Serious christian question. How did the Apostles (in the Gospels) remember word for

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BrookePitt

New member
word Jesus's prayers? I don't doubt the validity of the Gospels or the Bible. But as a Christan, yesterday I decided to do some reading on the Gospel of John. Now I know that the Gospels write word for word Jesus's teaching, paraboles, etc. But it came to my atention that for example the prayers in John 17, and many others in the Gospels are about a page in length. Yet, that Gospels having been written in 90 - 100 a.D (60 years or so after Christs's death) has his disciple quoting exactly word for word all the prayers. And I would guess if it's in the Bible it's 100% exactly as it was said. How could John 60 years later have remembered and wrote exactly every single word of the prayer without making a mistake?

Now I'm not trying to bash on anything or disprove the Bible or anything because I am a Christian. But I did want to know if anyone could help me with the answer.

I know the books are divinely inspired, could that possibly mean that at the moment John was writting it that the Holy Spirit revealed like in a whisper to John's ear word for word what he was to write down?

Thank you.
 
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Sublime

New member
I'm putting to memory IS 53. I'm up to vs 8 at the time and can quote 1-7 and understand at the same time what it's talking about. Try it you may learn something that will enlighten your life.
 
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Gabbylittleangel

New member
I have trouble believing that they were written 60 years later
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First, why do we think that the people who followed Jesus around were not taking notes at the time? Second, why would they wait for sixty years or so before it occurred to them to write it down?

I tend to believe that the Gospel writers were writing things down as they went. I may be that it was only sixty years later that people began to want copies of it, and began collecting them along with the epistles.
 
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killafornia

New member
Because John and other Apostles have not shut these words up for the preceding years and did not keep them out of their memory, these are the exact same words they preached unto the world and these are the exact same words they were beheaded and crucified for, so they had a pretty clear idea of what the Lord taught, seeing as how they didn't have distractions like TV and other things to keep them from losing focus on Lord's teachings,
 
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Horsense

New member
As you noted, the entire Bible is divinely inspired:

"All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, that the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work."---2 Timothy 3:16,17

Add to that the fact that Jesus' followers were teaching about him & what he said right up until the time that they penned the Gospels, and really . . . how could they forget what he said? It meant a great deal to them in the first place, and they shared it with others countless times, so that they may have inadvertently memorized what he said.

"The Lord 's Prayer---Its Meaning for You"
http://watchtower.org/e/20040915/article_02.htm
 
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gary

Member
Memory of that type is really no fantastic feat. Many people today remember the entire Declaration of Independence, 23 Psalms, Lincoln's Gettysburg address. I can remember much of what I am exposed to. I would think that being as close to Christ as a disciple one would work at memorizing every single word He said.

Even today, I hang on every word, though I don't remember them all. I would expect that being divinely inspired was a tremendous help but I would believe that John's memory simply served him well.
 
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upyr1

New member
Ther 4 Gospels eash with diffences so I don't think any of them are 100% literal as it happeend but I think they got all the important stuff.- His death ressurections he's God, and the road to salvation.
 
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NataleeOwens

New member
This is a great question that I've asked myself several times. The answer to that question is that Jesus was ALWAYS with the disciples. Jesus taught them in private some of the parables the masses did not know, Jesus and the 12 were always together, they protected and worshiped him since the day they were called, peter fell to his knees and told Jesus to get out of his sight because he was too much of a sinner. That should paint a picture of just how loyal they were from day one, imagine as time went on.

That being said, think of another example you missed, Jesus being taken up by Satan and tempted. He was alone with Satan, who documented that?
We have to assume that Jesus being all-knowing, able to predict the future with utmost clarity was able to see the events that were to unfold. Logically we can assume that Jesus himself dictated what to write to the ones writing the gospels.
Only Matthew and John of the 4 gospels were of the 12 disciples, Mark and Luke were not. Luke was the physician who delivered baby Jesus and followed his life onward, so his account is mostly first-hand, even in the book of acts. Mark's account is the worst of all 4 and said to be plagiarized. Copied the others.
But Jesus knew all of what was going on and we can assume he helped tell them what to write. The scrolls have been cherished since day 1, not just nowadays.

Also, the gospel of John is said not to be written by John. The authorship of the Gospel of John comes from John 21:20-24, 19:26, 21:7. All references indicate the Desciple that jesus loved, etc. It never mentions John flat-out as the author and adds a bit of mystery to it's authorship. Since the gospel was written differently than the other 3 in such a unique way personally I believe it was a love interest he had with Mary. I don't believe he married her, but the Man side of Christ loved her and I believe she wrote it, and the church changed those parts because they did not consider women equal at the time. that's non scriptural ofcourse so don't hold me to that, its just a belief of mine.

But Jesus helped dictate what to write.
 
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NataleeOwens

New member
This is a great question that I've asked myself several times. The answer to that question is that Jesus was ALWAYS with the disciples. Jesus taught them in private some of the parables the masses did not know, Jesus and the 12 were always together, they protected and worshiped him since the day they were called, peter fell to his knees and told Jesus to get out of his sight because he was too much of a sinner. That should paint a picture of just how loyal they were from day one, imagine as time went on.

That being said, think of another example you missed, Jesus being taken up by Satan and tempted. He was alone with Satan, who documented that?
We have to assume that Jesus being all-knowing, able to predict the future with utmost clarity was able to see the events that were to unfold. Logically we can assume that Jesus himself dictated what to write to the ones writing the gospels.
Only Matthew and John of the 4 gospels were of the 12 disciples, Mark and Luke were not. Luke was the physician who delivered baby Jesus and followed his life onward, so his account is mostly first-hand, even in the book of acts. Mark's account is the worst of all 4 and said to be plagiarized. Copied the others.
But Jesus knew all of what was going on and we can assume he helped tell them what to write. The scrolls have been cherished since day 1, not just nowadays.

Also, the gospel of John is said not to be written by John. The authorship of the Gospel of John comes from John 21:20-24, 19:26, 21:7. All references indicate the Desciple that jesus loved, etc. It never mentions John flat-out as the author and adds a bit of mystery to it's authorship. Since the gospel was written differently than the other 3 in such a unique way personally I believe it was a love interest he had with Mary. I don't believe he married her, but the Man side of Christ loved her and I believe she wrote it, and the church changed those parts because they did not consider women equal at the time. that's non scriptural ofcourse so don't hold me to that, its just a belief of mine.

But Jesus helped dictate what to write.
 
C

Cosmo

Member
You do know, don't you, that the Gospels where not actually written (in Greek) by the illiterate Aramaic-speaking Apostles. A century or so later.

How do we know what God said in Genesis?
 
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