6/16/12

HISTORICAL RELIABILITY OF THE

GOSPELS

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

C.S. LEWIS

1. External Evidence

THE CASE FOR A FIRST CENTURY NEW TESTAMENT

Thal lus, Greek historian in the 1 s t century, references the darkness that occurred at the t ime of the crucifixion

Pl iny the Younger, Roman legate, wrote to the emperor Trajan in the early 2 n d century asking for advice on how to deal with Christ ians who refused to reverence Caesar’s image. He refers to them meeting regularly and singing hymns “to Christ as i f to a god”

Tacitus, Roman historian in the early 2 n d century, describes Christ ians as those who fol lowed “Christ who had been executed by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pi late in the reign of Tiberius”

Suetonius, Roman historian in early 2 n d century, refers to the expuls ion of Jews from Rome during the reign of Claudius (AD 41-54) due to riot ing “at the instigation of Chrestus”

Lucian, a 2 n d century satir ist, r idicules Christ ians for worshipping a man Mara bar Serapion, a 2 n d century Syrian, writes to his son urging him to

imitate wise teachers, mentioning twice a “wise King” who was executed by the Jews

Celsus, a pagan apologist reference by Origen in the early 3 r d century, disparages Jesus’ l ineage, cal ls his mother an adulteress, attr ibute miraculous powers to sorcery, and falsely claimed divinity

EXTERNAL EVIDENCE

Jesus described by non-Christian sources: Jesus was a Jew who lived in Israel during the first third of

the first century Unusual birth, out of wedlock Life intersected ministry of John the Baptist Attracted great crowds and following Performed unusual, perhaps miraculous, works Had a group of followers called disciples (five are named) Recognized as a sage Recognized as a king Instigator of controversy Crucified during the time of Pontius Pilate Followers worshipped him

EXTERNAL EVIDENCE

1. External Evidence2. Historical Congruence

THE CASE FOR A FIRST CENTURY NEW TESTAMENT

Gospels are full of proper names, dates, cultural details, historical events, geographical sites, and customs and opinions of the time

Pontius Pilate. Plaque with his inscription discovered in 1961.

Lysanius tetrarch of Abilene. Inscription dating to time of Tiberius recently found.

John accurately references Cana, Capernaum, Jacob’s Well, Mount Gerazim, The Sheep Gate, Tiberius, Bethany, Ephraim, Kidron Brook, The Praetorium and the garden tomb

HISTORICAL CONGRUENCE

Gospels demonstrate accurate knowledge of Jerusalem prior to 70 AD

Pool of Bethesda. Until the 19 th century, there was no evidence of or reference to its existence.

Pool of Siloam. Also discovered in the 19 th century. Pilate passed judgment on Jesus at a location known as a

“stone pavement”. Recently discovered. Golgotha was said to be just outside the city walls in John

19. The walls of the city were extended to include Golgotha only a decade after Jesus’ death.

John 2:13-16 correctly records names of locations in the temple complex

HISTORICAL CONGRUENCE

1. External Evidence2. Historical Congruence3. Embarrassment

THE CASE FOR A FIRST CENTURY NEW TESTAMENT

Mark and Luke as authors of gospels Jesus coming from Nazareth Jesus’ baptismApocalyptical material in Matthew 24Details about Jesus’ human weakness Jesus being buried by Joseph of Arimathea (a

Sanhedrist)Disciples’ faultsAppeared to women“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

EMBARRASSMENT

1. External Evidence2. Historical Congruence3. Embarrassment4. Multiple Attestation

THE CASE FOR A FIRST CENTURY NEW TESTAMENT

A passage is more likely to be authentic if it is included in two or more independent sources (e.g. Mark, Q, John, Paul, Josephus, etc.)

