This collection o Jesus sayings is designed primarily for those who do not care to follow the intricacies of modern Gospel criticism and who wish only the firm ground of assured results. The principle of selection, therefore, has not been the editors own preference but the general con sensus of present-day opinion with a greater readiness to omit rather than to include debated passages. The most disputed subjects are those of the Messianic consciousness and the apocalyptic language here such contradictory opin ions are held that no choice of material will be universally satisfactory. But much of this controversy is based on premises that are more theological than historical and every passage printed perhaps apart from those marked a, b, c at the beginning has the support of specialists who otherwise hold radical views. Apart from these subjects there are few serious scholars who will not agree that Jesus actual teach ing is summarized with reasonable accuracy by the collec tion as a whole. Quite aside from critical problems, however, this collec tion may be used simply as a compilation of representative passages from the first three Gospels, to serve as an introduc tion to the fuller study of the Gospels themselves. For the first century the arrangement of Jesus sayings as given by the Evangelists was ideal but for us today the appeal of these sayings is often more direct when detached from their Gospel context and given separately. The poetic structure that Jesus deliberately gave much of His teaching has been restored, and will often make the meaning clear without further explanation. The translation largely retains the familiar wording of the traditional English versions, al though in some instances wide departures have been neces sary to convey the original meaning. In making this translation the researches of specialists in the Greek text and especially of experts in the Aramaic language have been freely used. Explicit quotations from the Old Testament are printed in italics. Since Old Testament language was archaic in Jesus day, in these quotations the traditional English Bib lical style has been retained. The comments have been reduced to the briefest dimen sions, possible their sole purpose is to remove difficulties due to our remoteness from the events and so to place the reader as nearly as possible in the immediate presence of Jesus

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