What Did Jesus Say?

A few weeks ago I delivered a talk in Florence, Alabama titled Who Was King James and Why Did He Want A New Bible?  It was great fun and there was an extended Q and A when I finished. One participant asked, “You mentioned that you had 15 or so different translations of the Bible in your personal library. Since we need to know exactly what Jesus said, which translation should we use?”

The question is both understandable and troubling at the same time. We all want to know “exactly what Jesus said.” The essentials of our faith can be said to rest on the report of his death and resurrection, but much of our beliefs about both the particulars of faith and how we are to live as Christians flows from what the Scriptures report of his life and teachings.  Needing to have an accurate historical record is clearly understandable. But we are faced with a score of problems in knowing. I was only able to mention a couple in my response that day. Here are some common ones.

First, the earliest known written Gospel dates from around 70 AD. That’s about 30 years after his resurrection. How trustworthy are your 30 year old memories of details of conversations?

Second, the oldest fragment of a manuscript of a Gospel dates from about 125 AD. It is about the same size as a playing card and is a portion of John containing 114 words.  That’s 95 years after the resurrection. The oldest complete copy of the first Gospel, Mark, dates from about 450 AD, though an almost complete copy without the longer ending dates from around 300 AD. Almost certainly based on older copies, we can’t check them against older versions because none have been found.

Third, even if we had the original manuscripts, they would likely be in Greek since all the others are. Jesus apparently spoke Aramaic. So the writer had to translate his Aramaic words into Greek to write them down. If you’ve ever learned a language as a second language, you know that not all words have exact equivalents and that often something changes, at least subtly, in the translation. On top of that, words alter their meaning over time. When the KJV was developed in 1411, “prevent” meant “precede.” Now it means stop. Another is “allege.” Then allege meant “prove,” now it means “assert someone has done something wrong.”

Fourth, each of the Gospels don’t remember Jesus’ words in the same way. In some cases the words are the same; in other cases there are important changes.  For example, “Blessed are the poor,” in one Gospel becomes, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” in another. Additionally, not all Gospel report the same sayings in any form.

I couldn’t leave the questioner with a set of problems in trying to answer his question, so after pointing out some dilemmas, I offered my own approach for consideration. While I don’t think I can be sure of exactly what Jesus said, I think I can see certain themes in what was reported he said. These themes include God’s unconditional love for us, the necessity of our loving each other even when the “other” seems unlovable, care for the sick, the hungry, the poor and the imprisoned, and the necessity to tell others of the messages of Jesus. I then said something like, “If we could just manage to do these things today, we’d be demonstrating we know what Jesus said.”

What do you think? 

Peace

Jerry