What are some of the criteria used to establish what Jesus really said?

Answer 1

It is difficult to establish what anyone in ancient times actually said, because in classical times, it was considered both normal and honourable to attribute words that the person probably would have said in the circumstances, without knowing whether the person even said anything at all. Even an eyewitness, writing years or decades later, would only be able to write in his own words more or less what he remembered from what Jesus said, and this must become less reliable the more time has elapsed.

One of the criteria generally applied is to establish who really wrote the gospels and just when they wrote them. The second-century Church Fathers attributed the previously anonymous gospels to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, two of whom, Matthew and John, must have been eyewitnesses. Conservative Christians believe that at least some of the gospels were written no more than twenty years after the death of Jesus. The conservative view is that the gospels are substantially reliable accounts, some of which were written by eyewitnesses and others written as taught by eyewitnesses, not so long after the death of Jesus. This is not the view of modern New Testament scholars, who overwhelmingly conclude that the Gospels of Matthew and Luke were substantially based on the earlier Gospel of Mark. John's Gospel is believed to have been inspired by Luke, with some material taken direct from Mark.

The Jesus Seminar, a theological research group, used voting of members as criteria for establishing what Jesus said, with weighted member votes:
3 - Jesus did say the passage quoted, or something very much like it;
2 - Jesus probably said something like the passage;
1 - Jesus did not say the passage, but it contains Jesus' ideas;
0 - Jesus did not say the passage.
The seminar placed the burden of proof on those who advocate any passage's historicity, yet some of the criteria the members were asked to use were based on assumptions or presuppositions about Jesus as a person, so that votes were not entirely objective even within the limited scope of the Seminar. The criteria for acceptance were based on orality, irony and whether Jesus was telling his listeners to trust in God. The criteria for non-acceptance were based on self-reference, whether the words framed or introduced other material, dealt with Christian issues, or represented a theological agenda specific to one gospel. The Seminar concluded that in the four canonical gospels and the Gospel of Thomas, only about 18 per cent of sayings attributed to Jesus were likely to have been said by Jesus himself, with nearly all the sayings that appear in John's Gospel seen as inauthentic.

Another approach is to look more closely at the origins of the gospels and discard sayings introduced by an evangelist if there are grounds for believing that the gospel author could not have known about the event reported. By reading Matthew, Mark and Luke in parallel, synoptically ('with the same eye') in the original Greek language, New Testament scholars have established that Matthew and Luke were substantially based on Mark's Gospel, with some further sayings material in Matthewand Luke copied from the hypothetical 'Q' document. Any material found in Matthew and Luke that does not originate from either Mark or Q can be deemed probably inauthentic. Since John was, in turn, loosely based on Luke and Mark, any material found in Johnbut not in Luke or Mark can be deemed probably inauthentic. With material believed to have been copied from Q, scholars believe that Luke is usually closer to their source than is Matthew.

Looking at Q, it can not be assumed that it necessarily contains authentic sayings of Jesus. It is seen as having been written in three layers, and the apocalyptic sayings are least likely to have been authentic. Comparison of Q with Thomas also indicates that they both diverged from some earlier source, with both incorporating their author's bias on the earlier material. The good news is that this establishes that there was an earlier source that might reflect something that Jesus said, but the bad news is that Q has distorted those sayings, even before Matthew and Luke added their own alterations.

Mark remains our best and most original source of material about the events that occurred in the mission of Jesus, as well as many of the words attributed to him. Some have noted that some of the sayings attributed to Jesus were also used by Paul in his epistles, where he did not attribute them to Jesus and in some cases claimed them for himself. A conservative view is that Paul had learnt these sayings of Jesus from Peter and others, and was simply re-using them: they were therefore Jesus' real words. Another view, noting that the author of Mark seems to have been familiar with the epistles, is that in these cases the words were Paul's and only later attributed by Mark to Jesus.

If a saying attributed to Jesus can be found in the Old Testament, it is reasonable to say that it was not Jesus' real words. As he died on the cross, Mark says that Jesus' last words were, "My God. My God. Why hast thou forsaken me?" But this exact phrase is found in Psalm 22, meaning they were unlikely to be a dying man's words.

We can now analyse Mark in order to establish what parts of the narrative were factual and therefore what sayings reported in Mark were factual. One way is to look at the structure of the gospel, which is based around an elaborate parallel structure, a sequence in which an opening set of events is contrasted with another, parallel set of events that mirrors the first. Mark's Gospel is an excellent example of this literary form, demonstrating an impressive literary ability on the part of its author:

A . John explains the coming of Jesus (Mark 1:1-8)

B .The baptism of Jesus (1:9)

C . The voice of God from heaven, "Thou art my beloved son" (1:11)

D . The forty days in the wilderness as an allusion to Elijah and Moses (1:13)

E . The people were astonished at what Jesus taught (1:22)

F . Jesus casts out an unclean spirit (1:23-26)

G . Pharisees took counsel with the Herodians how they might destroy Jesus (3:6)

H . Demons, whenever they see Jesus, fall down and say that he is the Son of God.

