Review • Main Questions: • Who is Jesus? Who did he claim to be? Is there credible evidence to back up his assertions? • Objective: • Drawing your own conclusion based on the weight of the facts presented in an openminded and fair approach • Chapter 1: The Eye-Witness Evidence • The Gospel were written by people who had close relationship to Jesus or have direct access to the people who were with him • Chapter 2: Testing the Eye-Witness Evidence • The eight reliability tests: 1) intention 2) ability 3) character 4) consistency 5) bias 6) cover-up 7) corroboration 8) adverse witness The Documentary Evidence Authenticating the Documents Two Main Issues • Is Jesus’ biographies in the New Testament reliably preserved for us? • Are there equally accurate biographies of Jesus being suppressed by the church? The Second Interview: Bruce Metzger • Bio • • • • MS from Princeton Theological Seminary, MS & PhD from Princeton University Authors and edited 50 books on the topic of the New Testament 46-year career teaching the New Testament Expert Evidence of Reliability • Multiple copies of the ancient New Testament manuscript from various places that agree with each other (trace to the same original source). • The copies came from within a couple of generations (~100 yrs) from the writing of the original • Multiple translations in early times to other languages: Latin, Syriac and Coptic • Statistics: • 306 all-capital Greek manuscripts from 350 AD • 2856 cursive Greek manuscripts from 800 AD • 24,000 ancient manuscript in other languages • Comparison to other ancient writings • Annals of Imperial Rome (written in 116 AD and copied around 850 AD) • The Jewish War (written by historian Josephus in first century, copies from 7th, 10th, 11th, and 12th century) Examining the Errors • Errors introduced when human scribes transcribe the manuscripts • The variations tend to be minor, and scholars work carefully to resolve them by getting back to the original meaning • Example: “Messiah” or “Christ” • The New Testament has survived in a purer form than any other great book – 99.5 percent pure • The basic doctrine remains the same • Example: the doctrine of Trinity: God the Father, Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit A High Degree of Unanimity • How did the 27 books in the New Testament become accepted as official in the church? • Three criteria were used by the early church leaders for determining which documents should be included in the New Testament • The books must have apostolic authority (written by one of the 12 disciples + Paul or a follower of an apostle) • The message conforms to what was called the rule of faith – basic Christian traditions that the church recognized as normative • The document had continuous acceptance and usage by the church at large • Other Gospels written are “fanciful and heretical” and not considered authoritative Questions for Reflection 1. Having read the interview with Dr. Metzger, how would you rate the reliability of the process by which the New Testament was transmitted to us? What are some reasons you find this process trustworthy or not? 2. Scan a copy of the New Testament and examine some of the notes in the margins that talk about variant readings. What are some examples you find? How does the presence of these notations affect your understanding of the passage? 3. Do the criteria for determining whether a document should be included in the New Testament seem reasonable? Why or why not? Are there other criteria you believe should be added? What disadvantages do modern scholars have in second-guessing the early church’s decisions concerning whether a document should be included in the Bible? The Corroborating Evidence The Power Of Corroboration • Is there additional documentation that seals the case for Jesus? The Third Interview: Edwin Yamauchi • Bio • • • • • BS in Hebrew and Hellenistic, MS & PhD from Brandeis University President of the Institute for Biblical research Published several articles in scholarly journals Written several books Born into a Buddhist background but is a follower of Jesus Affirming the Gospels • Overall, the Gospels are reliable historical sources of Jesus. • Other sources that serve as valuable as corroborative evidence: • Testimony by Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian, who was also a priest and a Pharisee. • In his work, The Antiquities, he mentioned Jesus and James, the brother of Jesus, confirming that people considered Jesus to be the Christ or “Messiah”. • In another work, Testimonium Flavianum, he also mention Jesus’ teaching and ministry on Earth. • Testimony by Tacitus, the most important Roman historian of the first century • Mentions the spread of the Christian religion after the crucifixion of a man under the reign of Pontius Pilate. • Many held on strong to their belief, willing to die rather than recant Affirming the Gospels (2) • Other sources that serve as valuable as corroborative evidence • Writings by Pliny of Younger • Nephew to a famous encyclopedist • Attest to the rapid spread of Christianity among population despite the persecutions • Accounts by Jewish leaders • A few passages in Talmud (“Instruction” containing the opinion of Jewish Rabbis) mention Jesus as a false messiah who practiced magic and condemned to death • Traditional literature tend to support the Gospel claim that he was a teacher, healer and miracle-worker • Writings by Paul • Wrote his letters year before the Gospels, corroborating the Gospel accounts of Jesus • Writing by apostolic fathers, early Christian writers Affirming the Gospels (3) • Putting all the various corroborative sources together, there is persuasive evidence that corroborates the essentials found in the Gospels (e.g., divine nature of Jesus, a most important assertion by an influential individual) • How has Dr. Yamauchi’s research impacted his faith? There are some issues that will remain, but historical evidence has reinforced his [faith] commitment to Jesus as the loving Son of God who died for us and was raise from the dead. Questions for Reflection 1. Is there an incident in your life in which you doubted someone’s story until he or she offered some corroborating evidence? How was the experience like learning about the kind of corroborative evidence that Yamauchi presented. 2. What do you consider to be the most persuasive corroboration that Yamauchi talked about? Why? 3. Ancient sources say that early Christians clung to their beliefs rather than disavow them in the face of torture. Why do you think they had such strongly held conviction?
