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Why didn't Jesus write a Gospel?

ruffen

Active Member
If God placed Jesus on Earth, and Jesus had important words for mankind to hear, why didn't Jesus write his own account of what God wants us to do and prophecies etc.?

Why have Jesus say the words verbally, and then have apostles write it with the risk that someone along the line would mess it up?

Was the son of God illiterate? That's not very impressive.
 

savagewind

Veteran Member
Premium Member
If God placed Jesus on Earth, and Jesus had important words for mankind to hear, why didn't Jesus write his own account of what God wants us to do and prophecies etc.?

Why have Jesus say the words verbally, and then have apostles write it with the risk that someone along the line would mess it up?

Was the son of God illiterate? That's not very impressive.

He was not illiterate. He wasn't here long enough to write. His was a living commission. He is an example for us to imitate. Would God have everyone writing books?

Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body. Ecclesiastes 12:12

Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. John 21:25
 

Sees

Dragonslayer
He had a dream...

A vision of a future where much of the population can read...when people endlessly bicker over each letter and line - where books seemingly become a divine entity of their own. He believed in a living, breathing religion of the heart and mind vs tunnel-visioned, stagnant observance of past utterances. He wanted people to transform into divine, radiant beings instead of robotic copycats.

At least I have always imagined that :D I believe he wanted people to move beyond the training-wheels of written law.
 

outhouse

Atheistically
As a Galilean Peasant from Nazareth. He would not have been literate in Koine or Hebrew.

His primary language would have been Aramaic.


Nazareth was a hovel that served as a satellite village for Sepphoris. It was not rich, and based on cultural anthropology it would have been a very tough place to grow up

This leaves little room for any kind of schooling when survival was not guaranteed. Life was tough for these people. Mortality rates for children under 5 were horrendous. In villages like Nazareth archeology shows almost al of the childrens bones had Harris lines showing extreme poverty.


Give us this daily bread was a prayer of hope. It was their main diet when they were lucky, they ate little meat and mainly had bread dipped in vinegar and olive oil and some lentels. Even the fish market was controlled, so that was not plentiful either. Life was miserable for these peasants. Education was not their first priority.


LAST

Jesus took over Jon the Baptist movement, we do not have any clue how many parables in the bible originated with John not Jesus. Much of the NT teachings will overlap into Johns work which he learned from local peoples himself. We have a collection of Galilean literature passed on through oral tradition before cross cultural oral tradition was used in scripture decades after any event.


You might not like something form the man himself, and it would shock almost every christian out their due to the contrast of what you think you know about him
 

Rainbow Mage

Lib Democrat/Agnostic/Epicurean-ish/Buddhist-ish
If God placed Jesus on Earth, and Jesus had important words for mankind to hear, why didn't Jesus write his own account of what God wants us to do and prophecies etc.?

Why have Jesus say the words verbally, and then have apostles write it with the risk that someone along the line would mess it up?

Was the son of God illiterate? That's not very impressive.

I would venture to say myself that its possibly because Jesus didn't exist, or Christians based him on some older Yeshua. GRS Mead and others have speculated about the latter.
 

steeltoes

Junior member
If Jesus did exist he could have employed a scribe if he had something to say, but it appears he didn't. No on has any way of knowing if there even was a Jesus in the first place so it seems pointless to speculate.
 

GoodbyeDave

Well-Known Member
If God placed Jesus on Earth, and Jesus had important words for mankind to hear, why didn't Jesus write his own account of what God wants us to do and prophecies etc.?
Because he thought the end of the world was immanent. Mark (or rather Peter) records him saying "the end is near … the present generation will live to see it all."

As a Galilean Peasant from Nazareth. He would not have been literate in Koine or Hebrew.
Poor peasants can be literate, and he was carpenter. We're told he spoke in the synagogue, which implies that he first read the scripture.

I would venture to say myself that its possibly because Jesus didn't exist, or Christians based him on some older Yeshua.
As the historian Michael Grant observed, no professional historian has endorsed this idea: the arguments against an historic Jesus would, as Grant remarked, equally disprove the existence of Alexander the Great.
 

ruffen

Active Member
Poor peasants can be literate, and he was carpenter. We're told he spoke in the synagogue, which implies that he first read the scripture.


