wears pink socks that not only clash with but contradict his powder blue dress shirt and dark brown pants. He is a fluid speaker but hardly a graceful one, bending his knees and, at one point, shoving a hand deep into a pocket.

He and his wife, Mariann, an Episcopal priest, live in Portland, Ore. Borg, who is 55, teaches religion and culture at Oregon State University.

The author of nine books with titles like "The God We Never Knew," Borg said he turns down three invitations to speak for every one he accepts. Still, he makes it to some 50 seminars a year, traveling 135,000 miles.

Biblical literalists may view Borg's words as scandalous, but he is much more accepting of the New Testament's credibility than many scholars, said Scott Bartchy, a UCLA professor of religious history and Christian origins.

"I think Borg is the best of the lot," said Bartchy, referring to the 100 scholars who have participated in the Jesus Seminar. "He's not trying to shock. He's not trying to intimidate. He's trying to be helpful, but not everyone thinks it's helpful."

Borg said he believes Jesus represents the Word of God, just not the words of God. He argues people can believe in the message of the Bible, while still viewing passages such as Jesus walking on water as fictional stories with a point.

"I don't think Jesus thought of himself as the son of God and the Messiah, but I think he is," Borg said, later making a reference to the Biblical resurrection. "I think Easter is true even though I doubt the tomb was empty. The central meaning is that followers of Jesus continue to experience him as a living reality."

Borg argues the Bible consists of images that probably are based on fact. Jesus was a Jew -- a peasant from the Palestinian province of Galilee. He was a holy man and mystic who probably performed paranormal feats of healing.

But many of the stories and statements were supplied not directly by Jesus but by the gospels' authors -- what Borg calls the voice of the community.

Borg and other members of the Jesus Seminar have met for the past 13 years to make judgments on what in the Bible can be categorized as historically true. The group is hardly welcomed with open arms. Time magazine called them rebel scholars and noted they concluded only 18 percent of Jesus' statements in the New Testament were actually spoken.

Borg said Jesus historians interpret the New Testament as a series of layers -- some written earlier than others. Some of the statements made by Jesus are viewed more credibly if they appear in early gospels as well as those written late in the first century.

Images presented only, say, in John, are viewed more skeptically. Scholars also consult a collection of Jesus' sayings not included in the Bible called Q.

Members of the Jesus Seminar vote on the credibility of a statement by placing colored beads in a ballot box. A red bead means the statement was probably factual; a black bead denotes that it may be metaphor. Gray and pink beads are used for passages of which scholars are less sure.

The group has gone through two phases of research, focusing on Jesus' statements and his acts. Borg said members currently are deciding whether they should continue to meet and start a third phase.

(Tom Kisken writes for the Ventura County Star in California.)