My point got lost somewhere in all the above.
There is a difference between a photograph as opposed to an artist's rendering.
Agreed?
Why is there a difference?
Which is the most accurate and trustworthy?
If a person's son or daughter were kidnapped and the police asked for a description of the missing victim, which would be the MOST ACCURATE way to
identify the missing person WITHOUT POSSIBLE ERROR?
A. A current photograph
or...
B. A verbal description followed by an artist's rendering?
Important matters of life or death require BEST EVIDENCE.
Which would you, as a parent, want to entrust the police with as an aid to getting your child back out of jeopardy?
The writers who placed oral descriptions of Jesus stories in print relied on something similar to B above about ninety-nine
per cent of the time----EXCEPT in just a few instances where they gave A: a word for word account of the actual spoken words of Jesus. A verbal PHOTOGRAPH.
My question is............ not why is Greek translation okay..........
My question is.............why use the verbal PHOTOGRAPH in only a few rare instances while relying on an artist's rendering everywhere else?
Best Evidence is Best because the Truth, the Whole Truth and NOTHING BUT the Truth is worthy of divine communication with man.
The implication of rare use is that the bible writer's didn't actually know Jesus exact words EXCEPT IN THOSE FEW INSTANCES and therefore
had to give hearsay elsewhere.