So, the omnipotent, omniscient creator of the Universe, creator of mankind, who transcendentally impregnated a virgin and can give people vivid revelations, wasn't able to teach his son how to read?
 

Skwim

Veteran Member
He was not illiterate. He wasn't here long enough to write.
Thirty-three years isn't enough time to write? How long does someone have to live before they can begin writing?

His was a living commission. He is an example for us to imitate. Would God have everyone writing books?
What does everyone else writing books have to do with Jesus writing down something? Not a darn thing! :facepalm:

Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body
Ecclesiastes 12:12
Hey, one or two scraps of well chosen words would have sufficed.

Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.
John 21:25
This is an asinine presumption. And I don't think anyone is suggesting he should have written any such thing. just a few words of wisdom or so.
 

savagewind

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Thirty-three years isn't enough time to write? How long does someone have to live before they can begin writing?

Ok. Are you being funny?
What does everyone else writing books have to do with Jesus writing down something? Not a darn thing! :facepalm:
Right. If we take literally that we should be like him and he wrote books then we should write books too but in the service of God's will be done, not for fun and profit. Haha
Hey, one or two scraps of well chosen words would have sufficed.
Huh?
This is an asinine presumption. And I don't think anyone is suggesting he should have written any such thing. just a few words of wisdom or so.
Tell it to the writer. I didn't write it
 

GoodbyeDave

Well-Known Member
So, the omnipotent, omniscient creator of the Universe, creator of mankind, who transcendentally impregnated a virgin and can give people vivid revelations, wasn't able to teach his son how to read?
Eh? My post said that he would have been able to read: that's what "literate" means.
 

outhouse

Atheistically
Poor peasants can be literate, .
.

Yes they can.

But most were not. In rural places the average number of illiterate people rose dramatically.

There is no reason to think a poor Galilean from a poor village would have been literate.


and he was carpenter


We focus on cultural anthropology here.

The word used is tekton, not carpenter. Tekton in this case means displaced renter who worked with his hands.

As the gospel authors used it, it was not a compliment, it was an embarrassment to them.


We're told he spoke in the synagogue, which implies that he first read the scripture.

Were told a lot of things. That does not mean they are correct.

This is not a historical event viewed as true by historians.

His childhood in historical reality, is unknown.
 

Quagmire

Imaginary talking monkey
Staff member
Premium Member
So, the omnipotent, omniscient creator of the Universe, creator of mankind, who transcendentally impregnated a virgin and can give people vivid revelations, wasn't able to teach his son how to read?

I think the more pertinent question is why does God allow some people to learn how to write?
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
I wonder if illiteracy was rampant enough to forgo any use for a book in general. Then again, i would think you would still need to read in some capacity in order to live in ancient society.

Assuming of course a Jesus existed to write any account. I guess it would be "lost" anyway like many religious artifacts of significance had there been such a thing.
 

outhouse

Atheistically
Then again, i would think you would still need to read in some capacity in order to live in ancient society.

.

Not at all.

They lived in a oral culture where most people were not literate, and 5% is typical in rich areas. Poor places were much worse.

You would have one person that could read and write and people would gather when someone unrolled papyrus. Take into consideration that households were much lager and were a small group all by themselves.
 

TheScholar

Scholar
Most of the population was illiterate. During that time period, most of the religions and traditions were oral.It has been argued to me before that only Mark and Matthew were literate disciples during the time of Christ.

In the New Testament, Christ works a lot with the poor, the sinners, the sick and the disenfranchised members of society. Writing a book would not help him work with these people, or reach out to them.

A good example of this comes from the Spanish Conquistadors. They attempted to convert the Inca's King by handing him a bible. The King's response was "what is this?" and after a friar said "the Spanish God" the King threw it down because he couldn't read it.

If Jesus wrote a book and handed it to the poor, lepers and disenfranchised, would they not have had the same response?
 
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