{"id":16572,"date":"2026-05-02T10:01:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T16:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/?p=16572"},"modified":"2026-05-02T10:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T16:01:09","slug":"paul-cites-only-two-teachings-of-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/paul-cites-only-two-teachings-of-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Cites Only Two Teachings of Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The claim that Paul explicitly cites only two teachings of Jesus (as direct dominical commands) is a common observation in critical scholarship. The two passages typically identified are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1) Preachers should receive material support<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Paul explicitly attributes this teaching to \u201cthe Lord\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>1 Corinthians 9:14 (NRSV)<\/strong>\u201cIn the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is widely understood to reflect a saying of Jesus preserved in the Gospel tradition:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Luke 10:7 (NRSV)<\/strong>\u201cRemain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Matthew 10:10 (NRSV)<\/strong>\u201c\u2026for laborers deserve their food.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Critical scholars such as James D. G. Dunn note that Paul\u2019s wording strongly suggests dependence on an established Jesus tradition (Dunn, <em>The Theology of Paul the Apostle<\/em>, p. 607).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2) Prohibition of divorce<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Paul again distinguishes this as a command from Jesus himself:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>1 Corinthians 7:10\u201311 (NRSV)<\/strong>\u201cTo the married I give this command\u2014not I but the Lord\u2014that the wife should not separate from her husband\u2026 and that the husband should not divorce his wife.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This corresponds closely to sayings in the Synoptic Gospels:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Mark 10:11\u201312 (NRSV)<\/strong>\u201cWhoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her\u2026\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Matthew 19:6 (NRSV)<\/strong>\u201cTherefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scholars such as Bart D. Ehrman emphasize that this is one of the clearest places where Paul explicitly appeals to a known teaching of the historical Jesus rather than offering his own apostolic judgment (Ehrman, <em>The New Testament: A Historical Introduction<\/em>, ch. 23).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Clarifying the scope of the claim<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>These are the <strong>only two places where Paul explicitly says he is quoting or passing on a command \u201cfrom the Lord\u201d (i.e., Jesus)<\/strong> in his undisputed letters.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Elsewhere, Paul may <strong>echo or allude to Jesus\u2019 teachings<\/strong> (e.g., on loving one\u2019s neighbor in Romans 13:8\u201310), but he does not explicitly attribute those to Jesus in the same direct way.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Summary<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The two passages generally cited are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>1 Corinthians 9:14<\/strong> \u2192 support for ministers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>1 Corinthians 7:10\u201311<\/strong> \u2192 prohibition of divorce<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both are explicitly marked by Paul as coming from \u201cthe Lord,\u201d and both align with independently preserved Gospel traditions, which is why critical scholars treat them as strong evidence that Paul knew at least some teachings of Jesus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The claim that Paul explicitly cites only two teachings of Jesus (as direct dominical commands) is a common observation in critical scholarship. The two passages typically identified are: 1) Preachers should receive material support Paul explicitly attributes this teaching to \u201cthe Lord\u201d: This is widely understood to reflect a saying of Jesus preserved in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[131,89,90,105],"tags":[97,73],"class_list":["post-16572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biblescholarship","category-jesus","category-paul","category-scholars","tag-jesus","tag-paul"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16572"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16573,"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16572\/revisions\/16573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}