-- Jesus commands that they tell no one of this (3:11-12)

I .. Jesus calls the 12 disciples (3:13-19)

J .. Jesus rejects his own family: he has a new family, his followers (3:31-35)

K . Jesus rebukes the wind (4:36-41)

L . The demoniac, wearing no clothes (5:15), cries out that Jesus not torment him and Jesus sends out the demons (5:1-20)

M . Jesus comes into his own country (6:1)
-- Where he was brought up

N . The people misunderstand Jesus and he can do no mighty work (6:2-6)

O . Jesus sends out the disciples and curses those who will not receive them (6:7-11)
-- in sending the disciples with authority and expecting all to receive them, Jesus is asserting his own authority

P . Herod thinks that Jesus is John the Baptist risen from the dead (6:14)

Q . Herodias and her daughter conspire to kill John the Baptist (6:16-29)

R . Feeding the thousands, and related miracles and discourses (6:33-8:21)

S . Who do people say that I am (8:27)

T . Peter affirms faith in Jesus as the Christ (8:29)

U . Whosoever shall be ashamed of me: of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed (8:38)

V . The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes (8:31a)

W . Be killed and after three days rise again (8:31b)

X . Prophecy of second coming (9:1)- Jesus tells the disciples that some of them would not taste death until they saw the kingdom of God coming with power.

B' .The Transfiguration of Jesus (9:2-3)

C' .The voice of God from heaven, "This is my beloved son" (9:7)

D' . Jesus talks to Elijah and Moses then to the disciples about Elijah (9:4-13)

E' .A great multitude was amazed at Jesus (9:15)

F' .Jesus cast out a dumb spirit (9:17-27)

G' .They shall kill the Son of man and he shall rise on the third day (9:31)

H' .Jesus clarifies his divine status, saying that he is not God: "Why call me good? There is none good but God" (10:18)

I' . Peter says the disciples have left all and followed Jesus (10:28)

J' . Those who have left their family for Jesus have a new family: all Jesus' followers (10:29-30)

K'. Jesus rebukes the 'sons of thunder', James and John (10:35-45 - cf 3:17)

L' .Blind Bartimaeus cries out for mercy and casts off his clothes, then Jesus heals him (10:46-52)

M' .Jesus comes into Jerusalem (11:1-10)
-- Where he will die

N' .Jesus misunderstands the fig tree that can provide no fruit (11:13-14)

O' .Jesus casts out them that sold and bought in the Temple and curses them for making the Temple a den of thieves (11:15-17)
-- Jesus is asserting his authority

P' .Jesus asks whether the baptism of John is from heaven or of men, and the priests, scribes and elders can not answer (11:30-33)

Q' .Parable of husbandmen who conspire to kill the vineyard owner's son (12:1-9)

X' .Prophecy of second coming (chapter 13)

-- on clouds of glory, within the lifetimes of some of those to whom he was speaking

R' .The Last Supper (14:17-25)

S' .Art thou the Christ, Son of God (14:61)

T' .Peter denies Jesus three times (14:66-72a)

U' .And when he thought thereon, Peter wept (14:72b)

V' .The chief priests, elders and scribes delivered Jesus to Pontius Pilate (15:1)

-- Delivering Jesus is a similar concept to rejecting him.
-- Both parts of the pair involve chief priests, elders and scribes

W' .Jesus dies and on the third day rises again (15:37, 16:6)

A' .The young man explains the departure of Jesus(16:6-8)

One of the criteria applied by the Jesus Seminar applies here - if the passage frames another passages, it is probably inauthentic. Pair J, for example, has Jesus say, "Who is my mother, or my brethren," rejecting his own family, to say of his followers, "Behold my mother and my brethren." This is framed with Jesus saying in 10:29-30 that he who has left his brethren, sisters, father or mother, wife or children will receive the same a hundredfold. The author was using the example of Jesus in the first passage to comfort those Christians of his own time who had been rejected by their families, or who had left their families to become wandering preachers or commune members. In neither case were the words spoken by Jesus.

Pair T is directly concerned with what Peter says, first in calling Jesus the Christ, then in denying him three times. The artificial relationship of these means they are inauthentic and this, in turn, means that the prophecy made by Jesus that Peter would deny him three times is inauthentic. Events T and U are also part of a local chiastic structure that links verse 8:38 ("Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.") to Peter's affirmation in event S of this structure, then indirectly to events T' and then U', where Peter denies Jesus 3 times; "And when he thought thereon, he wept". This adds emphasis and meaning both to Peter's affirmation and his later denials: a.TPeter affirms Jesus as the Christ (8:29)bJesus refers to his death and resurrectioncPeter rebukes Jesusc'Jesus rebukes Peterb'Jesus refers to death, the cross and life after deatha'.U"Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me ..." (8:38)This is a reversal of Peter's affirmation, just as Peter's denials (T') are a reversal of his affirmation.

Verse 8:38 achieves the purpose of adding meaning and emphasis to Peter's affirmation and denials, so even this is not likely to be historically true. Everything said in this passage (8:29-38), including Peter's rebuke of Jesus and Jesus' response, rebuking Peter, being part of this structure, is also unlikely to reflect the words of Peter or Jesus.