Introduction

Across the four Gospels, Jesus asked approximately 305 questions. He was asked 183. He answered 3 directly.

The ratio is not a teaching technique. It is a revelation about how the King engages human beings. Commands tell you what to do. Declarations announce who He is. Teachings explain the Kingdom. Questions do something different — they locate you. They press against the interior and ask you to name what is actually there: what you believe, what you want, what you are afraid of, what you are willing to give, whether you are actually seeing what you think you are seeing.

You cannot answer these questions from a position of sufficiency. Every one of them requires some form of empty hands.

The Reference Catalogue organized what the King said by genre — declarations, commands, prayers, antitheses, cross-words, resurrection words. The Topical Study Guide organized the same words by subject, in frequency order. This volume organizes what the King asked by what each category exposes in the hearer. The seven categories are not exhaustive. They are pastoral — selected because the questions in each category keep arriving in the same place in a disciple's life: the interior where faith is either alive or only managed, where love is either real or only performed, where the King is either known or only described.

All quotations are from the NET Bible Second Edition. Where the same question appears in parallel Gospel accounts, the most complete version is cited and parallels noted. Context notes are added where the surrounding narrative changes what the question means.

This guide draws from a compiled catalogue of 305 questions across the four Gospels. Not all 305 appear here. A curated selection serves discipleship better than an exhaustive list. What follows are the questions that have not aged.