Note 361 — Chapter VII · PROBLEMS OF THE ARABIAN CULTURE (A) HISTORIC PSEUDOMORPHOSES

Hence Mark xiii, taken from an older document, is perhaps the purest example of his usual daily discourse. Paul (1 Thess. iv, 15–17) quotes another, which is missing in the Gospels. With these, we have the priceless—but, by commentators dominated by the Gospel tone, misunderstood—contributions of Papias, who about 100 was still in a position to collect much oral tradition. The little that we have of his work suffices amply to show us the apocalyptic character of Jesus’s daily discourses. It is Mark xiii and not the Sermon on the Mount that reproduces the real note of them. But as his teaching became modified into a teaching of Him, this material likewise was transformed and the record of his utterances became the narrative of his manifestation. In this one respect the picture given by the Gospels is inevitably false.