The Criterion of Embarrassment is a tool used by New Testament scholars to determine whether certain actions or sayings by Jesus in the New Testament are historically authentic or not. As a notable example, the Baptism of Jesus would have been doubly embarrassing, since the story suggests that Jesus had need of being cleansed from sins, and that he submitted to the authority of John the Baptist. The Gospel of Matthew copes with the embarrassment by having John tell Jesus "I should be baptized by you." Gospel of John goes further and simply omits the whole story of the Baptism. Similarly, John was so embarrassed by the very idea that the Christ and Savior should be tempted that he also eliminated the story of the Temptation of Christ, leaving no trace of it in his Gospel. The story of The Blind Man of Bethsaida was embarrassing because Jesus had to apply his healing touch twice before the patient was totally healed. Therefore, the narrative is preserved only in Mark, having been suppressed by Matthew, Luke and John. John

The most embarrassing event in the Gospel story is the Crucifixion itself. This method of execution was considered the most shameful and degrading in the Roman world, and therefore it is the least likely to have been invented by the followers of Jesus, and the most likely to have actually taken place.

A limitation of this criterion is that embarrassing details may be included as an alternative to an even more embarrassing account of the same event. As a purely hypothetical example, Peter's denial of Jesus could have been a substitution for an even greater misdeed of Peter - such as killing a guard and letting Jesus take the blame.

The Criterion of Embarrassment supports the theory that Jesus led the Nonviolent Resistance against Pilate. This would have greatly embarrassed the Gospel authors, whose goal was to convince the Roman authorities that Christianity was no threat to Roman rule.