Getting Aggressive About The Passive

I overheard someone “quoting” Jesus today. I hear people do this quite often, and it really galls me: No one knows what Jesus said, or even if he said anything at all, because he never wrote anything down—and none of his contemporaries saw fit to record his words, either. So stop bearing false witness, Christians!

Granted, the passive construction “It is said that Jesus said…” doesn’t have the same authoritative ring to it, but at least it’s intellectually honest.

Tags: religion, christianity, jesus, english grammar