What Did Jesus Say About …?

The four Gospels contain almost everything that was recorded about what Jesus taught.

Comparing what today's Churches teach as doctrine with what the Gospels have to say about various topics can be quite revealing.

Notes (Common to all these pages)

This is one of a series examining what the Gospels actually say about some specific topics:

Copyright © 2024, Ray Butterworth.

Translations

Each verse is presented here in two translations, the traditional familiar King James Version, which provides a very literal translation of the original Greek language, and the New Living Translation, which is written in modern English and stresses the presumed intended meaning of the original.

Looking at both literal translations and paraphrases can be beneficial when studying the Bible, especially when the two approaches are in agreement. Studying the text for the purpose of determining what the original authors actually meant, is known as exegesis (critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture).

Unfortunately, when paraphrasing the intended meaning, sometimes the translators end up including either their personal beliefs or those of their target audience. Studying the text for the purpose of confirming what one already believes, is known as eisegesis (the interpretation of a text (as of the Bible) by reading into it one's own ideas).

The Gospels

The four Gospels contain almost everything that was recorded about what Jesus taught.

Two thousand years ago, Jerusalem had Jewish religion, Greek culture, and Roman governance. Each of the four Gospels was written to present Christianity to a different audience.

Matthew wrote to a Jewish audience, and just like the Torah (also referred to as The Law or The Book of Moses, the most sacred of Jewish scripture, his Gospel is divided into five sections. It stresses Jesus's royal ancestry and presents Jesus as the prophesied Messiah and King.
Mark wrote to a Roman audience. His style is brief and efficient, and presents Jesus as Servant.
Luke wrote to a Greek audience, organizing his gospel geographically and including more emotional and non-doctrinal events (e.g. the Nativity and the flight to Egypt). Luke continued the story in his Book of Acts. Jesus is presented as Human.
John's Gospel was written last, and to a general audience of Christians from all backgrounds. It is organized in sequential order, presenting Jesus as God.

The lists below are brief summaries of the individual analyses, most of which include an exhaustive list of every reference to the topic in the Gospels.

The_Old_Testament:
- Jesus frequently used and respected the scriptures.
- Jesus explicitly said that its laws were as eternal as the Universe, and that they would never change.
- Paul later said: All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works..
- And John later summarized Jesus's teaching: For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.
Heaven:
- The first and second heavens are the Earth's air and the vast space of the physical universe.
- The third Heaven is the spiritual realm of God, the angels, etc.
- No human but Jesus has been to Heaven (though John and others have been given visions of it).
- The reward of the saved is currently kept in God's Heaven.
- The resurrection of the dead will be into the Kingdom of God, here on Earth, not in Heaven.
Hell:
- Hell doesn't appear at all in literal translations.
- Hell is an English word that has gained much new meaning since it was used by the KJV translators.
- The KJV uses Hell to translate three completely different Greek words.
  - Tartaroō appears only once, referring in a parable to a Greek myth about where Satan and fallen angels are.
  - hades appears three times, meaning grave, a place where dead bodies are buried.
  - Geenna appears eleven times, using the name of Jerusalem's local garbage dump site as a metaphor for the ignomious final destination of incorrigible sinners.
- There is no mention of anything like immortal souls suffering torture for all eternity.
Punishment and Revenge:
- Very few words like punishment, revenge retaliation appear in the Gospels.
- On those few instances where they are used, they don't have the sense of inflicting harm on the offenders, but of providing justice and compensation for the victims.
The Soul:
- Throughout the gospels, Jesus used the Greek word commonly translated as soul to refer to one's selfhood, the state that gives us individual identities. It is not used to refer to any kind of supernatural component, and certainly never in the sense of immortality.
The Spirit:
- The Greek word for spirit, as used in the Gospels, has several meanings.
  - Movement of air (e.g. wind or breathing).
  - Supernatural beings.
  - The life force that animates all animals, including humans.
  - An additional spirit that gives self awareness and intelligence to all humans.
  - An additional spirit that allows humans to communicate directly with God.
- Most bible translations were influenced by the post-biblical Trinity Doctrine, and include information that does not appear in the original Greek scriptures:
  - The word spirit is frequently personified by capitalizing it.
  - The expression holy spirit is personified by capitalization, as if it were the name of a person rather than simply a word for God's medium for interacting with humans.
  - God's spirit is referred to using pronouns he, whom, and him, rather than the more appropriate it or that.
Forgiveness:
- The fundamental principle of Christianity: Sin is the breaking of God's Law; Everyone has sinned; Sin earns the death penalty; Jesus's own death can pay that penalty for those that repent.
- Sinners must accept that they have sinned, understand its significance, repent (change their attitude and behaviour), and accept God's holy spirit through baptism.
- Only God can forgive sin.
- One cannot receive forgiveness unless one is also able to give it.