And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were
astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one
who had authority, and not as their scribes.
-- Matthew 7:28-29 (ESV)

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Quotation:
It is of no use to say that Christ, as exhibited in the
Gospels, is not historical, and that we know not how much of
what is admirable has been super-added by the tradition of his
followers. Who among his disciples or among their proselytes
was capable of inventing the sayings of Jesus or of imagining
the life and character revealed in the Gospels? Certainly not
the fishermen of Galilee; as certainly not St. Paul, whose
character and idiosyncrasies were of a totally different sort;
still less the early Christian writers, in whom nothing is
more evident than that the good which was in them was all
derived, as they always professed that it was derived, from
the higher source.
... John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), Three Essays on Religion