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Evidence record

What did Jesus actually teach?

Every sentence on the exploration belongs to at least one claim below. Each says what kind of statement it is, what it rests on, what the evidence does not establish, and how far it was checked. Nothing here is a score, and none of it is a verdict on a belief or a theory.

Last checked 23 September 2026.

  • A judgement, not a fact: 22
  • Source checked: 39
  • Partly checked: 1

If something here is wrong, misquoted, out of date or unfair, write to support@unknownoceans.com and give the claim number, which does not change.

What the question takes for granted

A historical question about the content of a teacher's message, asked of Greek texts written decades later by people who followed him. The page separates what the texts say he taught from which words are his and what the central phrase meant.

  • Jesus existed and taught

    Established

    Established among historians; the page leans on it without arguing it. What is open is which of the reported sayings are his.

  • His teaching can be told apart from what the church later said he taught

    Contested

    The whole second section: the criteria, the case against them, and which reading of the kingdom is the church's.

  • The first three Gospels are the place to look

    Contested

    The page reads Mark, Matthew and Luke. John's Jesus teaches differently, and Howes records that preferring the Synoptics over John has been the majority position since the nineteenth century, not a unanimous one.

  • What he taught has one centre

    Contested

    The page puts the kingdom at the centre; that is the common view of the Synoptics and still a reading.

How the question is labelled

Claim: The kingdom

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Names what the page says the teaching centres on in the earliest account, the kingdom of God (Mark 1:15). What the kingdom meant is left disputed.

  • Context · WEB

    Mark 1, World English BibleMark 1:14-15

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Now after John was taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Good News of God’s Kingdom, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.”

Claim 73 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The teaching

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

The question

Claim: In the earliest account the teaching centres on one thing, and what it meant is still disputed.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Follows from Mark 1:15 and Mark 4 below and from the scholarship in the second section.

  • Context · WEB

    Mark 1, World English BibleMark 1:14-15

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Now after John was taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Good News of God’s Kingdom, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.”

  • Context

    Judging Q and Saving Jesus: Q’s contribution to the wisdom-apocalypticism debate in historical Jesus studiesp. 2

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: emergence of the Two Source Hypothesis in 1863, researchers increasingly felt that they had a sure footing when it came to the historical Jesus ... Attention could henceforth be directed at the most reliable source historically: Mark

    Mark as the earliest Gospel, on the Two Source Hypothesis.

  • Context

    Judging Q and Saving Jesus: Q’s contribution to the wisdom-apocalypticism debate in historical Jesus studiesp. 16

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: The general consensus that Jesus was an eschatological prophet, which had governed historical Jesus studies since the time of Schweitzer, started to wane

    The disagreement over what the kingdom meant is current.

What this does not establish

"Earliest" rests on the usual solution to the Synoptic problem, which is a reconstruction. "Centres on" is the page's reading of Mark; Mark also teaches about discipleship, purity and his own death.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “Almost everything in the earliest account is about one thing, and nobody agrees what it meant.” "Almost everything" in Mark is not about the kingdom: much of it is narrative, controversy and the passion. The claim holds of the teaching, and holds as a centre rather than a total. "Nobody agrees" overstated a dispute in which a mid-century consensus existed and then broke (Howes, pp. 10 and 16).

Claim 1 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The first three Gospels are consistent about the subject: a kingdom, mostly in stories, with an ethic sharpened as far as a demand to be perfect.

Kind
Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · WEB

    Mark 1, World English BibleMark 1:14-15

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Now after John was taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Good News of God’s Kingdom, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.”

  • Supports · WEB

    Mark 4, World English BibleMark 4:33-34

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. Without a parable he didn’t speak to them; but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

  • Supports · WEB

    Matthew 5, World English BibleMatthew 5:48

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

  • Supports · WEB

    Luke 13, World English BibleLuke 13:20-21

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Again he said, “To what shall I compare God’s Kingdom? It is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”

  • Supports · WEB

    Luke 6, World English BibleLuke 6:20, 24

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: He lifted up his eyes to his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for God’s Kingdom is yours. ... “But woe to you who are rich! For you have received your consolation.

What this does not establish

Consistent across Mark, Matthew and Luke, which is what the page reads. John is not part of this claim. "Mostly in stories" is Mark's own statement (4:34) and the page's summary of the other two.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “The texts are consistent about the subject: a kingdom, mostly in stories, with an ethic sharpened past what anyone keeps.” "The texts" included John, whose Jesus does not teach the kingdom in parables, and the page cites only the first three. "Past what anyone keeps" stated as fact a judgement that Wesley and the Methodist tradition reject (A Plain Account of Christian Perfection); the correction states what Matthew 5:48 says instead.

Claim 2 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: What is argued is which sayings are his, and what he meant by the phrase that holds all of them together.

