logion

1. (theology) A traditional saying of a religious leader.Examples: "It is clear from Origen's wording that he is not referring to a logion of the original Montanist leaders, but to a statement made by later adherents of the New Prophecy. […] The logion is probably authentic."; "Influenced by scholarship on the sayings of Jesus and the redaction of the Gospels, [John] Wansbrough assumes that the Qu'rān was edited and constructed from a plethora of short texts that he terms "prophetic logia." These logia draw on monotheistic imagery and are related to forms familiar from the literature of prophetical expression. […] The goal of the critic is to identify these logia by examining the canonical text in which they have been edited and spliced together"

2. (specifically, Christianity) A saying that is attributed to Jesus in ancient or reconstructed texts that was (originally) handed down without narrative context.Examples: "The Q materials are often thought to have almost exclusively consisted of logia."; "The Gospels are evidently independent in their use of their source in the Logia of Matthew; but they all give the logion the same place in their Gospels."; "It is in this context that the difficult logion in Matthew concerning the eye (vv. 22–23) is to be understood."Synonyms: agraphonspecifically