The Sayings of Jesus

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 5, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 30.

The Sayings of Jesus.

Much has been said of late about the reputed “New Sayings [or Logia] of Jesus” found in January at Behneseh, Egypt. These sayings were discovered among a lot of very ancient papyri, and Prof. B. W. Bacon, of Yale, says that “the Roman character of the uncial script indicates a date not later than 200 A.D., tho the whole third century lies within the possibilities,” and he thinks it is fairly settled that the fragment belongs “to the latter half of the second century, or at least is not earlier.” They were cabled from London to the Journal and the Sun, of New York. The translation given, as quoted by Professor Bacon in the Independent, follows:—

1. “. . . and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.” Matt. 7:5; Luke 6:42.

2. “Jesus saith, Except ye fast to the world, ye shall in nowise find the kingdom of God; and except ye keep the Sabbath, ye shall not see the Father.”

3. “Jesus saith, I stood in the midst of the world, and in the flesh was I seen of them, and I found all men drunken, and none found I athirst among them; and my soul grieved over the sons of men because they are blind in their heart.”

5. “Jesus saith, Wherever there are . . . , and there is one . . . alone, I am with him. Raise

the stone, and there thou shalt find me. Cleave the wood, and there am I.”

6. “Jesus saith, A prophet is not acceptable in his own country, neither doth a physician work cures upon them that know him.” In part Luke 4:24; Matt. 13:57; Mark 6:4; John 4:44.

7. “Jesus saith, A city built upon the top of a high hill and established can neither fall nor be hid.” Similar to Matt. 5:14.

But one word of the fourth was legible, and we omit. The text of the fifth is obscure, and parts are wanting. The second is criticised, because it is said that Jesus did not hold to fasting and the Sabbath. On this the Independent (July 22) remarks:—

That they are of a very early period there can be no question; but we hesitate to accept them all as genuine. It is well known that a number of reported sayings of our Lord were rejected by the consensus of the early church as not genuine, altho they were current in certain circles; and the second of these sayings may very well be of this character. It imposes the duty of fasting and the duty of keeping the Sabbath under penalty of rejection from the kingdom of God. There is nothing like this in the Gospels and nothing like it in any of the epistles; indeed, the drift of the canonical New Testament is the other way. It would appear as if this might have been such a saying as would be current toward the end of the first century among the Ebionites, who were a Jewish Christian sect very zealous of the law.

But if we had read as a saying of Jesus in some equally old papyrus, “Except ye keep the Lord’s day, which is the first day of the week, ye shall not see the Father,” how would our first-day friends have received it? Would they not have declared its antiquity to be a proof of its genuineness? As to whether it is genuine or not, the follower of Christ needs no such proof to confirm the obligation to keep the Sabbath, or to fast. It was the Spirit of Christ that testified through the prophets (1 Peter 1:11), and in the prophets are injunctions both to fast and keep the Sabbath (Isa. 58:3–7; Joel 1:14; 2:12, 13; Isa. 56:1–7; 58:13). But more than this, Jesus saith, “Can the children of the bride-chamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.” Matt. 9:15. Moreover of that law which enjoins the Sabbath, Jesus saith: “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail” (Luke 16:17); “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (see Matt. 5:17–20); “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matt. 19:17). Besides this we have his own example. What more can be asked?

The Independent thinks that the Jews might solve the question of Sabbath-keeping by going round the world once. It says:—

How would it do, instead of this ecumenical Jewish council (to decide the question), to have the Jews simply circumnavigate the globe? Then they could call the day Saturday which we call Sunday.

If this is the Independent’s idea of the Sabbath, why ask aught for Sunday? Surely if the Jew can lightly violate a law given of God, why may not men utterly disregard a law wholly of man’s ordinance? Moreover, the Independent knows that a journey around the world does not affect the truth nor the command of God, and that as surely as people have no trouble in observing the first day, so they need have no trouble in observing the seventh day, so far as knowing the day is concerned. If days are not important, why do not Sunday-keepers magnanimously relinquish Sunday? If they did, they would save themselves much distortion.