What reference was Paul refering to when he quoted Jesus in Acts 20:35?

Pinoy Preacher

Is there any available Logos resource that would shed light as to the source from which Paul quoted Jesus saying "It is more blessed to give than to receive." It is definitely not in the Gospels. 

Thanks in advance for the replies...  

Lynden O. Williams

See John 21:25 

Graham Criddle

Pinoy Preacher said:

Is there any available Logos resource that would shed light as to the source from which Paul quoted Jesus saying "It is more blessed to give than to receive." It is definitely not in the Gospels. 

Thanks in advance for the replies...  

try running a passage guide and see what your commentaries show.

one example is shown below - see particularly the footnote

Scott E. Mahle

Witherington has an interesting write-up on this verse.

 

The sanction or “proof” that such activities should be undertaken is a quotation from “the Lord Jesus” which is not found in the Gospels: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” This is a wisdom saying in the form of a beatitude. There is an early variant form of it found in 1 Clem. 2:1, which may suggest by the criteria of multiple attestation that this goes back to the earliest period of the Jesus movement, perhaps even to Jesus. The sapiential form of the saying and the fact that the idea here echoes what we find in a text like Sir. 4:31 may also point to its origins in the teaching of Jesus, for Jesus’ teaching often took such form and was indebted to early Jewish sapiential traditions. The essence of what we find here is also found in Luke 6:35–38 and other Christian sources such as Did. 1:5 and Herm. Man. 2:4–6. There are some more remote parallels in Greek literature (Plutarch, Moral. 173D, 181F), and one from Greek historiography that is much closer except that it is addressed to Persian kings (Thucydides, Hist. 2.97.4). It is the character of gnomic wisdom that one often finds parallels because of the genric and transcultural nature of the advice it gives, for it is grounded in widely held cultural assumptions.

See Jeremias, Unknown Sayings of Jesus, pp. 77–81. What this saying shows is that there were likely many sayings, even free-floating sayings of Jesus, that were never collected into a Q-like document or a Gospel.

 

(This, of course, seems to take us right back to Lynden’s verse)

 

 

Witherington, B., III. (1998). The Acts of the Apostles: a socio-rhetorical commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Pedro

Found this during a quick search on my Logos library, from 

Martin, Ralph P., and Peter H. Davids, eds. Dictionary of the Later New Testament and Its Developments. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997.

The later speeches in Acts do not allude to, let alone cite, Jesus traditions. Paul’s moving farewell speech to the Ephesian elders at Miletus, however, is an exception. It concludes with an explicit citation of a saying of Jesus that is not included in any of the Gospels: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). Although quotations of the teaching of Jesus are rare in early Christian writings before Irenaeus, this verse confirms that extracanonical sayings of Jesus (often referred to as “agrapha,” or “unwritten” sayings) were known. Unlike many of the agrapha found in later writings, this saying is usually accepted as a genuine saying of Jesus.

Hope this helps a little bit.

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/583782#Comment_583782

Pinoy ... if you're looking for a broader discussion of the issue (especially in the Fathers):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrapha 

Or google 'agrapha jesus'  Quite a bit a discussion.  There are authors who go into it in detail but not approved for Logosians.

Pinoy Preacher

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/583783#Comment_583783

@All - Your replies have been very helpful... Thank you... :-)