Are the Gospels Historically Trustworthy? Dr Max Baker-Hytch - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Are the Gospels Historically Trustworthy?

Dr Max Baker-Hytch

Rumours of doubt…

…but not amongst scholars

“There are no substantial doubts about the general course of Jesus’ life: when and where he lived, approximately when and where he died, and the sort of thing that he did during his public activity…”

• E. P. Sanders

“No serious historian doubts the existence of Jesus… we have more evidence for Jesus than for almost anyone of his time period.” Bart D. Ehrman

…but not amongst scholars

John Dickson

…but not amongst scholars

What historians are looking for

• 1. Is the author in a good position to

know what happened?

• 2. Does it fit with what we know more

generally about the time period/ place?

• 3. Are there multiple, independent

sources which attest the core events?

What historians are looking for

• 1. Is the author in a good position to

know what happened?

• 2. Does it fit with what we know more

generally about the time period/ place?

• 3. Are there multiple, independent

sources which attest the core events?

The time gap from event to text is relatively small

120 years after Alexander the Great 77 years after Earliest sources: 20 years after Jesus Emperor Tiberius All NT sources: within 70 years

What historians are looking for

• 1. Is the author in a good position to

know what happened?

• 2. Does it fit with what we know more

generally about the time period/ place?

• 3. Are there other, independent

documents which corroborate the core events?

The Gospels are well-rooted in the time and place Jesus lived

• Accurate geographical

knowledge

• Authentic patterns of

personal names

• Knowledge of local

customs

The Gospels are well-rooted in the time and place Jesus lived

John 5.2-5: “Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Bethesda, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids— blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.”

“[T]he pool was a symbol of Judaism, and the five porticoes an allusion to the five books of the Law…” Alfred Loisy, The Fourth Gospel, 1903, p. 386

The Gospels are well-rooted in the time and place Jesus lived

• But archaeology and literary records

corroborate the name, location, porticoes and turbulence in the water

• The pool was excavated in 1956.

Galilee fishing boat Tombs cut out of rock Heel bone of a crucified man Knowledge of local customs

The Gospels are well-rooted in the time and place Jesus lived

Authentic patterns

• f personal names

The Gospels are well-rooted in the time and place Jesus lived

Archaological database New Testament Simon 9.2% 9.8% Joseph 8.3% 7.3% Top 2 names 17.6% 17.1% Lazarus 6.5% 1.2% Judas 6.2% 6.1% John 4.6% 6.1% Top 5 names 34.9% 30.5% Jesus 3.8% 3.7% Ananias 3.1% 2.4% Jonathan 2.8% 1.3% Matthew 2.4% 2.4% Manaen 1.6% 1.3% Top 10 names 48.5% 41.5% Top 25 names 62.8% 59.8% Top 50 names 74.3% 69.5%

What historians are looking for

• 1. Is the document in a good position

to know what happened?

• 2. Does it fit with what we know more

generally about the time period/ place?

• 3. Are there other, independent

sources which attest the core events?

Paul’s letters Mark’s Gospel Luke’s unique material Matthew’s unique material John’s Gospel Q(?)

The Synoptic Gospels

Mark Matthew Luke

There are multiple, independent sources…

Paul’s letters Mark’s Gospel Luke’s unique material John’s Gospel

The Synoptic Gospels

Mark Matthew Luke

There are multiple, independent sources…

Matthew’s unique material

Paul’s letters Mark’s Gospel Luke’s unique material John’s Gospel

The Synoptic Gospels

Mark Matthew Luke

There are multiple, independent sources…

Josephus Tacitus Matthew’s unique material

“These sources are independent of one

• another. They were written in different

places…Yet many of them, independent though they be, agree on many of the basic aspects of Jesus's life and death: he was a Jewish teacher of Palestine who was crucified

• n order of Pontius Pilate, for example… They

could not have been dreamed up independently of one another by Christians all

• ver the map because they agree on too

many of the fundamentals.”

Bart Ehrman

…and they agree on the core events and themes

…and they agree on the core events and themes

Dale C. Allison

“he’s so absentminded” “he wore a jumper backwards all day without noticing” “he has equations written all over the windows of his office” “he often doesn’t notice you if you wave at him when you pass him in the corridor”

…and they agree on the core events and themes

Dale C. Allison

“Working through the tradition this way leads to a large number of conclusions: —Jesus must have thought highly of John the Baptist. —He must have repeatedly spoken of God as Father. —He must have composed parables. —He must have come into conflict with religious authorities… —He was reputed to be a successful exorcist, healer, and wonder worker… —Whatever titles he may or may not have used, Jesus probably believed himself to be not just a prophet but the personal locus of the end-time scenario, the central figure of the last judgment.”

“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man …; for he was a doer of surprising works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles … And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him… And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.” (Antiquities

• f the Jewish People, 18.63-64)

Flavius Josephus

Non-Christian sources confirm the basic story

“Christus, from whom the name [Christian] had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not

• nly in Judæa, the first source of the

evil, but even in Rome…” (Annals of Imperial Rome, 15.44)

Cornelius Tacitus

Non-Christian sources confirm the basic story

“[The Christians] were in the habit

• f meeting on a certain fixed day

before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god” (Letter to the Emperor Trajan)

Pliny the Younger

Non-Christian sources confirm the basic story

Taken together, the earliest non-Christian ancient sources attest the following facts about Jesus:

• Jesus was known as a moral teacher and a wise man
• He had a reputation as a miracle worker
• His followers believed him to be the Jewish Messiah (the Christ)
• He was condemned to death by crucifixion under the authority
• f Pontius Pilate at the suggestion of the Jewish chief priests
• The movement he founded stopped temporarily after his death
• It very quickly resumed
• His followers reported that Jesus appeared to them alive
• Christians were subjected to violent persecution within the first

few decades

• They would meet on a fixed day to worship Jesus together

Non-Christian sources confirm the basic story