It is a fact that the words attributed to the Christ character of the New Testament are the creation of at least five individuals. It is evident that each of the four gospel writers felt free to create their own narrative speech for their own version of the Christ character in order to further the cultic needs of the evolving Christian Church.
In reality, over the space of two thousand years, those words have been amended and expanded by many copyist and editors. To further complicate this already confusing situation, it is also evident that a core of uniquely Hebrew sayings were copied by the gospel writers, almost word for word, into their texts in order to bring their stories to life.
This paper seeks to provide anyone, with an interest in historical reality, a way to differentiate between the actual sayings of the Jesus of History and the biographical narratives of the Greco-Roman writers of the gospels.
By assuming that the Jesus of History was a real person and applying the comprehension skills already available to us, this paper demonstrates that it is possible to differentiate the words of one man, as an expression of one mind, whose words reflect the coherence and internal logic of that individual. It is proposed that by understanding the ‘matrix of reality’ of the Jesus of History it is possible to confidently identify those sayings spoken by him.
© 2020 M. A. Sebastian. All rights reserved.