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[Grosser]

Why didn't Jesus write a book?

If his message was so important for humanity, why didn't he write a book for us? Why did he rely on flawed humans to do it for him? Was he just being lazy?

[jimwalton]

As long as a book is accurate, it doesn't matter who wrote it. Reliability is the essential factor, not direct authorship.

As far as "flawed human beings," we don't reject science texts, law books, or encyclopedias because they're written by humans. We have discovered that humans are quite capable of writing reliable products.

As far as Jesus being lazy, this is just an unnecessary expression of malice, in my opinion—jumping to an insulting conclusion before you even get an answer to your question.

[susieb]

As I understand it, Jesus' message was relational, therefore He built relationships as an example of how we were to share His Good News, a book can be read alone a conversation needs 2 or more gathered together.

[jimwalton]

Good comment, susieb. Jesus's message was relational—about a relationship with God and a relationship with others. But I think it was important for what He said and did to be preserved for future generations, and that's why it was written down. You know, people complain that the written Word has changed (it has not, but they still claim it) and so the Bible is "unreliable." Can you imagine what they would say if we had no written document from Jesus's era and just oral transmission for these two millennia? I find it interesting that people criticize the written word, but if we didn't have a written word, they'd criticize that, too. I happen to think a written word was a good idea.

But the original poster thought that it would have been better if Jesus had written the book Himself and not relied on humans to do it, I guess like a diary or an autobiography. But I can still hear the criticism:

• He should have spent more time with people than sitting in his room writing.
• Look how egotistical he was, and yet he told people to be humble. What a hypocrite!
• What evidence to we have that he actually wrote this work we have?

I think it's never=ending. If people want to find fault, they'll find fault no matter what. We don't want to be fools believing things that aren't true, but I also see that haters will always hate. Instead, what we have is four reliable writers giving us four different vantage points of Jesus's life. I happen to think it was a great strategy.