Kind
What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Claim 3 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The teaching is quoted constantly, usually a line at a time, usually by people who agree about nothing else.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

An observation about how the teaching is used, developed in the last passage on the page.

What this does not establish

Not a measured claim; no survey of quotation is cited.

Claim 4 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Read continuously instead, the earliest account is narrower than the quotations suggest and much stranger.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The page's reading of Mark, developed in the sections that follow.

Claim 5 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

What the texts say

Claim: What the texts say

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

The subject is a kingdom, and it is the first thing Jesus says in Mark

Claim: The subject is a kingdom, and it is the first thing Jesus says in Mark

Kind
Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · WEB

    Mark 1, World English BibleMark 1:1-15

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Now after John was taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Good News of God’s Kingdom, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.”

    Jesus has no spoken words in Mark before 1:15; the voice at 1:11 is from the sky.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “The subject is a kingdom, and Mark says so in the first paragraph” Mark 1:15 is not in Mark's first paragraph: fourteen verses on John the Baptist, the baptism and the temptation come first. It is the first thing Jesus says.

Claim 7 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Mark compresses the whole message into the first words Jesus speaks, before he has called a single follower:

Kind
Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

"The whole message" is the page's reading; Mark itself calls 1:14-15 his preaching of the Good News.

  • Supports · WEB

    Mark 1, World English BibleMark 1:14-17

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Now after John was taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Good News of God’s Kingdom, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.” Passing along by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you into fishers for men.”

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “Mark compresses the whole message into one sentence before anything else happens:” Much happens before Mark 1:15: John the Baptist, the baptism, the forty days. The sentence is the first thing Jesus says and comes before the first call of disciples at 1:16-20.

Claim 8 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: "The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News."

Kind
Quotes the Bible. The words of a biblical text, in the translation named. That the text says it is a fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · WEB

    Mark 1, World English BibleMark 1:15

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Now after John was taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Good News of God’s Kingdom, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.”

Claim 9 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Much of what he teaches after that is an elaboration of the phrase.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Follows from the kingdom parables of Mark 4 and the other kingdom sayings.

  • Context · WEB

    Mark 4, World English BibleMark 4:26, 30

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: He said, “God’s Kingdom is as if a man should cast seed on the earth, ... He said, “How will we liken God’s Kingdom? Or with what parable will we illustrate it?

What this does not establish

A reading of Mark, not a count. Mark's Jesus also teaches about purity, the Sabbath, his coming death and discipleship, which the page does not claim are all about the kingdom.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “Almost everything after that is an elaboration of the phrase.” "Almost everything" in Mark after 1:15 includes the passion narrative, miracle stories and controversies not framed as kingdom teaching. Narrowed to the teaching, and to much rather than almost all.

Claim 10 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: It is not a doctrine of God, a system of belief or a set of rituals. It is an announcement, with a time on it.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

A reading of the form of Mark 1:15: a statement that a time has come, with two imperatives.

  • Context · WEB

    Mark 1, World English BibleMark 1:15

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Now after John was taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Good News of God’s Kingdom, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.”

Other readings

The same sentence does call for belief ("believe in the Good News"), and traditions that read it as the start of a body of doctrine are not misreading its words.

Claim 11 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

It is taught in stories, and the stories are not only illustrations

Claim: It is taught in stories, and the stories are not only illustrations

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Mark gives the parables two functions within one chapter, to veil (4:11-12) and to be heard as hearers are able (4:33).

  • Context · WEB

    Mark 4, World English BibleMark 4:11-12

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: He said to them, “To you is given the mystery of God’s Kingdom, but to those who are outside, all things are done in parables, that ‘seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest perhaps they should turn again, and their sins should be forgiven them.’ ”

  • Context · WEB

    Mark 4, World English BibleMark 4:30, 33-34

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: He said, “How will we liken God’s Kingdom? Or with what parable will we illustrate it? ... With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. Without a parable he didn’t speak to them; but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “It is taught in stories, and the stories are not illustrations” Mark 4:33 says he spoke in parables "as they were able to hear it", which is the illustrative function the heading denied, and 4:30 has Jesus ask with what parable to "illustrate" the kingdom in the WEB. The heading now leaves room for both.

Claim 12 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: A farmer sows. A seed is small and then it is not.

Kind
Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · WEB

    Mark 4, World English BibleMark 4:3, 31-32

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: “Listen! Behold, the farmer went out to sow. ... It’s like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, though it is less than all the seeds that are on the earth, yet when it is sown, grows up and becomes greater than all the herbs

Claim 13 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The kingdom is compared to things rather than defined, and the comparisons are domestic, agricultural and short.

Kind
Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · WEB

    Mark 4, World English BibleMark 4:26, 30-31

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: He said, “God’s Kingdom is as if a man should cast seed on the earth, ... He said, “How will we liken God’s Kingdom? Or with what parable will we illustrate it? It’s like a grain of mustard seed

  • Supports · WEB

    Luke 13, World English BibleLuke 13:20-21

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Again he said, “To what shall I compare God’s Kingdom? It is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”

    The domestic comparison: yeast and flour, in Luke.

