Abstract

Many sayings were attributed to Jesus by some among the earliest written works of Jesus’s followers: the letters of Paul, the four canonized gospels, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, and by various other writings. Some sayings attributed to Jesus in these early works of Jesus’s followers are with reasonable certainty not of Jesus, and have been falsely attributed to him (e.g. Matt 18:15–17). Among the sayings attributed to Jesus, quite a few also exist as sayings not attributed to him and transmitted anonymously. This occurs in the letters of Paul, the Epistle of James, the "Didachè" and several other early Christian writings. Finally, many sayings that are transmitted as anonymous in one work, are attributed to Jesus in other works. The article wants to face the following question: How to explain that many sayings transmitted anonymously some early Christian writings, are instead attributed to Jesus in other early Christian works.