Jesus's Stenographers

From the Introduction In 1975 I started as a high school teacher for Christian religion to adolescents, and I was forced to reconsider the old and central problem in theology; “What about the words of Jesus?” My senior pupils leaned back, saying, “Sir, it was all written long after the events, wasn’t it? So how do we know it is true?” Another remarked: “Yes Sir, it’s fiction, just as we have learned with Dutch Language and Literature.” There I stood, empty-handed after five years of academic theological studies. Of course I knew the dilemma, but it was so clear presented by my pupils that I could only feel respect for them. This experience brought me again to the books to seek for the answers. I felt that my students were entitled to clear answers, especially concerning the authenticity of Jesus' words. I started with the first verses of the Gospel of Luke (1:1-4), which contain the basic ideas about the oldest Christian transmission. At that time I got a catalogue that offered older theological books. I did not have much money, so I satisfied myself with the purchase of old but qualitatively good theological works. One of them was the book Syntax of the Moods and Tenses in New Testament Greek by E. De Witt Burton (1955). This book made me understand Greek verb forms for the first time in my life. As my attention was focused on the prologue of the Gospel of Luke, I applied my new grammatical knowledge on the verb forms to it, but the text only became more incomprehensible to me. I don’t know how often I have turned the words of this Bible passage over in my mind. To make it easier, I learned the Greek text by heart so that I could meditate on it at every moment of the day. Slowly, an entirely new reality started to unfold. This text spoke of writers, who promptly followed Jesus. With the new insight into the meanings of the Greek verb forms, the bits of the puzzle began to fall into the right places, little by little. During this process, I cast a look on a second passage with a similar message, Hebrews 2:3-4, and finally a third instance, 1 John 1:1-4. These three passages together form the scriptural basis for the Documentation theory described in this book, which says that writers followed Jesus to preserve his teachings in writing. For the work with my high school students, my discoveries gradually made an impact. Instead of sounding weak and hesitant, conviction entered into the classroom. The words of Jesus really do exist. And listening to his words is listening to Him. For human beings, these words form the point of contact with the higher (invisible) world as well as with the ordinary (visible) world: Love God (invisible part) and your neighbor as yourself (visible part). This was not more information concerning Christian theory or spiritual thinking that begs for approval. No, this evidence-based approach brought the urgent contact between practical and spiritual reality. My pupils did not lean back anymore, this was real. Gradually much research had to be done. This necessitated taking a deep breath to understand all the grammatical aspects in the key-passages and for the mass of new explanations that were required for the gospels as books. The sayings of Jesus cover a lot of Christian issues. It is Jesus’ words that evaluate the Old Testament as the Word of God. It is Jesus words’ that define the meaning of his works, his Passion, his resurrection, his Second Coming. The Gospels do not give the opinions of the Gospel writers about these matters, as is often stated with the implication that they could have been wrong. Jesus’s biblical words are necessary for salvation (John 5:24), for a convincing Christian life (Matthew 7:24). And particularly Jesus’s words form the most touching inspiration for the individual believer through the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ words are more than Christian principles to be followed, and cannot be missed. Not infrequently this seems to be in conflict with current practice. Is it acceptable that our Christian pastors and ministers quote the words of Jesus while often adhering to theological theories in which they are trained and that deny Jesus’ sayings to be truly His? Is it acceptable that Christians all over the world don’t know anything about the transmission of Jesus’ words in which they believe with heart and soul? These questions require no complicated answer: No, this is unacceptable. Many have written about the gospels. One has offended and defended in many ways the historical truth of these books but, sadly enough, without the essential evidence that Jesus’s words do still exist. For that reason the documentation theory is presented here, which makes clear that the biblical words of Jesus can be accepted in faith and without intellectual reservations, thanks to the persistent efforts of his speedy writers.