The Words of Jesus: A Gospel of the
Sayings of Our Lord with Reflections
by Phyllis Tickle by Phyllis Tickle
This Is A Very Dangerous Book
What if you could encounter the words of Jesus on their own, lifted up from
the surrounding narratives and presented in their full power and mystery?
That’s the question Phyllis Tickle—one of America’s most beloved writers
on Christian spirituality—asked when she set out to write what she calls a
“Sayings gospel.” In The Words of Jesus Tickle has compiled and
arranged all the sayings of Jesus from the first four books of the New
Testament and the first chapter of the Book of Acts in a way that creates
an entirely new kind of encounter with the texts. And she has accompanied
those sayings with her own personal reflections and commentaries not just
on the words themselves but on the One who spoke them.
Personal Review: The Words of Jesus: A Gospel of the Sayings
of Our Lord with Reflections by Phyllis Tickle by Phyllis Tickle

We've heard them from the pulpit, scanned the red-letter words in our
Bibles and quoted them in scripture memorization. But when we listen ---
really listen --- to the words of Jesus, they may change us irrevocably. So
says renowned religion writer Phyllis Tickle in THE WORDS OF JESUS,
which offers a new way of looking and listening to familiar passages.
The book began with a simple question from a colleague who asked
Tickle, "Did you ever wonder what you would really find if you took out the
duplications and triplications and connective tissue of the Gospels and
stripped it all down again to just His words?" The question stunned her,
and she admits, "I had never wondered such a thing...I was also fascinated
by the potency of the Sayings format and drawn to the intellectual game
and pleasure of trying to tease out just how and why that format works so
well."
The "Sayings" format is indeed unique. All of the words of Jesus from the
four gospels and the first chapter of Acts are compiled and arranged into
five different "books" and then organized by topic. In each book, Jesus'
personality is "shaded and shaped by the particularity of either his
audience --- public, private, or intimate --- or an activity --- healing." Rather
than relying on a particular translation, Tickle brings her own scholarship
and the texts of several translations to bear to recreate Jesus' words.
Tickle suggests that the reader begin with Book Two, Christ's words of
private instruction to His followers. Here, He is "most self-revelatory and
open to us." Bits and pieces of Jesus' words reach out and pull the reader
in. "Be careful that you do not look down on one who seems small or
unimportant and trivial...," Jesus says in one passage. In another, "Sit
down in the humblest place." And, "Keep awake therefore, for you know
neither the day nor the hour." Each saying in each "book" is grouped under
a topical header.
Tickle divides the other four books of Jesus' Sayings into The Words of
Public Teaching, The Words of Healing Dialogue, The Words of Intimate
Conversation and The Words of Post-Resurrection Encounters. The 21
Sayings under "healing" are interesting, Tickle points out, as most of them
have little or nothing to do with the healing itself: "Rather, they read now as
if much of the time the act of healing becomes a platform for teaching
health of more than just the body." Good food for thought.
One of Tickle's passages that resonates particularly well is the idea that
the brain and the heart are both organs of perceiving and being. "We must
assume that there is in the human being a means of knowing other than
that of the brain." Her surprise, she said, was that the Sayings of Jesus
"entered prayerfully" are first heard somewhere other than the mind. "The
heart, it would seem, has its own consciousness and knowledge and ways
that can be experienced just as the brain's consciousness and knowledge
and ways are experienced. They are just not as scientifically measurable
at the moment, and may never be."

Tickle, who has worked with other sacred writings before (The Divine
Hours series), has a delightful blend of humbleness and confidence in her
reflections on the Sayings. As she began compiling the "words" of Jesus
through the past two years, Tickle said she wrestled with new perceptions
about what it is to be a Christian, as well as to be herself.
So reader be warned. If, as Tickle says, "It is the correct and proper
business of followers to try to discern the meaning of God's words," then
THE WORDS OF JESUS is a good place to be about our business. But
readers will encounter the sayings of Jesus through this book in new ways
--- and may come away changed.
--- Reviewed by Cindy Crosby
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