In the original Greek, Jesus promises a throne to the 12 people listening to him. If one disciple were to be excluded due to a future act of betrayal, Jesus could have said something like, "Those who will have followed me to the end will have a throne." That is not what is said in Greek.

Jesus instead says Judas will have a throne! These are surprising words! After all, Jesus is God. Jesus knows ahead of time that Judas will betray God. Judas will have a throne.

This passage meet the “criterion of dissimilarity"--one tool used by scholars to figure out what the historical Jesus said as opposed to words put on the lips of Jesus by early Christian communities many decades later.

Modern scholars argue that if a passage is the kind of thing early Christians would NOT have invented about Jesus, then the words are more likely to reflect what the historical Jesus actually said. The words survived because they are authentic. Only a handful of authentic sayings were around by the time early Christians realized Jesus was special. Early Christians preserved these handful of original sayings.

This is in contrast to the many words by Jesus that "survived" only because they SEEM like the kind of thing Jesus would say. I refer to sayings were made up after the death of Jesus. Before Matthew wrote down anything, 55 years had passed. A lot of "sayings" can be fabricated in 55 years.

Well, early Christians would NOT have made up a saying about Judas sitting on a throne.

Matthew 19:28 = Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, in the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel."

Judas is with Jesus at this time. Judas is promised an honored place in the coming Kingdom though Judas will later betray Jesus.

Unexpected, right?

Perhaps Judas will be honored despite the betrayal.

Or maybe that betrayal is fiction (convenient for a passion narrative but not historical). Or perhaps Jesus was not clairvoyant despite the gospels indicating that he knew future events.

The historical Jesus probably said something close to this since these words meet the “criterion of dissimilarity.” If a passage goes against what early Christians would have wanted Jesus to say, it is probably genuine.

The idea behind “dissimilarity” is that early Christians preserved the tiny handful of authentic sayings handed down to them. They preserved those words even if they were inconvenient.

In the gospels, authentic sayings are mixed with new words put on the lips of Jesus.

The gospels would be very short if they passed along only what was known for certain of the historical Jesus’ words and actions. Information was scanty! It is not as if someone was taking notes during the lifetime of Jesus.

To “fill out” the gospels, the evangelists added material to reflect what early Christian communities thought Jesus should have said or would have said in the kind of situations that the early communities found themselves in.

An additional way to determine if something was likely said by the historical Jesus is to apply the criterion of multiple attestation, also called the criterion of “independent attestation.”

If more than one early source has the same information, that material stands a better chance of being genuine. Be aware that Matthew and Luke don't count if they repeat something said by Mark --after all, Mark was the original source, so that source counts only one time. But John is an additional source--true also for Paul's letters and non-Christian sources, such as Roman historians and Josepheus.

Modern Biblical scholars do “close readings” of text. Critical thinking skills in general include analyzing, applying standards, discriminating, searching for evidence, logical reasoning, and transforming knowledge.





Gospel of Matthew 19:28 Jesus puts Judas on a throne (surprising words) “criterion of dissimilarity”