What this does not establish

In Mark's own kingdom comparisons the images are agricultural; the domestic ones (yeast, a lost coin) are in Luke and Matthew.

Claim 14 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Between the two, Mark says something that is still argued over:

Kind
What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports

    The theological significance of the Isaiah citation in Mark 4:12p. 1

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: not to even mention the hotly debated phrases in Mark 4:10–12.

  • Supports

    The theological significance of the Isaiah citation in Mark 4:12p. 5

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Past and very recent discussions dealing with Isaiah 6:9–10 in Mark 4:12 have been dominated by the search for the meaning and function of the two conjunctions ἵνα and μήποτε. These discussions produced three possible outcomes

  • Supports · WEB

    Mark 4, World English BibleMark 4:3, 10-11, 30-31

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: “Listen! Behold, the farmer went out to sow. ... When he was alone, those who were around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. ... It’s like a grain of mustard seed

    The saying at 4:11-12 falls between the sower and the mustard seed.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “Mark then says something that has puzzled readers for two thousand years:” No source read dates the puzzlement, and Mark is under two thousand years old. Nagel attests that the verses are "hotly debated" now. "Then" also put 4:11-12 after the mustard seed of 4:30-32; it comes between the sower and the mustard seed.

Claim 15 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: "To you is given the mystery of God’s Kingdom, but to those who are outside, all things are done in parables", so that "seeing they may see and not perceive".

Kind
Quotes the Bible. The words of a biblical text, in the translation named. That the text says it is a fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · WEB

    Mark 4, World English BibleMark 4:11-12

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: He said to them, “To you is given the mystery of God’s Kingdom, but to those who are outside, all things are done in parables, that ‘seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest perhaps they should turn again, and their sins should be forgiven them.’ ”

    The words in single quotation marks are Isaiah 6:9-10.

What this does not establish

Whether the "that" of verse 12 states a purpose or a result is the argument Nagel reports; the WEB's "that" does not settle it, and neither does the page's "so that".

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “"To you is given the mystery of God’s Kingdom, but to those who are outside, all things are done in parables", so that seeing they may not perceive.” The second half was a compressed paraphrase that read as the text. It is now the WEB's own words, in quotation marks.

Claim 16 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: On that account the stories are not a teaching aid. They sort the audience.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

"On that account" scopes the reading to 4:11-12.

  • Context · WEB

    Mark 4, World English BibleMark 4:11-12

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: He said to them, “To you is given the mystery of God’s Kingdom, but to those who are outside, all things are done in parables, that ‘seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest perhaps they should turn again, and their sins should be forgiven them.’ ”

  • Qualifies

    The theological significance of the Isaiah citation in Mark 4:12p. 6

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Those following Jesus understand God’s salvation plan and Kingdom, but for the ‘outsiders’ Jesus is using the pedagogical method of the parables.

    Guelich, as Nagel reports him, reads the parables for outsiders as a pedagogical method.

Other readings

Readings that take verse 12 as result rather than purpose, or as irony, make the parables a teaching aid that some hearers refuse (Nagel, pp. 5 to 6).

Claim 17 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: A few verses later Mark also says he spoke in parables "as they were able to hear it", and leaves the two side by side.

Kind
Quotes the Bible. The words of a biblical text, in the translation named. That the text says it is a fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · WEB

    Mark 4, World English BibleMark 4:33-34

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. Without a parable he didn’t speak to them; but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

  • Context

    The theological significance of the Isaiah citation in Mark 4:12p. 1

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: These include investigations into the so-called ‘parable theory’ (cf. Mk. 4:10–12 and Mk. 4:33–34).

    Nagel treats 4:10-12 and 4:33-34 together as Mark's "parable theory".

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “” Added. The page quoted 4:11-12 alone and concluded the stories are not a teaching aid; Mark 4:33 says the opposite in the same chapter, and a reader of the passage should have both.

Claim 18 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

The ethic is an intensification, not a relaxation

Claim: The ethic is an intensification, not a relaxation

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Matthew frames the six sayings with 5:17-20, where the demand is for a righteousness that exceeds.

  • Context · WEB

    Matthew 5, World English BibleMatthew 5:17, 20

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: “Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill. ... For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, there is no way you will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Other readings

Some of the six (oaths, retaliation) are read by some scholars as setting a commandment aside rather than intensifying it.

Claim 19 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Matthew sets six sayings against older ones with the same move, the opening varying a little: "You have heard that it was said ... but I tell you".

