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Most of the information we have about Jesus is in the Bible, so how reliable is it? Bible


The biographies written about the life of Jesus are ancient historical documents


“Jesus’ oldest biographies are the books in the New Testament of the Bible called the Gospels and named after their writers: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  From these biographies, I found out a lot about who Jesus claimed to be ... For the time being, I set aside aside the issue of whether the Bible really was the inspired Word of God.  Instead, I took the Bible for what it undeniably is - a collection of ancient documents claiming to record historical events.” (The Case for Christ p53-54)


Witnesses to the events recorded in these four biographies of Jesus


“After years of reporting on courtroom trials, I know how convincing eyewitness testimony can be in establishing whether an event happened in the way people claim it did ... The historian Mark recorded Peter’s firsthand account in what is now called the gospel of Mark.  Luke, a physician and a sort of first-century investigative reporter, wrote a biography of Jesus based on eyewitness testimony, too.” (p54-55).


We know that  Peter (who is believed to have provided Mark with the material for writing his gospel, and who wrote two New Testament books of his own) claimed to be writing only the truth from his statement - ‘We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ’, he wrote, ‘but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty’ (2 Peter 1:16).


Similarly John, who wrote the gospel of John and also four other New Testament books, said that he was writing about things ‘which we have heard, which we have seen with our   eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched’ (1 John 1:1).


So Lee Strobel was able to come to the conclusion: “The New Testament biographies of Jesus aren’t just secondhand information.  They are based on eyewitness accounts.” (P55)


Another really important point is that the witnesses of Jesus’ life, death and bodily resurrection were talking to people who were alive at the time the events happened, and who therefore knew whether or not the witnesses were telling the truth.  Peter preached a sermon very shortly after the events had taken place, saying, ‘Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know ... God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact’ (Acts 2:22-32).


As Lee Strobel points out, “The audience’s reaction was very interesting.  They didn’t say, ‘We don’t know what you’re talking about!’ or, ‘That’s not the way it really happened!’  Instead, they panicked and wanted to know what they should do.  On that day about 3,000 people asked for forgiveness and many others followed - apparently because they knew that Peter was telling the truth.  (You can read the whole story for yourself in Acts 2:14-47).” (p56-57)


Finally, the Pharisees and other religious leaders of the day were desperate to quash the belief that Jesus was the Messiah, and that He had risen from the dead.  You can be sure that if any part of the eyewitness accounts had been exaggerated, they would have been the first to complain.  But there is no evidence that they ever disputed anything written in the gospels as a historical record of, for example, the miracles and teachings of Jesus.


By the time the biographies were written, had myths developed around the facts?


“Dr. William Albright, who used to direct the American School of Oriental research in Jerusalem and later taught at Johns Hopkins University, says he’s convinced that the different books of the New Testament were written within 50 years (not 100) after Jesus died - and more likely closer to 45 years.  Another scholar, Craig Blomberg, thinks the time gap was about 30 years between Jesus’ death and when Mark wrote his gospel.  This means that the New Testament was available in written form while plenty of eyewitnesses were still alive to say either, ‘Yes, that’s the way it happened,’ or, ‘I was there, and that’s not what I saw!’” (The Case for Christ p59)


The evidence is that there would not have been time for myths to develop before the biographies of Jesus were written.


How many manuscripts are there, and do they agree with each other?


“There are over 5,000 copies of New Testament manuscripts copied in Greek.  And 8,000 to  10,000 in Latin.  Eight thousand more in other languages such as Ethiopic, Slavic, and Armenian.  Thrown in a few miscellaneous other manuscripts, and there are 24,000 New Testament manuscripts in all ...


“The amazing thing is that they say the same thing!  You’ll find some variations in spelling and stuff like that, but 99.5 percent of the manuscripts match up ... When 24,000 New Testament manuscripts say virtually the same thing, it makes sense that they are accurate copies of the original.” (The Case for Christ  p61-62)


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