Now that The Red Letter Gospel has been completed, which is a red-lettered edition of The Synoptic Gospel, the question has been asked, “What percentage of the Gospel is just the words of Jesus Christ?”
To begin, the full word count of the complete texts of the four Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, from the English version of the NASB (New American Standard Bible), is a total of 83,680 words.
When the texts are arranged in the four Gospel harmony and word-for-word merger of FIVE COLUMN: The Synoptic Gospel, the combined Gospel is 65,460 words, or just over 22% shorter in length. This 22% is mostly the duplication that is repeated within the parallel sections of Gospel verses, which is excluded in the combined text of the fifth column.
Counting only the original words of Jesus Christ from The Red Letter Gospel, and excluding where other people repeat in speech words that He said (which would also be colored red), the count of His words is 31,426, or almost 48% of the entire Gospel! This means that almost one half of the entire unified Gospel story are only the words of Jesus! Amazing!
So incredible is the collection of the words of Jesus Christ, that a work has begun that will contain only His words, laid out according to the scene and verse chronology of The Synoptic Gospel. This will be for those who want to be able to quickly see everything that Jesus Christ said, which is the real essence of the Gospel Story.
In conclusion, by my unverified count, Jesus Christ spoke some 31,426 words in the combined Gospel, which is almost one half of the entire story!
If you would like to read the red-letter words of Jesus Christ, click here to purchase your copy of The Red Letter Gospel.