Why red letters?

Around 1900 Louis Klopsch, the editor of an American Christian weekly, published a New Testament in which all the words of Jesus were printed in red. He is said to have had the idea while reading Luke 22, where Jesus speaks of the new testament in his blood.

It was a great success. Red-letter Bibles are still popular, especially in the English-speaking world. Whoever opens one can see at a glance where Jesus himself is speaking.

There is a drawback too. Which words are printed in red is sometimes the publisher's choice. Is John 3:16 a saying of Jesus, or a reflection by the Gospel writer? Ancient Greek had no quotation marks. This site follows the usual choice, but says so honestly when there is doubt.

This site is called Jesus dicit, Latin for: Jesus says. Here too his words are printed in red: all the red text consists of words the Bible attributes to Jesus.

Sometimes the writer's own voice runs through the quotation. With Talitha cumi and Ephphatha, Mark adds the translation himself: which is, being interpreted. And in three places Paul passes on a word of the Lord in his own sentences, with phrases like yet not I, but the Lord and this we say unto you. We leave those sentences whole, because otherwise the word of Jesus would be left hanging in mid-air. The reflection underneath always says who is speaking.

Jesus also speaks after his ascension. On the road to Damascus he asks Saul why he is persecuting him, in Corinth he encourages Paul in a vision, and at the very end of the Bible, in Revelation, he dictates seven letters to seven churches. Those words are here too, with Acts, the epistles and Revelation as their source. There is even one saying preserved only by Paul: it is more blessed to give than to receive.

What you will not find here are the epistles themselves. Paul, Peter, James and the writer of Hebrews wrote a great deal about Jesus: about his death, his resurrection and what they mean. That is the explanation of his first disciples, and it is precious. But it is not his own words, and this site is about those. Anyone who wants to read the epistles will find parts of them in Foretold, where they show how the old promises came true in Jesus, and in the chapters you can open beneath a word.