Why didn't Jesus didn't write any of his teachings down on his own?

1. 61

   jemwilliposted 10 years ago

   Why didn't Jesus didn't write any of his teachings down on his own?
   
   As far as I know everything Jesus taught was written about by others. Why wouldn't he write any of his teachings down?  How many other figures in the Bible didn't write their own material?

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2. 79

   broussardleslieposted 10 years ago

   My best guess - it wasn't God's plan.  God sees a bigger picture than our finite minds can, so if He didn't tell Jesus to sit down and write an autobiography, then there must be a reason for it.
   
   But maybe, it's more simple than that.  Maybe he was illiterate?

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3. 60

   HOOWANTSTONOposted 10 years ago

   Well Jesus is God and he did write down his teachings and warnings in history. The Ten Commandments, and the Writing on the wall, in Babylon.
   Its man that needs to learn from God, just like a teacher in a class room. The teacher doesnt write down the pupils lesson. The men that recorded Jesus were the pupils .
   God moves man and man records what he discerns and learns.

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4. 87

   James A Watkinsposted 10 years ago

   Jesus is God. God chooses to use men to write his Word as He inspires them to do so through the Holy Spirit.  The Gospels are the story of Jesus, not by Jesus.  It is the report of witnesses, always better than self-testimony—though it is also Jesus' testimony in the fact that the writers did not write their own words but the words they were told to write.

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5. 60

   bvencillposted 10 years ago

   First off, Jesus wasn't illiterate.  The gospels recall several occasions in which he read scripture to various people.
   
   I believe that the best way to answer this question is to consider the purpose of Jesus's teachings.  Jesus, at one time, refused to help a Samaritan woman, telling her that he was sent only for the lost sheep of Israel.  At the time of his ministry, he encouraged the Jews to keep God's law and Jewish festivals and traditions.  Also, he almost never traveled outside of Israel, or preached to non-Jews.
   
   It wasn't until after his death and resurrection that Christianity was founded.  It was then that he told his apostles to go forth and make disciples of all of the people of the earth.  Before that, Jesus and his apostles were all practicing Jews, and Jesus's ransom sacrifice had not yet been made.
   
   In fact, it was necessary that Jesus be a good Jew in order that he could die as a sinless man.  And without the ransom sacrifice, the Christian hope of resurrection as brothers of Christ would not have been possible, so it was not until much later, when the apostles were preaching to large numbers of non-Jews that the gospels were needed.
   
   Even then, the teachings of the gospels were much different from the message that Jesus preached himself.  Instead of telling people to be good Jews, the apostles were teaching them to be good Christians.
   
   But regardless, the writers of the gospels were, for the most part, eyewitnesses to the events they described, and even though there may be minor variations in the way they described accounts, they do not differ at all in their message.  So I don't believe that is was necessary for Jesus to have written the gospels himself, and if he had, they might not have survived long enough to be useful to the first century Christians anyway.

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6. 59

   Lee Booleanposted 10 years ago

   If he had, we would have some written proof of his existence.. Douglas Adams said it best in relation to his Babel fish:
   
   "The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."
   "But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED."
   "Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.""

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7. 67

   Dark knight ridesposted 10 years ago

   At the time Jesus was alive, the art of writing was rare in the west. Few people, outside the temple, would have the ability to write. Most stories, even biblical ones were spoken rather than read. Because Jesus wasn't a rabbi, he may not even have been taught how to write.
   
   It's one problem that exists in the biblical story: most of Jesus' followers wouldn't have been literate, so the stories would be presented orally until the Church was begun and the use of writing became a little more common. How much have stories changed through the oral tradition?

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8. 60

   topgunjagerposted 10 years ago

   Because Jesus can't write, he skipped his childhood years.

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9. 60

   cascolyposted 8 years ago

   the new testament wasn't written until many decades after the fact, and was only codified [choosing some gospels, discarding others] in the 3rd century CE
   
   the claims for the old testament are even shakier - little if any of those 'books' were written before about 1000 BCE.  there's little historic evidence for most of the claims in genesis and exodus - the garden of eden, flood, tower of babel, egyptian captrivity, red sea miracles, etc.
   
   the 'song of solomon' was not written by solomon
   
   these are basic facts agreed upon for over a hundred years by all but the most literal fundamentalist christians

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