Methodology
A fixed corpus, human research lenses, visible sources, and transparent AI review.
What RedLetters is
RedLetters publishes one daily research observation from the red-letter words of Jesus. A finding is meant to show something textual, sourced, and interesting. It observes before it interprets.
The site is designed for human reading first. The underlying AI metadata is preserved for auditability, but public labels translate that metadata into clearer reader-facing language.
The corpus
RedLetters works from one fixed source: the spoken words of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, King James Version. Nothing else enters the analysis — no epistles, no commentary, no narrator descriptions, no retrospective quotations by others.
The corpus never expands. That constraint is the product. As the obvious observations are exhausted, the findings get harder to find and more interesting to read.
Live gate stats
The gate is fully autonomous: candidates are generated by AI, checked mechanically, reviewed by a separate AI pass, and only then allowed into the publishing runway. There is no human approval gate.
What counts as red letters
On finding pages and in emails, quoted source text is rendered in red only when the words are part of the fixed red-letter corpus. Narrator text, commentary, and words spoken by other people are not styled as red-letter words.
This makes the visual rule simple for readers: if the quoted Bible words are red, RedLetters is treating them as words of Jesus under the fixed corpus convention. If they are not red, they are not part of that red-letter span.
Research lenses
Each finding has a lens. The lens is the reading angle: what kind of observation is this? Lenses are intentionally public-facing because they help readers understand why the finding is interesting.
This finding depends on counts, frequency, proportions, or measurable absence/presence.
This finding is about a word, phrase, repeated term, translation choice, or language pattern.
This finding notices arrangement, repetition, sequence, symmetry, or form.
This finding turns on two sayings, themes, or Gospel presentations held in tension.
This finding involves cultural setting, practices, geography, roles, or ancient-world context.
This finding depends on the story moment: who is present, what just happened, or how the scene turns.
This finding notices a surprising idea, category shift, paradox, or unexpected framing.
This finding compares Jesus's words across Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Sources inside each finding
Every finding lists the red-letter sources it depends on. When possible, the page also prints those verses directly below the source list, with only Jesus's words colored red.
Evidence notes and Greek notes are supporting context. They are not the finding itself; they explain why the observation is plausible, reproducible, or worth reading carefully.
How it works
Every finding is generated and reviewed entirely by AI. There is no human approval gate.
AI review labels
Confidence and safety level are AI-given review metadata. They are preserved for auditability, filtering, and future machine analysis, but they are not the main way a human should read the finding.
On the public site, these fields appear quietly as an AI review line near the publication date. Support describes how directly the finding is backed by the corpus. Interpretive reach describes how much care is needed before turning the observation into a larger theological claim. It is not a warning label.
What this is not
RedLetters findings are not pastoral advice, theological conclusions, or the position of any church or denomination. They are research observations from a fixed text, generated and evaluated by AI, and disclosed with source verses, research lenses, and AI review labels.
AI-level detail
Internal fields are preserved as category, confidence, and safety_level. Public labels translate those fields without changing the underlying finding record, so historic and future findings remain compatible.