The Words of Jesus: A Gospel of the Sayings of Our Lord

I loved this book. It is easy to read and quite different. Just reading the words Jesus spoke it a flowing story format, changes my whole outlook and understanding. It is good A must read for anyone.

This is an excellent resource, especially if you don't already have a "sayings gospel" in your library. This book was the loving effort of 2 years of Phyllis' life, so rest assured, this isn't some haphazard "lifting" of the "red letters" from the rest of the bible. This book has carefully grouped the sayings of Jesus into 5 distinct categories and then within those categorizes,grouped like sayings together [it's like having them chain referenced on the same page] but then the verse and chapters are removed, so you are not distracted about WHERE they are in the bible. [don't freak out, the references are in the back if they bring you comfort] For me, this makes a better devotional or study aid than a typical "book" to read straight through. But if this even sounds slightly interesting, trust that you won't be disappointed.

We've heard them from the pulpit, scanned the red-letter words in our Bibles and quoted them in scripture memorization. But when we listen --- really listen --- to the words of Jesus, they may change us irrevocably. So says renowned religion writer Phyllis Tickle in THE WORDS OF JESUS, which offers a new way of looking and listening to familiar passages. The book began with a simple question from a colleague who asked Tickle, "Did you ever wonder what you would really find if you took out the duplications and triplications and connective tissue of the Gospels and stripped it all down again to just His words?" The question stunned her, and she admits, "I had never wondered such a thing...I was also fascinated by the potency of the Sayings format and drawn to the intellectual game and pleasure of trying to tease out just how and why that format works so well." The "Sayings" format is indeed unique. All of the words of Jesus from the four gospels and the first chapter of Acts are compiled and arranged into five different "books" and then organized by topic. In each book, Jesus' personality is "shaded and shaped by the particularity of either his audience --- public, private, or intimate --- or an activity --- healing." Rather than relying on a particular translation, Tickle brings her own scholarship and the texts of several translations to bear to recreate Jesus' words. Tickle suggests that the reader begin with Book Two, Christ's words of private instruction to His followers. Here, He is "most self-revelatory and open to us." Bits and pieces of Jesus' words reach out and pull the reader in. "Be careful that you do not look down on one who seems small or unimportant and trivial...," Jesus says in one passage. In another, "Sit down in the humblest place." And, "Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour." Each saying in each "book" is grouped under a topical header. Tickle divides the other four books of Jesus' Sayings into The Words of Public Teaching, The Words of Healing Dialogue, The Words of Intimate Conversation and The Words of Post-Resurrection Encounters. The 21 Sayings under "healing" are interesting, Tickle points out, as most of them have little or nothing to do with the healing itself: "Rather, they read now as if much of the time the act of healing becomes a platform for teaching health of more than just the body." Good food for thought. One of Tickle's passages that resonates particularly well is the idea that the brain and the heart are both organs of perceiving and being. "We must assume that there is in the human being a means of knowing other than that of the brain." Her surprise, she said, was that the Sayings of Jesus "entered prayerfully" are first heard somewhere other than the mind. "The heart, it would seem, has its own consciousness and knowledge and ways that can be experienced just as the brain's consciousness and knowledge and ways are experienced. They are just not as scientifically measurabl

Finally ... the true Jesus, in his own words. It's no wonder, after domesticating Jesus like an obedient poodle wearing pink nail polish and a tiara, that this book is so shocking to us. Jesus said a lot of things that even today would get him locked up, blacklisted, wiretapped, put on the no-fly list, and sent to Gitmo with a black bag over his head. Think hard before you read this book. Wouldn't you rather be happy with your illusions than know the truth and be disappointed? It's the real Jesus all right. But it's not the Jesus you and I have been hearing about almost from the moment of birth. This guy had a lot of strange, revolutionary ideas. He was scary then, and still is. So why can't we seem to turn away ...

This is a dangerous book. But these are dangerous words. They always have been, but we have forgotten and let them become comfortable through the centuries. Too comfortable. Like The Sayings of Chairman Mao and the words of Confucius, the concentrated wisdom the Eastern mind works best undiluted and unexplained. Jesus spoke just words, they didn't come from His mouth wrapped in narrative explanation. The words of Jesus were real conversations with real people. People close and intimate who shared the dusty roads with him, and also people who hung at the edge of curious crowds listening with skeptical ears. The naked words ripped from the cocoon of expectations hit us the same way they hit the first ears that heard them. Intimate and corporate they work beyond reason to disturb the heart. Familiar words now new, shocking like unexpected words from a long known lover or spouse who changes your world with a word. This is not a book to enter unwarned and unprepared. Expect to be shocked and angered and touched and changed. That is always what he intended. These are dangerous words.