Criterion of embarrassment

Certain Biblical scholars have used this as a meter for assessing whether the New Testament's accounts of Jesus's actions and words are historically probable.

The phrase was used by John P. Meier in his 1991 book A Marginal Jew; he attributed it to Edward Schillebeeckx (1914–2009), who does not appear to have actually used the term in his written works.

Rather, embarrassing material coming from Jesus would be either suppressed or softened in later stages of the Gospel tradition.

In one account from the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a very young Jesus is said to have used his supernatural powers first to strike dead, and then revive, a playmate who had accidentally bumped into him.

[10][11][12] A further limitation is the possibility that what could be classed as embarrassing could also be an intentionally created account designed to provoke a reaction.