What Did Jesus Really Say?
Another unanswerable question, but this one deserves a little attention
The title question implies a couple of things. First, it is premised on the existence of a person named Jesus whose life is described in the New Testament gospels. Second, it suggests that there is a way to know what that person said.
Was There a Jesus?
The fact is that we don’t, and really can’t, know if Jesus was real. That a lot of people believe he was real doesn’t mean anything. The number of people who still believe that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, or that Trump is still president today, demonstrates that point convincingly.
Jesus is mentioned in the writings of a few other ancient historians, but there is no evidence that any of those references were based on independent information. One of the ancient historians who is often cited is Josephus. However, his mention of Jesus is thought to have been based on another, since lost, gospel. He repeated what he had read.
What Did He Say?
For the sake of discussion, let's assume that Jesus did exist and that much of the narrative about him in the New Testament has some factual basis. How do we take the words he is reported to have said?
At one extreme is the red-letter version of the bible, wherein every word “spoken” by Jesus is highlighted in red (as in the photograph above). The implication here is either that someone was essentially taking dictation while Jesus spoke, or that by some miraculous means the Gospel writers were given exact quotations as they were writing. Neither of these is a defensible contention. Christian doctrine rejects the latter (no “divine dictation” in writing the bible). As far as I know, the former has never been claimed and would probably be met with widespread suspicion, even among Christians.
The gospels are thought to have been written, from memory or previously existing accounts, well after Jesus is thought to have died. The best one can hope is that the writers captured the essence of Jesus’ teaching, but in their own words, and inevitably colored by their own interpretations. There is no way to know if this is true, or how close their recollections might be to the actual events and dialog.
The last possibility I’ll mention here is that Jesus was simply a character in a story and that the New Testament’s purpose was to get across messages and beliefs rather than document an actual person's existence, words, and actions. Again, there is no way to know this is true.
In short, deciding that Jesus existed and that the gospels do a reasonably good job of capturing what he said and taught, is an act of pure faith.
Following “the teachings of Jesus”
So what does it mean when someone says that they don’t like organized religion, but are followers of “the teachings of Jesus.” If that means the words attributed to Jesus in the bible, then we’re back to something like the red letter approach.
Suppose that phrase refers to everything that was written in the New Testament. This is more in line with mainstream Christian doctrine, which states that the entire bible is the inerrant word of god. In that case, however, one has to address the many stories and teachings in the New Testament that are antithetical to the modern understanding of morality (subjugation of women, or dehumanization of people from other cultures or religions, for example).
A third possibility is that following the teachings of Jesus could mean believing in loving one another, caring for those in need, etc. This amounts to the “pick and choose” approach to Christianity [discussed here], embracing the feel-good ideas while ignoring the rest. In this case, however, there is no real need to attribute such teachings to Jesus or any higher power, because there is nothing earth-shattering or new — they are simply the principles of human compassion.
So what did Jesus, a person whose existence can’t be factually proven, “really” say? I don’t know, you don’t know, no one knows.
Uncertain quotations are not limited to documents from the distant past. The internet has enabled the proliferation of incorrectly attributed quotations. My favorite parody of this phenomenon is:
“Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.” — Abraham Lincoln
In the same spirit, I propose a new quotation:
“Hey, I never said that!” — Jesus