Kind
Quotes the Bible. The words of a biblical text, in the translation named. That the text says it is a fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · WEB

    Matthew 5, World English BibleMatthew 5:21-22, 27-28, 31-34, 38-39, 43-44

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: “You have heard that it was said to the ancient ones, ‘You shall not murder;’ ... But I tell you that everyone who is angry with his brother ... “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery;’ but I tell you ... “It was also said, ‘Whoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorce,’ but I tell you ... “Again you have heard that it was said to the ancient ones, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall perform to the Lord your vows,’ but I tell you, don’t swear at all ... “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you ... “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies

Claim 20 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Murder becomes anger. Adultery becomes the look.

Kind
Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · WEB

    Matthew 5, World English BibleMatthew 5:22, 28

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: But I tell you that everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause will be in danger of the judgment. ... but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Claim 21 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The rule moves inward, where no court can follow it.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

True of anger and of the look, the first two of the six.

  • Qualifies · WEB

    Matthew 5, World English BibleMatthew 5:22

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ will be in danger of the council.

    The same verse still names a council for an insult spoken aloud.

What this does not establish

The other four (divorce, oaths, retaliation, enemies) concern outward acts as much as inward states.

Claim 22 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The same chapter has "love your enemies, bless those who curse you", and ends the sequence with "you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect".

Kind
Quotes the Bible. The words of a biblical text, in the translation named. That the text says it is a fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · WEB

    Matthew 5, World English BibleMatthew 5:44, 48

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, ... Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Claim 23 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Many readers take that as a standard nobody meets.

Kind
What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports

    The ethics of absolute relativity: An eschatological ontological model for interpreting the Sermon on the Mountpp. 1 and 4

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Who can be truly perfect? ... seemingly difficult, if not impossible, to obey today ... Presbyterian believers, in contrast, often placed great stress on the inherent sinful nature of the believer

  • Context · English

    Formula of Concord (1577), Solid Declaration, Article V: Law and GospelSolid Declaration V.10

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: For since the mere preaching of the Law, without Christ, either makes presumptuous men, who imagine that they can fulfill the Law by outward works, or forces them utterly to despair, Christ takes the Law into His hands, and explains it spiritually, Matt. 5:21ff

    The Lutheran confessional reading of Matthew 5:21ff as law that exposes sin.

What this does not establish

"Many" is not a count; Van Oudtshoorn describes the difficulty as widely felt rather than measuring it.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “The same chapter has "love your enemies, bless those who curse you", and ends the sequence with "you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect", which is not a standard anybody has claimed to meet.” Wesley claimed exactly that standard was attainable in this life, citing Matthew 5:48 (A Plain Account of Christian Perfection), and Van Oudtshoorn reports Methodists holding the same. The sentence made one tradition's reading everyone's.

Claim 24 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Wesley taught that a Christian can reach it in this life, as perfect love rather than freedom from every fault.

Kind
A church’s teaching. What the named tradition teaches, from its own documents. Evidence of what is taught, not proof that it is true, and not what every Christian holds.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
Held by
Methodist

  • Supports

    A Plain Account of Christian Perfection§ 27

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: “Ye shall therefore be perfect, as your Father who is in heaven is perfect.” And who says, ye shall not; or, at least, not till your soul is separated from the body? ... In yet another, it is the loving God with all our heart, and our neighbour as ourselves.

  • Supports

    A Plain Account of Christian Perfection§ 15, the preface of 1742, point 3

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: there is no such perfection in this life, as implies an entire deliverance, either from ignorance, or mistake, in things not essential to salvation, or from manifold temptations, or from numberless infirmities

  • Supports

    The ethics of absolute relativity: An eschatological ontological model for interpreting the Sermon on the Mountp. 4

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Methodists, for instance, often contended that all true believers are able to live in, and according to, the domain of perfection whilst still within this world.

What this does not establish

Wesley's teaching, and the Methodist tradition's where it follows him. Other Wesleyan and Holiness bodies define the attainment differently.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “” Added; see claim 24.

Claim 25 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Mark, Matthew and Luke record the same objection

Claim: Mark, Matthew and Luke record the same objection

Kind
Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · WEB

    Mark 2, World English BibleMark 2:16

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: The scribes and the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?”

  • Supports · WEB

    Matthew 9, World English BibleMatthew 9:11

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: When the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

  • Supports · WEB

    Luke 15, World English BibleLuke 15:2

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: The Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, “This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them.”

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “The scandal is the same in every account” "Every account" took in John, which has no complaint about who he ate with, and "the scandal" made one objection the only one: Mark alone also records objections over the Sabbath, fasting and blasphemy. The objection is in all three of the first Gospels, which the page now cites.

Claim 26 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Luke introduces three of the best known stories with an objection: "This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them."

Kind
Quotes the Bible. The words of a biblical text, in the translation named. That the text says it is a fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · WEB

    Luke 15, World English BibleLuke 15:1-3, 8, 11

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming close to him to hear him. The Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, “This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them.” He told them this parable: ... “Or what woman, if she had ten drachma coins, ... He said, “A certain man had two sons.

