Memories?

The New Testament of the Bible, (KJV), in particular the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) contains thousands of words attributed to Jesus, including sermons, discussions, platitudes and other spoken thoughts. Literacy rates in the Middle East 2000 year ago were very low, so it is highly unlikely that any of the witnesses to  most of  Jesus’ verbal outpourings  were able to write, but even if one were, without a recording device, it would be impossible to recall JC’s exact words and write them down hours after the events.  So most of what Jesus said had to be remembered over the ensuing years by the listeners.   And since most biblical scholars are certain that the gospels were not written by any of the four disciples, but were penned several decades after Jesus’ death, it is unlikely that any of the quoted ‘words of Jesus’ were even remotely close to what he actually said.  We have all played the parlor game where a short sentence is passed from ear to ear, and comes out completely different at the end of the line.  A similar distortion would occur if Jesus’ words were passed on from the individual actually present through several iterations until recorded decades later by the writer of one of the gospels, especially his long sermons and other wordy ‘quotations’.  It is far more likely that the authors of the gospels wrote what they personally wanted Jesus to have said.