Jesus said.....?

[coprinus00]

Did Jesus have a stenographer or secretary following him around all the time.When discussing religion with those of a certain faith they continually make statements like .....Jesus said this or Jesus said that. How do they know? or was it made up centuries later

[andy-hughes]

The bible is not quoting Jesus verbatim. From those times, and before, and considerablely long after, stories were passed by word-of-mouth, so no-one would claim that they are repeating sentences word-for-word. When the time came for them to be written, and basic version of the teachings and parables would have been written down, and may have evolved into the 'official' version, but Christians believe that enough people heard the words at the time they were spoken, and handed them down, for the sentences to be near enough to what was actually said. As long as the essential points are there, no-one would worry if the odd phrase was deleted or added.

[jno]

hearing and remembering was the standard way of recording things in those days; without libraries and internets to use, people quite possibly developed their memories better. It seems a fair bet that he was quoted accurately enough.

[kipchik]

Or the bible is another novel written by a very early barbara cartland.

[isca]

You know what they say, please dont use my dictaphone, use your finger like everybody else (im trying to start a revival of 1970's jokes)

[DMA]

I think it was me who set the rot in on this question, im gonna be the one getting the blame off the serious participants!

[Se7en]

Is there any evidence of Jesus in the history books, and Im not counting the Bible as a history book. i mean roman history books etc. Or did Jesus come as has been suggested in certain books from the amalgamation of various prophets, healers etc around that time ?

[jno]

If you mean contemporary written records that survive, no, Se7en; there aren't a lot of written records about anyone from those times apart from Roman emperors. The earliest mention of Jesus is by Josephus; see here - he was writing about 60 years after Jesus' death. My guess would be that this is reasonable evidence of Jesus's existence, but he's not an eyewitness.

[patc7641]

A cynical person might say that the Bible was written by people with an agenda. Something they could use to control and dupe gullible and vulnerable people. How arrogant for a man/ men to write what they "think" Jesus meant to say. How naive to believe.

[pugwashjw]

Jesus was so influential in what he said in his teachings that people REMEMBERED EVERY WORD. When the Apostles wrote down what they remembered, their accounts are nearlt verbatim. Thje story about the demons in the man/men at Matthew 8 and Luke 8 are the same story. It is the principal of the story that is most important, especially since the demons IDENTIFIED Jesus as God's son. And also proved by their words the scripture written by John at Revelation 20;3.[ seventy years later]The demons knew even then that they were GOING to be locked away in the abyss . Read the two accounts.