What this does not establish

"Best known" is the page's judgement of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son.

Claim 27 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The stories answer it,

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Luke frames the three parables as told to those who murmured (15:2-3).

  • Context · WEB

    Luke 15, World English BibleLuke 15:7

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: I tell you that even so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.

Claim 28 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: and the answer is the father running toward the son who spent everything:

Kind
Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

That this is "the answer" is the page's emphasis; the parable goes on to the elder son, who objects as the Pharisees did.

  • Supports · WEB

    Luke 15, World English BibleLuke 15:14, 20

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, ... But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him.

Claim 29 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: "this, my son, was dead and is alive again."

Kind
Quotes the Bible. The words of a biblical text, in the translation named. That the text says it is a fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · WEB

    Luke 15, World English BibleLuke 15:24

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: for this, my son, was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.’

Claim 30 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Mark and Matthew have it too, put to his disciples: "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

Kind
Quotes the Bible. The words of a biblical text, in the translation named. That the text says it is a fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · WEB

    Matthew 9, World English BibleMatthew 9:11

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: When the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

  • Supports · WEB

    Mark 2, World English BibleMark 2:16

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: said to his disciples, “Why is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?”

What this does not establish

The quoted words are Matthew's; Mark's wording differs slightly.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “” Added, so that the claim that the accounts agree rests on the accounts rather than on Luke alone.

Claim 31 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Whatever else is in dispute, the first three accounts agree on this objection to him, and it was about who he ate with.

Kind
Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · WEB

    Mark 2, World English BibleMark 2:16

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Why is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?

  • Supports · WEB

    Matthew 9, World English BibleMatthew 9:11

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?

  • Supports · WEB

    Luke 15, World English BibleLuke 15:2

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them.

What this does not establish

Agreement among the texts about what he was criticised for, not a finding about the history.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “Whatever else is in dispute, the accounts agree on what the scandal was, and it was about who he ate with.” John has no complaint about who he ate with, and the first three record other objections too (the Sabbath, fasting, blasphemy in Mark 2), so "the scandal" was one objection among several. What the first three do share is this one.

Claim 32 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Which words, and what they meant

Claim: Which words, and what they meant

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Which sayings are his

Claim: Which sayings are his

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: A century of work has gone into criteria for this: a saying that no early Christian would have invented, a saying attested in independent sources, a saying that fits first-century Galilee and not the later church.

Kind
What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

What this does not establish

"A century" is round: Howes traces the criteria to Bultmann in the 1920s and to their centre-stage use from the 1950s. The third criterion as worded here joins the plausibility criterion (fit with Jesus' environment) with dissimilarity from the church.

Claim 36 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The chapter cited here appears in a volume that states the case against them in its title: Jesus, Criteria, and the Demise of Authenticity.

Kind
What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review
Partly checked. Only part of the source could be read. What was not read is listed.

What this does not establish

Only the bibliographic record and the chapter's first sentence were read. The page claims what the volume's title says and nothing about Schröter's argument.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “The volume cited here is the standard statement of the case against them, down to the word in its title: the demise of authenticity.” The source cited is Schröter's chapter, not the volume, and "the standard statement" is a judgement about the field that a bibliographic record cannot carry. The corrected sentence says what the record does.

Claim 37 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The criteria test one saying at a time.

Kind
What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “What survives that case is the shape of the teaching, the kingdom and the parables and a reversal that favours the poor, rather than the wording of any particular line.” "What survives that case" reported a result of a volume the audit could not read. The corrected sentences state how the criteria work, which Howes carries, and give the rest as the page's own reading of the texts, with the texts cited.

Claim 38 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The shape of the teaching does not depend on any one saying: the kingdom, the parables and a reversal that favours the poor recur across the sources, and are harder to argue away than the wording of any particular line.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The page's reading, from the texts cited. See claim 38 for the correction.

  • Context · WEB

    Mark 1, World English BibleMark 1:15

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand!

  • Context · WEB

    Mark 4, World English BibleMark 4:34

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Without a parable he didn’t speak to them

  • Context · WEB

    Matthew 5, World English BibleMatthew 5:3

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

  • Context · WEB

    Luke 6, World English BibleLuke 6:20, 24

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: He lifted up his eyes to his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for God’s Kingdom is yours. ... “But woe to you who are rich! For you have received your consolation.

Other readings

Scholars who doubt the criteria do not all agree that general features are safer; the argument over which features are early (apocalyptic or sapiential) is itself the subject of the next passage.

Claim 39 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

What the kingdom meant

Claim: What the kingdom meant

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: One reading has it imminent and cosmic: a decisive intervention about to arrive, which is how the urgency and the "time is fulfilled" read most naturally.

Kind
What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Claim 41 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Another has it present and already operating, growing quietly, which is how the parables of seed and leaven read most naturally.