Last Supper (Mark, John, Paul) Jesus meeting with John the Baptist (Mark and John) Jesus’ miracles Jesus’ “Son of Man” sayingsEmpty tomb

MULTIPLE ATTESTATION

1. External Evidence2. Historical Congruence3. Embarrassment4. Multiple Attestation5. Semitic Traces

THE CASE FOR A FIRST CENTURY NEW TESTAMENT

The New Testament was obviously written in Greek, but there are several sayings from Jesus that would only be worded the way they were if spoken in Aramaic (transliterations, parallelisms, order of words, redundant pronouns, etc.)

Example: Matthew 23:24 – “straining out the gnat (galma) and

swallowing the camel (gamla).”

SEMITIC TRACES

1. External Evidence2. Historical Congruence3. Embarrassment4. Multiple Attestation5. Semitic Traces6. Dissimilarity

THE CASE FOR A FIRST CENTURY NEW TESTAMENT

Sayings that appear to be distinct from later Christian theology or prior Judaism are likely to be authentic first century passages.

Christians would have likely included material in the Jesus tradition about Christian controversies like circumcision, spiritual gifts, role of women, meat sacrificed to idols, etc.

Improbability of early church developing story based on Zechariah 9:9

DISSIMILARITY

1. External Evidence2. Historical Congruence3. Embarrassment4. Multiple Attestation5. Semitic Traces6. Dissimilarity7. Lack of Legendary Elements

THE CASE FOR A FIRST CENTURY NEW TESTAMENT

Historically, legendary elements do not appear in accounts until at least a century after the events

Gospel of Peter’s resurrection: gigantic figure with head reaching above the clouds, supported by angels, followed by a talking cross, and witness by a great multitude of spectators

LACK OF LEGENDARY DEVELOPMENT

1. External Evidence2. Historical Congruence3. Embarrassment4. Multiple Attestation5. Semitic Traces6. Dissimilarity7. Lack of Legendary Elements8. Dating Indicators

THE CASE FOR A FIRST CENTURY NEW TESTAMENT

From the writings of Suetonis, Juvenal, Pliny the Younger, Martial, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius, it seems clear that Christians were dying for their faith within 31 years of Jesus’ death

Acts ends with Paul sti l l al ive, although he was kil led in Nero’s courts in AD 63-64. Acts was the second part of a two-volume work, the first being Luke. Luke appears to have used Mark as a resource. Mark’s date, therefore, is l ikely no later than the late-50s.

Paul’s letters were primarily written in the 50s. Phil ippians 2, Colossians 1, and 1Corinthians 15 all contain “creeds”, l ikely with Aramaic roots, meaning these were circulating in Christian circles prior to Paul’s letters. These creeds refer to both the deity and the resurrection of Christ. Paul’s letters themselves also contain a well-developed Christology and an obvious belief in the resurrection.

Dating of early manuscripts

DATING INDICATORS

Either the gospels are authentic accounts or the writers deliberately deceived, in which case we would need to account for…

Motivation

IF WRITTEN IN THE MID-FIRST CENTURY…

“Would men in such circumstances pretend to have seen what they never saw; assert facts which they had no knowledge of; go about lying to teach virtue; and, though not only convinced of Christ’s being an imposter, but having seen the success of his imposture in his crucifixion, yet persist in carrying on; and so persist, as to bring upon themselves, for nothing, and with full knowledge of the consequences, enmity and hatred, danger and death?” William Paley

They had absolutely nothing to gainThey had been raised in a religion vastly different

from the one they preached

MOTIVATION

Either authentic accounts or the writers deliberately deceived, in which case we would need to account for…

Motivation Martyrdom Effect

IF WRITTEN IN THE MID-FIRST CENTURY…

Needed explanation for the incredible early growth of Christianity, especially in Palestine

Needed explanation of certain beliefs arose, such as the deity of Christ

EFFECT

Multiple lines of evidence point to most of the New Testament being written in the mid-first century, drawing upon even earlier traditions

If such traditions about Jesus were around at such an early date, they could have easily been disproven if false

The early dates do not allow for legendary development

The only reason to doubt that the gospels are authentic is that they contain supernatural events.

CONCLUSION