Julian Hills, associate professor of theology, attempted to reconcile a gap he says exists between the New Testament and Old Testament interpretations of Jesus before Congregation Shir Hadash at the Beth El Ner Tamid Synagogue in Mequon Friday.

Hills, a long-time fellow of the Jesus Seminar, also shared his views on the "real Jesus" for Shir Hadash, a Jewish Reconstructionalist group. He wants to bridge the gap between the New Testament and the Old Testament understandings of Jesus by showing who Jesus really was and what was actually said through a more scientific understanding of the writings of the time.

He introduced his controversial ideas about Jesus before the curious group, and quoted Jesus Seminar founder Robert Funk, who said: "Tradition is the living faith of the dead and traditionalism is the dead faith of the living."

The description was met with a number of nodding heads from the congregation and opened the doors for Hills' lecture on the quest for the historical Jesus.

"God wants to be found, and I think it's our duty to find God," Hills said, identifying a number of tools scholars use to find authenticity in the many writings of Jesus' time.

Hills commented about the "closed Bible" of today, and said: "Christians never hear anything about something after the year 125. This is just as important in understanding Jesus."

"God did not stop inspiring after '2 Peter' was written," Hills said. "What I'm pushing for is a fairly Jewish reading of the New Testament."

According to Hills, only 18 percent of Jesus' sayings are very near or exactly what he said. "And even at that, 18 percent is prenominal," Hills said, commenting that there were 12 different accounts of the Gettysburg address, which is a relatively current event historically.

He also identified various redaction errors in which the Gospel writers explained Jesus' parables even though "the real parables of Jesus don't have a conclusion."

"There are many things which distort who Jesus really was, and I believe it is essential, if I am going to talk about Jesus, to know who he is and what he truly did," Hills said.

"Our conclusions aren't a matter of taste but rather, a matter of judgment," Hills said, referring to the Jesus Seminar. He said every member is a "lockstep with each other" in terms of opinion.

Hills' lecture was given on behalf of the Jesus Seminar, a group founded by Funk in 1985. Since 1986, Hills has been a member of the Jesus Seminar, a group whose members are required to have a doctorate.

"One of the Jesus Seminar's main goals is to bridge the gap between the academic study of theology and the general public," Hills said.

Hills opened the floor twice to questions from the audience and was met with an abundance of questions from the mostly Jewish congregation.

Reaction to the Jesus Seminar is typically hostile, and often times its members are called "fat cat theologians," Hills said.

While his speech may have been controversial in the eyes of many listening, the overall response was supportive.

Ali Althaus, a Marquette sophomore and student of Hills, was at the lecture.

"The most interesting part of the lecture was seeing Hills' statements from the viewpoints of the congregation members," he said. "That's something you don't get to see when you're in one of his classes at Marquette."