Kind
What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports

    Judging Q and Saving Jesus: Q’s contribution to the wisdom-apocalypticism debate in historical Jesus studiesp. 8

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Thus, the historical Jesus proclaimed a ‘realised eschatology’, and understood the kingdom of God as a present, not a future, reality that was being initiated by his person. The early church then corrupted this message by proclaiming an apocalyptic, futurist eschatology.

  • Supports

    Judging Q and Saving Jesus: Q’s contribution to the wisdom-apocalypticism debate in historical Jesus studiesp. 31

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: convinced Dodd that the parables were not to be associated in any way with apocalyptic eschatology.

  • Supports · WEB

    Mark 4, World English BibleMark 4:26-27

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: He said, “God’s Kingdom is as if a man should cast seed on the earth, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up and grow, though he doesn’t know how.

  • Supports · WEB

    Luke 13, World English BibleLuke 13:20-21

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Again he said, “To what shall I compare God’s Kingdom? It is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”

What this does not establish

The leaven is in Luke and Matthew, not in Mark.

Claim 42 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Both readings are in the texts.

Kind
What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Claim 43 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The argument is whether they can be held together or whether one of them is the later church’s work, and it has been made in both directions.

Kind
What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

What this does not establish

Bultmann's case concerns the wisdom sayings, which overlap with the present-kingdom sayings but are not the same set. The Dunn festschrift chapter was read as a record only.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “The argument is whether they can be held together or whether one of them is the later church explaining why the first one did not happen.” The page gave only one direction, the present kingdom as the church's explanation for a delay. Dodd argued the reverse, that the church turned a present kingdom into a future one (Howes, p. 8).

Claim 44 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Whether the Sermon on the Mount is a sermon

Claim: Whether the Sermon on the Mount is a sermon

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: Matthew gathers into three chapters what Luke has partly in a shorter sermon on a level place and partly scattered along the journey to Jerusalem.

Kind
Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · WEB

    Matthew 5, World English BibleMatthew 5:1-2

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Seeing the multitudes, he went up onto the mountain. When he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He opened his mouth and taught them, saying,

  • Supports · WEB

    Matthew 7, World English BibleMatthew 7:28

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: When Jesus had finished saying these things, the multitudes were astonished at his teaching,

  • Supports · WEB

    Luke 6, World English BibleLuke 6:17, 20

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: He came down with them and stood on a level place, ... He lifted up his eyes to his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for God’s Kingdom is yours.

  • Supports · WEB

    Luke 9, World English BibleLuke 9:51

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: It came to pass, when the days were near that he should be taken up, he intently set his face to go to Jerusalem

  • Supports · WEB

    Matthew 6, World English BibleMatthew 6:9-10, 25

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Pray like this: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. Let your Kingdom come. ... Therefore I tell you, don’t be anxious for your life: what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will wear.

  • Supports · WEB

    Luke 11, World English BibleLuke 11:2

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: He said to them, “When you pray, say, ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come.

    After 9:51, on the journey.

  • Supports · WEB

    Luke 12, World English BibleLuke 12:22

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, don’t be anxious for your life, what you will eat, nor yet for your body, what you will wear.

    After 9:51, on the journey.

  • Context

    Christ’s Standard Sermon and Luke’s Sermon on the Plain, in A Structural Analysis of the Sermon on the MountCrossref record, title

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Catalogue record only, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Appendix 1. Christ's Standard Sermon and Luke's Sermon on the Plain

What this does not establish

Two parallels are recorded here, the prayer and the saying on anxiety; there are others. The De Gruyter appendix was read as a record only.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “Matthew gathers into three chapters what Luke distributes across a journey.” Much of Luke's parallel material is not on the journey: it is in the sermon of Luke 6, before the journey begins at 9:51. The rest (the prayer, the saying on anxiety) is on the journey.

Claim 46 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Unless the same things were said on more than one occasion, as Augustine allowed,

Kind
Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · English (NPNF, tr. Salmond)

    The Harmony of the Gospels, Book II, chapter 19Harmony of the Gospels 2.19.45

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Matthew tells us how this discourse was delivered on a mount by the Lord in a sitting posture; while Luke says that it was spoken on a plain by the Lord in a standing posture. This difference, accordingly, makes it seem as if the former referred to one discourse, and the latter to another. And what should there be, indeed, to hinder [us from supposing] Christ to have repeated elsewhere some words which He had already spoken

What this does not establish

Augustine allows repetition without insisting on it; in the same chapter he also thinks Luke may give the same discourse.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “” Added. "At least one of them is arranging" follows only if the material was spoken once; the harmonising reading that it was spoken more than once is old and still held, and the page now names it.

Claim 47 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: at least one of them is arranging rather than recording, and arrangement is itself a claim about what the teaching is.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Follows from claim 46 on the condition stated in claim 47.

