How come Jesus never wrote anything down?

[Kenny]

He didn’t even tell his followers to write anything down? Instead years after Jesus was killed, various people began to write stories about Jesus and of course all the stories were not on one accord, so many years later other men (cannon) decided/voted on which stories were accurate and which ones were not and they used the ones they decided were good to be a part of the Bible. But if Jesus had written the bible, there would be no voting, guessing, deciding, by flawed men; God would have done the deciding. So what do you think the reason is?

Ken

[Danieltwotwenty]

Probably because it's a two way street, why should God have to always do all the work.

[Kenny]

Probably because it's a two way street, why should God have to always do all the work.

So his people can have a clear understanding of exactly what he wants, then there is the credibility issue other religions have against christianity; etc. It's just better if the words of wisdom comes from the source rather than second hand information.

Ken

[Danieltwotwenty]

So you want God to take away the gift of free will? Because even if God wrote it himself we are still able to change it. Seriously how much simpler do you want it, Jesus said love God with all your heart, soul and mind and love others like you love yourself. There's not much to understand, it's pretty simple it didn't even need to be written down.

[Kenny]

So you want God to take away the gift of free will? Because even if God wrote it himself we are still able to change it. Seriously how much simpler do you want it, Jesus said love God with all your heart, soul and mind and love others like you love yourself. There's not much to understand, it's pretty simple it didn't even need to be written down.

Mohammad wrote the Koran, nobody changed it; what makes you think someone would change the Bible if Jesus wrote it? And there is a lot more to the bible than love God and love otheres.

Ken

[Danieltwotwenty]

Just something to think about Kenny, God is our Father and like all fathers he teaches us, now if he just gave us a manual on how to live do you seriously think it would help us be any better. I know my own kids would probably discard the manual and think that they know better and in some ways it is good for them to learn the hard way because lessons are best learnt when we discover meanings ourselves rather than having it spelled out to us, the best lessons are also the ones with consequences because we remember them. Whether God have us a manual or not would not change the outcome, if anything it would make us lazy, relying on him for all the answers.

[Danieltwotwenty]

So you want God to take away the gift of free will? Because even if God wrote it himself we are still able to change it. Seriously how much simpler do you want it, Jesus said love God with all your heart, soul and mind and love others like you love yourself. There's not much to understand, it's pretty simple it didn't even need to be written down.

Mohammad wrote the Koran, nobody changed it; what makes you think someone would change the Bible if Jesus wrote it? And there is a lot more to the bible than love God and love otheres.

Ken

Hahaha, you reckon the Koran hasn't been changed!! Go do some study Kenny.

[Kenny]

Just something to think about Kenny, God is our Father and like all fathers he teaches us, now if he just gave us a manual on how to live do you seriously think it would help us be any better. I know my own kids would probably discard the manual and think that they know better and in some ways it is good for them to learn the hard way because lessons are best learnt when we discover meanings ourselves rather than having it spelled out to us, the best lessons are also the ones with consequences because we remember them. Whether God have us a manual or not would not change the outcome, if anything it would make us lazy, relying on him for all the answers.

Are you suggesting the Bible makes Christians lazy; relying on God for the answers?

Ken

[Danieltwotwenty]

Just something to think about Kenny, God is our Father and like all fathers he teaches us, now if he just gave us a manual on how to live do you seriously think it would help us be any better. I know my own kids would probably discard the manual and think that they know better and in some ways it is good for them to learn the hard way because lessons are best learnt when we discover meanings ourselves rather than having it spelled out to us, the best lessons are also the ones with consequences because we remember them. Whether God have us a manual or not would not change the outcome, if anything it would make us lazy, relying on him for all the answers.

Are you suggesting the Bible makes Christians lazy; relying on God for the answers?

Ken

err no, that is the opposite of what I said.

The Bible wasn't written by God, it was written by men inspired by their interactions with God, the Bible if anything makes us more intellectual because we have to know about a lot of different subjects to come to an understanding of difficult passages. But the message is pretty simple when you boil it right down, love God, love others, period.

