Complete Jesus

Compiles sayings and teachings attributed to Jesus from the New Testament, Christian Gnostic writings, and New Testament Apocrypha

Who was Jesus and what did he really say? Though not attempting to answer that question, Mayotte, a self-trained theologian, offers a database of sorts to assist in the process. He has gathered sayings attributed to Jesus from 24 ancient sources, including the New Testament, the New Testament Apocrypha, and the Nag Hammadi Gnostic texts, and arranged them, without comment, into nine categories. He uses standard translations of the apocryphal and Gnostic texts and three versions of the canonical writings (KJV, NKJV, RSV). Though there is some value in extracting these sayings and making them available in one place, weaknesses limit the usefulness of this work. First, there are notable omissions; for example, the words of Jesus in Acts 1, 9, 11, 20, 22, and 26 and 1 Corinthians 11 are excluded. Second, some of Mayotte's "parables" are actually proverbs, and some of his "doctrines" are warnings or commandments. A few of the sayings appear in more than one category. This volume has promise but needs reworking. Not recommended.?Craig W. Beard, Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham Lib.
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