Claim 48 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: That does not make the sayings less likely to be his. It makes the shape of the discourse an editorial decision, and the shape is most of what a reader takes away.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The page's judgement, following from the comparison above.

Claim 49 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

What did not survive

Claim: What did not survive

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: Whatever else is in dispute, the first three accounts agree on this objection to him, and it was about who he ate with.

Kind
Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · WEB

    Mark 2, World English BibleMark 2:16

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Why is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?

  • Supports · WEB

    Matthew 9, World English BibleMatthew 9:11

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?

  • Supports · WEB

    Luke 15, World English BibleLuke 15:2

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them.

What this does not establish

Agreement among the texts about what he was criticised for, not a finding about the history.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “Whatever else is in dispute, the accounts agree on what the scandal was, and it was about who he ate with.” John has no complaint about who he ate with, and the first three record other objections too (the Sabbath, fasting, blasphemy in Mark 2), so "the scandal" was one objection among several. What the first three do share is this one.

Claim 33 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

The words he used

Claim: The words he used

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: He taught in Aramaic.

Kind
Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

What this does not establish

The standard view, reported by Howes of Wellhausen and Casey. Whether he also taught in Greek or Hebrew is argued.

Other readings

Funk suggested the parables were composed in Greek from the outset (Howes, p. 32).

Claim 52 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Much of what Matthew and Luke drew on reached them already in Greek.

Kind
Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports

    Judging Q and Saving Jesus: Q’s contribution to the wisdom-apocalypticism debate in historical Jesus studiesp. 72

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: these passages must have reached Matthew and Luke in Greek ... What we do know with absolute certainty is that much of Q reached the two evangelists in Greek. ... Since both Gospel authors were undoubtedly fluent in Greek

  • Supports · WEB

    Mark 5, World English BibleMark 5:41

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: which means, being interpreted,

    Mark translates the Aramaic for readers who do not know it.

What this does not establish

Howes speaks of Q, the material Matthew and Luke share; how Mark’s material reached him is not covered by what was read. Casey argues that some Q passages reached them in Aramaic.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “Every surviving sentence is in Greek.” Some of his sentences survive in Aramaic, transliterated: "Talitha cumi" is one, and the page quotes it a paragraph later. The accounts that carry them are Greek.

24 September 2026. Previously: “Every surviving account of it is in Greek.” No excerpt or saved text says that every surviving account is Greek. Howes says with certainty only that much of the sayings material reached Matthew and Luke in Greek, and the sentence now says that.

Claim 53 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Even where a saying goes back to him intact, what a reader has is a translation made by someone who heard it, or heard about it, and no Aramaic original survives to check against.

Kind
Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Other readings

If some sayings or parables were composed in Greek, as Funk suggested, they are not translations at all.

Claim 54 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: A few words come through untranslated, which is a hint of how much did not.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The page's inference from the Aramaic words Mark keeps.

  • Context · WEB

    Mark 5, World English BibleMark 5:41

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: “Talitha cumi!”

Claim 55 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Mark keeps one and then tells you what it means:

Kind
Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

"One" of the few: Mark keeps others (at 7:34 and 15:34), which the page does not cite.

  • Supports · WEB

    Mark 5, World English BibleMark 5:41

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Taking the child by the hand, he said to her, “Talitha cumi!” which means, being interpreted, “Girl, I tell you, get up!”

Claim 56 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: "Talitha cumi!", which means, being interpreted, "Girl, I tell you, get up!"

Kind
Quotes the Bible. The words of a biblical text, in the translation named. That the text says it is a fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · WEB

    Mark 5, World English BibleMark 5:41

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Taking the child by the hand, he said to her, “Talitha cumi!” which means, being interpreted, “Girl, I tell you, get up!”

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “"Talitha cumi!", which is, being interpreted, "Girl, I tell you, get up!"” The WEB reads "which means, being interpreted"; "which is, being interpreted" is its wording at Mark 15:34, not here.

Claim 57 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

The tone, which is most of a teacher

Claim: The tone, which is most of a teacher

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

A judgement about teaching in general, offered as the page's own.

Claim 58 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Whether a hard saying was said fiercely or gently changes what it means, and nothing in a manuscript carries that.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The Gospels rarely describe his tone of voice; the page's point is that the written text cannot settle it.

Claim 59 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The traditions about him disagree about it in the usual direction: each one hears the voice it expects.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

What this does not establish

A generalisation, not a finding about any one tradition.

Claim 60 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

What it is used for

Claim: What it is used for

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

What the teaching is taken to be for

Claim: What the teaching is taken to be for

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: Methodists after Wesley have read the ethic as a programme to be attempted,

Kind
A church’s teaching. What the named tradition teaches, from its own documents. Evidence of what is taught, not proof that it is true, and not what every Christian holds.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
Held by
Methodist

What this does not establish

Van Oudtshoorn says "often"; Methodists are not uniform on this.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “Some traditions read the ethic as a programme to be attempted, some as a standard whose function is to end the idea that anyone earns anything, some as the constitution of a community rather than a rule for individuals.” The three readings were attributed to no one. Each is now named for a tradition whose own document reads Matthew 5 that way, so a reader can check it.

