What Jesus Didn’t Say

Biblical historians have long held that the New Testament abounds in sayings incorrectly attributed to Jesus. In order to assemble as complete a collection of authentic sayings as possible, they have, for the most part, been intent on seeing how the sayings deemed authentic are connected to one another, and attempting to picture their specific contexts.

In What Jesus Didn’t Say, Gerd Lüdemann flips the coin and focuses on the inauthentic words of Jesus—not only those thought to be clear inventions, but also sayings that exhibit noteworthy alterations to their original form and intent. For his selection, he uses sayings that:

• are attributed to Jesus after his crucifixion
• presuppose a pagan rather than a Jewish audience
• involve situations in a post-Easter community
• reflect the editorial influence of the author

According to Lüdemann, the sheer abundance of inauthentic Jesus-sayings demonstrates that, soon after his sudden and dramatic death, he became the centre of a new faith. From the very beginning, Christians imagined what answers Jesus would offer to the questions that arose among them. When the words they recalled no longer seemed adequate, they revised or invented new sayings to suit the existing situation.