Jesus was confessed by his followers as Israel’s Messiah and as God’s Son (e.g., Mark 8:29; Matt 16:16; Luke 9:20; John 1:49; 6:68–69). They and others regularly called Jesus rabbi and teacher. His closest followers were called disciples, which in Hebrew and in Greek means “learners.” This is important to remember: Jesus was known as a teacher (which is also what “rabbi” more or less meant in the first century; see John 1:38) and his closest followers were learners. And what did they learn? They learned Jesus’ teaching.
Judging by the length of the Gospels, the body of Jesus’ teaching was not extensive, especially when we remember that there is a great deal of overlap among the first three Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke. It was not difficult for a devoted follower to commit to memory most or all of Jesus’ teaching.6 It is also believed that much of this teaching was committed to writing and would later be drawn upon by the authors of Matthew and Luke.7
Most scholars think Mark was the first Gospel to be written and circulated. According to Papias (c. AD 125)8 the Gospel of Mark was composed by John Mark (Acts 12:12), who in the 50s and 60s AD assisted Peter, the lead disciple and apostle. Whereas the Gospel of Mark itself may have been penned in the mid- to late-60s, near the end of Nero’s rule (AD 54–68), the reminiscences of Peter may well have circulated for many years earlier. Of course, Peter himself would have preached and taught everywhere he went until he was imprisoned and executed c. AD 65. We have reason to believe that a collection of Jesus’ teachings also circulated perhaps as early as the 30s or 40s. Not too many years after the publication of Mark, the Gospels of Matthew and Luke were published and began to circulate. Later still, perhaps in the 90s (though some scholars argue for an earlier date), the Gospel of John was published.
Oldest Synoptic Gospels Papyri
That the teaching of Jesus circulated and was known well before the Gospels were written is demonstrated by the appearance of his teaching and aspects of his life and death in earlier writings, such as the letters of Paul, the earliest of which were penned in the late 40s. Paul often alludes to Jesus’ teaching, though sometimes he explicitly cites a “word” from the “Lord.” We see an example of the latter when Paul charges the people in the church at Corinth not to seek divorce: “To the married I give charge, not I but the Lord, that the wife should not separate from her husband…and that the husband should not divorce his wife” (1 Cor 7:10–11). It is the Lord, Paul says, who has given command that divorce should be avoided. Paul has appealed to Jesus’ teaching, which he gave in response to a question put to him concerning the divorce regulations in the Law of Moses (Matt 19:3–9; Mark 10:2–9). After quoting parts of Genesis 1:27 (“male and female he created them”) and 2:24 (“they become one flesh”), Jesus asserts, “What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder” (Mark 10:6–9).
Another obvious Jesus tradition in one of Paul’s letters is the citation of the Words of Institution, that is, the words Jesus spoke at the Last Supper (Matt 26:26–29 = Mark 14:22–25 = Luke 22:17–20). Paul finds it necessary to instruct the church at Corinth, reminding them of what Jesus did and said on that solemn occasion:
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” (1 Cor 11:23–25)
Paul’s wording matches the form of the story in Luke very closely, which probably should not occasion surprise, for Luke the physician traveled with Paul on some of his missionary journeys.9
Of even greater significance is the appearance in Paul’s letters of allusions to Jesus’ teaching. When the apostle commands, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them” (Rom 12:14), he has echoed the words of Jesus: “Love your enemies…bless those who curse you” (Luke 6:27–28); “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt 5:44). When Paul speaks of mountain-moving faith, saying “if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains” (1 Cor 13:2), he has alluded to Jesus’ famous teaching: “if you have faith…you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move” (Matt 17:20). When Paul warns the Christians of Thessalonica that “the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (1 Thess 5:2), he has alluded to the warning Jesus gave his disciples: “if the householder had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched” (Matt 24:43). Paul’s admonition that the Thessalonian Christians “be at peace among” themselves (1 Thess 5:13) echoes Jesus’ word to his disciples that they “be at peace with one another” (Mark 9:50).10
Paul is not the only New Testament writer to show familiarity with the teaching and stories of Jesus; the letter of James is filled with allusions to the teaching of Jesus.11 There are important allusions in Hebrews and 1 and 2 Peter also. All of this shows that the teaching of Jesus was in circulation long before the Gospels were written, and even when the three early Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) were written, many of Jesus’ original followers were still living and active in the Church.
What all of this means is that the four New Testament Gospels were written early enough to contain accurate data relating to the teaching and activities of Jesus. Three of the four Gospels were written within the lifespan of many of Jesus’ original disciples. The Gospels were not written hundreds of years after the ministry of Jesus and the birth of the Church; they were written toward the end of the first generation. And the New Testament Gospels are not the oldest documents in the New Testament. Older writings, such as the letters of Paul (and probably James as well), contain quotations, allusions and echoes of the same material.
But what about the Jesus stories and teachings in the Qur’an that are distinctive to the Qur’an? Should we accept these materials as authentic and therefore historically reliable? And if the Qur’an’s version of the Jesus tradition contradicts the tradition of the New Testament Gospels, should the Qur’an’s version be preferred?
The first and most obvious problem with the Qur’an as a source for new stories and teachings that supposedly go back to Jesus is that the Qur’an was written 600 years after the ministry of Jesus. We don’t doubt that the Qur’an might give us some authentic thoughts and teachings of Muhammad. Several friends and supporters who had heard his teaching were still living after he died and were able to assemble his teaching and write out the Qur’an. The Qur’an was written in its final form only about one generation after the death of Muhammad (though the process of editing may have continued for another generation or two), just as the New Testament writings were written only about one generation after the death and resurrection of Jesus.12
But does this mean that the Qur’an is a reliable source for the historical Jesus, especially if in places it contradicts what is said in the first-century Christian Gospels? No, it does not. The problem is that the Qur’an was written more than half a millennium after the time of Jesus, some 550 years after the writing of the New Testament Gospels. No properly trained historian will opt for a source that that was written more than five hundred years after several older written sources.
We face the same problem with distinctive Jesus traditions in the rabbinic literature. Jesus appears in the Tosefta, which cannot be dated earlier than AD 300, or about 225 years after the New Testament Gospels were written. More traditions about Jesus appear in the two recensions of the Talmud. The Palestinian recension dates to about 450 AD, while the Babylonian dates to about AD 550. Historians and serious scholars find