Andrew
Phillip Smith, The Lost Sayings of Jesus: Teachings from Ancient
Christian, Jewish Gnostic, and Islamic Sources. (Woodstock, VT:
Skylight Paths Publishing, 2006).
Reviewed by Robert M. Price
It is
hard not to pick up a book with a title like this! The book compiles
non-canonical sayings from many sources, an endeavor not exactly new
(nor does its author so claim), but still worthwhile. Even connoisseurs
of such collections will find some material that had previously escaped
their notice. One new feature of this volume is that it does not flinch
from including tidbits from modern gospels (or gospel hoaxes, depending
on one’s disposition) if they seem interesting or well wrought.
Each page contains three to
five sayings or anecdotes, keyed to annotations on the facing page. The
annotations seem adequate, albeit a little skimpy sometimes.
The charm of the book is
the manner in which it conjures for the reader a kind of second naïveté,
enabling us to return for a moment, in our imaginations, to that time
when the sayings of Jesus were new to us and could still shock or
delight us. And then we realize there is something about material
ascribed to Jesus which makes its own kind of impact, at least if the
saying seems at all appropriate to that great name. Reading the gospels
or other sources, ancient or modern, we cannot help being drawn in when
the narrative says “Jesus said…” We are playing the role of Jesus’
audience, even if the scene we are acting is fictitious. And in turn
this experience helps us to understand the phenomenon of early
Christians manufacturing sayings for Jesus after the fact. Bultmann said
that Christian prophets spoke under the perceived afflatus of the Risen
Jesus. Burton L. Mack says that Christian students followed the
practices of Hellenistic secondary education, showing their grasp of the
thought of a famous sage by coining sayings that should, if successful,
sounds like what Socrates or Diogenes or Jesus would have said if
addressing some question. In either case, the result was a great number
of sayings that filled out and colored in the picture of Jesus, even if
they were not actual, historical recollections. In either case, it is
meaningful to say that the voice of Jesus lives on. And this book proves
that. It even suggests that the apologists and critics who alike wish to
protect the fund of authentic sayings of Jesus (whether their list of
them is as long as the canonical texts or amounting to just 18% of their
contents) are alike falling into the trap of those who despise
prophesying and quench the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19-20).