Reading the Gospels as Biographies of a Sage

Abstract

This paper argues that the Gospels are ancient biographies of a recent figure. Ancient biographies of recent figures normally preserved a significant amount of accurate information about those figures, so our default expectation should be the same for the Gospels. The paper also argues that the Gospels are biographies of a sage and that this may strengthen the expectation further. Almost no one today doubts that Jesus was a sage with disciples. Yet disciples in this period normally carefully preserved and propagated their masters’ teachings. Thus our default expectation, barring strong evidence to the contrary, should be the same for Jesus’ disciples.