Are the Gospel stories are often “dissimilar” to the AD 31-90 church?

“Yes, after all…

  • Gospels characters think-talk as pre-Christians

      The language and emphases observed in the Gospel reports accurately fit an AD 30 pre-church context and environment. This page analyzes 9 evidences:
      • Gospels don’t say disciples “receive” Jesus.
      • Gospels don’t have people faithing “in” Jesus full-stop.
      • Gospels don’t have people theo-confess Jesus as Lord.
      • Gospels don’t depict God-like worship of Jesus.
      • Gospels don’t depict apostles as authorities.
      • Gospels don’t depict apostles as ethical templates.
      • Gospels don’t have Jesus claiming to fulfill prophecy.
      • Gospel’s don’t have Jesus’ preaching penal substitionary atonment.
      • Gospels don’t have Jesus claiming to be messiah.

  • Gospel Jesus-sayings repeat consistent quirks

      Among the Gospel stories, consistent but unique and quirky tendencies repeatedly appear in Jesus’s sayings.
      • Gospels record Jesus prefacing with “amen” 59 times.
      • Gospels record Jesus self-identifying as Son of Man 58 times.
      • Gospels record Jesus using parables 37 times.
      • Gospels record Jesus using antithetical parallelism ~138 times.
      • Gospels record Jesus using antithetical parallelism ~138 times.
      • Gospels record Jesus using rhetorical questions ~50 times.
      • Gospels record Jesus using the Divine passive 96 times.
      • Gospels record Jesus using hyperbole ~16 times.
      • Gospels record Jesus using aphoristic formulations 148 times
      • Gospels record Jesus using paradox ~12 times.
      • Gospels record many “I have come” statements.
      This is relevant because, in virtue of being unique, they were not the kinds of ways early Christians tended to speak, nor did they have any reason to expect (e.g. from prophecy) that Jesus would speak in these ways.

  • Gospel stories spew church-hated content

      The Gospel traditions abounds in material unpalatable to Christians. This page analyzes 4 kinds of evidence:
      • Gospel traditions church-embarrassing things.
      • Gospel traditions oft didn’t protect Christians.
      • Gospel traditions spew suboptimal content.
      • Virtuous-acts of Christian enemies weren’t censored.
       This is relevant because the church is more inclined to think of Jesus, the apostles, and themselves in positive ways (while thinking of their enemies in negative ways).

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