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A Marginal Jew, Rethinking the Historical Jesus: Volume 5, Probing the Authenticity of the Parables. John P. Meier. Yale University Press. 2016. ISBN: 9780300211900.

A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Volume 5 argues that only four parables — the Mustard Seed, the Evil Tenants, the Talents, and the Great Supper — can be attributed to the historical Jesus with fair certitude. It focuses on whether Jesus' parables can be judged historically authentic using the usual criteria of authenticity. A major conclusion of the book is that most parables fall into non liquet; they cannot be proven authentic on historical grounds, even if they may still plausibly go back to Jesus. The book challenges the common scholarly assumption that most or all Synoptic parables are historically Jesus' own. Meier's narrower conclusion is that the evidence strongly supports only a small set of parables as authentic, while many others are either unproven or likely shaped by the evangelists.

John P. Meier was an American Catholic priest and biblical scholar, born in New York City in 1942 and died in 2022 at age 80. He taught New Testament and theology at St. Joseph's Seminary, the Catholic University of America, and later the University of Notre Dame, where he became professor emeritus. He was widely regarded as one of the leading historical Jesus scholars of his generation.

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