[neo-x]

So you want God to take away the gift of free will? Because even if God wrote it himself we are still able to change it. Seriously how much simpler do you want it, Jesus said love God with all your heart, soul and mind and love others like you love yourself. There's not much to understand, it's pretty simple it didn't even need to be written down.

Mohammad wrote the Koran, nobody changed it; what makes you think someone would change the Bible if Jesus wrote it? And there is a lot more to the bible than love God and love others.

Ken

Kenny, just to get your facts straight, M didn't write the koran, his followers did. After M died, Abu Bakar the first caliph ordered invasions on neighboring lands as to collect every single copy of the koran, as there were many versions of it. They had them burnt and then with the followers of M who were living and who had saw M during his life. They got them together and then verified the Koran again, where two followers didn't agree, that portion was cast out and where two or more agreed that they had heard M saying such was kept and that is how the whole book was tailored.

[1over137]

Jesus came, suffered for us, paid for our sins and told us to spread these good news.
I guess, writing it down is good way of spreading it.

[Silvertusk]

He didn’t even tell his followers to write anything down? Instead years after Jesus was killed, various people began to write stories about Jesus and of course all the stories were not on one accord, so many years later other men (cannon) decided/voted on which stories were accurate and which ones were not and they used the ones they decided were good to be a part of the Bible. But if Jesus had written the bible, there would be no voting, guessing, deciding, by flawed men; God would have done the deciding. So what do you think the reason is?

Ken

What is better - writing amazing stuff about yourself and asking everyone to accept it at face value - or be so amazing yourself that other people want to write about you?

[Philip]

As God created a vast and amazing universe, of astounding detail, do you really think He couldn't control the transmission of what He wanted His people to know? A God Whom has created in such incredible, unfathomable detail - think His Word isn't important to Him?

Of course, none of that means that others haven't distorted the Bible or made up false books and writings (not in the Protestant canon). But God has kept together and preserved exactly what He desired to. And I would say that the 66 books of the Bible comprise precisely that. And that is not to say that the copies that we have - though vast in number for exhaustive literary comparison - don't have word order problems, misspellings, etc - God is not concerned with such trivial things. And these don't change the meaning in the overwhelming majority of Scripture. I would say that the few items of contention amongst conservative Christian Bible scholars are insignificant. And so God has preserved and made clear what is important to Him. Those that throw uniformed bricks at the Bible know little about its history. This is the most-studied book in the history of mankind. And not a bit of it has ever been disproved!

[melanie]

Good question Kenny, if we never ask the questions then how can we ever find the answers.


Firstly we live in a society and time that values the written word above all else, we want to see things "in writing" before we believe them, therefore it is difficult to understand that the opposite was true in ancient times. In the time that Jesus lived literacy was no more than 10% so the primary method of communication was oral. It was customary that a teacher would not write down his own words rather he would hire a scribe. Therefore it cannot be said that oral transmission was unreliable or meant that the message was less important. Jesus nor anyone in ancient times would share this modern sentiment.

Secondly if the bible was written by Jesus himself I believe that Christians could fall into a trap of worshipping the book, not the author. Fixing our eyes solely on the Bible, in the form of idol worship, instead on fixing ourselves on Christ.

Thirdly one could agree that the bible was written by Jesus, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit through his disciples, that shared in his walk on earth.

Lastly and I think most importantly resonates what Silvertusk said. He took the words right out of my mouth . There is a certain amount of arrogance attached to witnessing ones own greatness, which is not in sync with Jesus's message of selflessness and humility. When others witnessed on Jesus behalf it spoke of his divinity, greatness and his humility.

[PaulSacramento]

IN the ANE ( ancient near east) oral testimony was valued more than the written one, the only time things were written down was when the original witnesses to that testimony were dwindling, which is exactly the case we have with the Gospels ( The Epistles are obviously a different matter).