The story of the woman taken in adultery, known to have been in the suppressed “Gospel according to the Hebrews,” and by some strange chance preserved in the fourth gospel (viii), I believe to have really occurred. It would have required a first-century Boccaccio to invent such a story, and I cannot discover anything similar in Eastern or in Oriental books. Augustine says that some had removed it from their manuscripts, “I imagine, out of fear that impunity of sin was granted to their wives.” It is not likely that any of the earlier fathers, any more than the later, would have invented so dangerous a story.
Another anecdote, preserved only in the fourth Gospel, probably contains some elements of truth, namely, the words uttered to the Samaritan woman. Who would have been bold enough, even had he been liberal enough, to invent the words: “Neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father”? Even in the one Gospel that ventures to preserve it this noble catholicity is immediately retracted (John iv. 22) in a verse which obviously interrupts the idea. That the story is an early one is also suggested by the fact that no reproach to the woman on account of her many husbands is inserted. It is remarkable to find such a story related without any word about sin and forgiveness.
The so-called “Sermon on the Mount” is well named: it is evidently made up of reports of sermons in amplification of sayings of Jesus in the style of the Wisdom Books, among which probably were:
“Let your light shine before men. A lamp is not lit to be put under a bushel.”
“The lamp of the body is the eye. If thine eye be sound the whole body is illumined; if the eye be diseased the whole body is in darkness. If the inner eye be darkened how great is the darkness.”
“Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
“By their fruits both trees and man are known.”
“Each tree is known by its own fruit.”
“Put not new wine into old wine-skins, lest they burst.”
“Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”