Clear Evidence: Eyewitness Reports of Jesus (Paperback)

Chapter One

ICEBREAKER

Check out the headlines of a supermarket tabloid. Do you believe or disbelieve them, and why?

Now examine the headlines of a high-caliber newspaper. Why might you decide to believe or disbelieve them?

What standards do you use to decide whether any source of historical information is reliable?

Whether you are researching yesterday's news, Napoleon Bonaparte, or Jesus of Nazareth, you must always ask hard questions about the sources. Why? Because it's critical to first establish the credibility of those sources. This should also be true of Jesus-and how the evidence stacks up for him. Let's take a look at what these original sources say.

Read Luke 1:1-6

Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly.

DISCUSS!

1. What are the goals of the writer (in this case, Luke) in this account?

2. What has Luke done to assure the accuracy of his account?

3. What clues reveal this account is historical rather than a myth?

4. Anyone who investigates the credibility of a document must ask this significant question: How close were the reporters to the action? Consider the following sources of information about Jesus:

Matthew One of Jesus' 12 closest followers. Spent three intensive years studying and traveling with Jesus.

Mark Probably a youth on the fringes of Jesus' followers. Became a disciple of Peter's (one of Jesus' closest disciples) and is thought to have based his gospel on the teachings of Peter.

Luke A first-century historian and physician, Luke did research with primary sources to give an orderly account to his friend.

John Known as the "disciple Jesus loved," John was among the most intimate circle of three friends who went everywhere with Jesus during his three ministry years. John, along with Peter and James, probably knew Jesus for some time before these ministry years began.

According to the question above, are these good sources? Why or why not?

5. These four sources also agree with each other strongly. How does this fact affect the credibility of these accounts?

6. The next reasonable question a person might ask about the credibility of these sources is: Do any sources outside of the Bible confirm or contradict the facts about the life of Jesus?

Consider that:

• very few manuscripts survived of any texts written during Jesus' time;

• historians rarely wrote about religious figures;

• Jesus was active for a relatively short period of time; and

• he ministered in a remote corner of the Roman empire.

Knowing this, it would be amazing to find any sources outside of the eyewitnesses that could confirm the details they report. However, here are just a few of the historians who wrote snippets about Jesus and the early Christian community-all within a century of Jesus' life on earth!

Historians Who Wrote about Jesus

• Josephus, a Jewish historian writing for the Roman government

• Cornelius Tacitus, a Roman historian

• Pliny the Younger, a Roman historian

• Suetonius, a Roman historian

• Rabbi Eliezer, a Jewish historian

These authors confirm the following facts about Jesus (told also by the eyewitnesses) and about the early church found in the Bible:

Facts about Jesus

• Jesus was a historical person whose public career occurred in the time of Emperor Tiberius

• Jesus was called "the Christ"

• James was Jesus' brother

• Jesus claimed to be God

• Jesus was purported to have done miracles

• Jesus claimed he would "depart and come again"

• Pontius Pilate was the governor when Jesus died

• Christ was executed by crucifixion as a criminal in Judea

Facts about Early Christians

• Assembled together on a certain day of the week

• Read the writings of the apostles

• Practiced high ethical standards

• Believed Jesus was God

• Claimed Jesus rose from the dead

• Were helping Christianity to become a worldwide movement by spreading it to Bythnia, Rome, and beyond

How do these sources help to build a case for supporting the central facts of Jesus' life?

7. Some people have demanded eyewitness accounts of the resurrection from non-Christians. Do you think this is a realistic request-why or why not?

8. Those who are interested in the truth of the Bible also ask one final key question: Is the text of the Bible today the same as what the eyewitnesses originally wrote? That's a good question, for no original Bible manuscripts (just like other ancient manuscripts of its day) have been found. So we cannot see if our current copies perfectly match the original. We can, however, see how much the copies and copies of copies match each other in order to figure out exactly what the original did say.

In order to find out how close the copies are to the original documents, we need to consider two things:

First, how close in time are documents we currently have to the originals? The less time that has elapsed, the more likely they are to be consistent. Consider the following graph that compares the New Testament of the Bible to other highly reliable sources of its day.

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Second, how many ancient copies were made of the original manuscripts? The more copies that agree with one another, the more likely they are to mirror the original. Consider the following graph comparing the New Testament to other reliable sources of its day:

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Given the norm for comparable documents, do you believe the manuscripts of the New Testament are reliable-why or why not?

REALITY CHECK

When you consider all three tests for the reliability of the New Testament (reliability of the authors, corroboration of outside sources, quality of manuscript transmission), how trustworthy would you rank it on a scale of 1-10, and why?

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If you dismiss the historical knowledge we can gain from the New Testament, what must necessarily happen to all other knowledge we gain from history?

(Continues...)