Claim 63 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: the Lutheran Formula of Concord as the law explained "spiritually", so that sinners "learn to know their sins aright",

Kind
A church’s teaching. What the named tradition teaches, from its own documents. Evidence of what is taught, not proof that it is true, and not what every Christian holds.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
Held by
Lutheran

  • Supports · English

    Formula of Concord (1577), Solid Declaration, Article V: Law and GospelSolid Declaration V.10

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Christ takes the Law into His hands, and explains it spiritually, Matt. 5:21ff ... whereby they are directed to the Law, and from it first learn to know their sins aright

What this does not establish

This is the Formula’s reading of Matthew 5:21 and following in Article V, on law and gospel. The same confession also teaches a third use of the law, as a guide for the regenerate (Article VI), which this clause does not report.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “the Lutheran confessions as a standard whose function is to end the idea that anyone earns anything,” Whether "a standard whose function is to end the idea that anyone earns anything" fairly states the Lutheran confessional reading, given the third use of the law in Article VI, is a judgement about that tradition no source read settles. The clause now reports what Solid Declaration V.10 itself says about Matthew 5, in its own words.

Claim 64 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: and the Anabaptists at Schleitheim as the constitution of a community rather than a rule for individuals.

Kind
A church’s teaching. What the named tradition teaches, from its own documents. Evidence of what is taught, not proof that it is true, and not what every Christian holds.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
Held by
Anabaptist

  • Supports · English (tr. Wenger, 1945)

    The Schleitheim Confession (1527), tr. J. C. Wengerpreamble

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: we who have been assembled in the Lord at Schleitheim on the Border, make known in points and articles

  • Supports · English (tr. Wenger, 1945)

    The Schleitheim Confession (1527), tr. J. C. Wengerarticle VI

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: The sword is ordained of God outside the perfection of Christ. ... In the perfection of Christ, however, only the ban is used for a warning and for the excommunication of the one who has sinned

  • Supports · English (tr. Wenger, 1945)

    The Schleitheim Confession (1527), tr. J. C. Wengerarticle VII

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Christ, who teaches the perfection of the Law, prohibits all swearing to His [followers], whether true or false

What this does not establish

The Schleitheim articles are the Swiss Brethren's of 1527; later Anabaptist and Mennonite bodies are not all bound by them.

Claim 65 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Those are not small differences, and all three are read out of the same chapters.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Each of the three documents appeals to Matthew 5.

  • Context

    A Plain Account of Christian Perfection§ 27

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: “Ye shall therefore be perfect, as your Father who is in heaven is perfect.” And who says, ye shall not; or, at least, not till your soul is separated from the body?

    Matthew 5:48.

  • Context · English

    Formula of Concord (1577), Solid Declaration, Article V: Law and GospelSolid Declaration V.10

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Christ takes the Law into His hands, and explains it spiritually, Matt. 5:21ff

  • Context · English (tr. Wenger, 1945)

    The Schleitheim Confession (1527), tr. J. C. Wengerarticle VII

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Christ, who teaches the perfection of the Law, prohibits all swearing to His [followers], whether true or false

    Matthew 5:34-37.

Claim 66 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: A reader with no stake in the outcome can still ask a useful question of each one: what work does the line about being perfect do in it?

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Why it is quoted by people who agree about nothing else

Claim: Why it is quoted by people who agree about nothing else

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Heading; the passage below offers the explanation.

Claim 68 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Sayings this short and this concrete travel without their context, and a parable is unusually easy to finish in your own favour.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The page's observation.

Claim 69 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The instructions about the other cheek alone have led some readers to total pacifism and others to a moderate line,

Kind
What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports

    A call for peacemaking: A perspective from the Sermon on the Mountp. 5, n. 17

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: These instructions have led some interpreters in history towards total pacifism, while others followed a moderate line

  • Context · WEB

    Matthew 5, World English BibleMatthew 5:39

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: But I tell you, don’t resist him who is evil; but whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.

What this does not establish

Viljoen's note refers to the instructions of Matthew 5:38-42 together, and cites Luz for the history.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “The teaching has been cited for and against nearly every position in Western politics,” "Nearly every position in Western politics" had no source and could not have one. The corrected clause gives one documented case of the same words read in opposite directions.

Claim 70 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: which tells you about the citing more than about the teaching.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The page's conclusion from claims 69 and 70.

Claim 71 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The check available to a reader is the one this site can actually offer: the chapters are linked below, and they are shorter than the arguments about them.

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

What was read