We have arrived at the conclusion that the gospel tradition seems completely unreliable. That is, most of the sayings and stories alike seem to be historically spurious. If any of them should chance to be genuine, we can no longer tell. We cannot render their possible authenticity possible, so they fall to the cutting room floor. It is not that the material thus eliminated is somehow distasteful or objectionable. Most of it is still worth admiring or cherishing. But if our goal is that of the historian striving to establish the fact of Jesus and Christian origins, we must admit there is precious little help for us in the Gospels.