Jesus, Sinners, and Table Fellowship

Abstract

Until recently, Jesus' table fellowship with sinners has formed part of the bedrock of the authentic Jesus tradition, even among scholars who doubt the historicity of a substantial portion of the Synoptic Gospels. This consensus has been challenged by several recent studies, and Jesus' meals have been likened more to Greco-Roman symposia than to anything likely in early first-century Jewish Galilee. This article responds to both of these issues by applying the criterion of double dissimilarity and double similarity to the major, relevant Synoptic texts and argues both for their authenticity and for their distinctiveness from symposia.