Were the teachings of Jesus himself complete or were men needed to bring to light what he did not say?

Answer 1

Perhaps men were needed during the Apostolic Era to complete the teachings of Jesus. This conclusion can be arrived at from the history of the gospels and of the 'Q' document.

The earliest New Testament gospel was the gospel now known as Mark's Gospel, written approximately 70 CE. It has been shown that the authors of Matthew's Gospel and Luke's Gospel relied on Mark for everything they knew about the life and mission of Jesus. Whenever they agree with Mark, the format and the wording in the original Greek language are almost identical. They also introduced many new sayings from the hypothetical 'Q' document. Because Q rarely provided context information, being merely a list of sayings attributed to Jesus, the two evangelists had to create the context in which Jesus might have spoken these parables and other sayings. However, both Matthew and Luke contain material not found in either Mark or Q.

It has also been shown that John's Gospel was inspired by Luke's Gospel, with some material taken direct from Mark's Gospel. It contains a great deal of material not found in Mark or Luke.

The significance of this history is that material found in Matthew, Luke and John, but not in Markor Q, undoubtedly originated with the authors of those gospels. Analysis of the gospels clearly shows that they were not eyewitnesses to the life and times of Jesus and had no other sources available to them, apart from Mark and Q. They were bringing to light that which Jesus himself had not said.

Even the Q document, on which the authors of Matthew and Luke relied, is believed to have been written in four layers over a period of some years. While the earliest material could have been based on the actual teachings of Jesus, it is unlikely in the extreme that subsequent material was really the words of Jesus himself. Unaware of this, the authors of Matthew and Luke were copying teachings that, while of great value, came from men other than Jesus.