The Gospels and Acts as History
Dr. Timothy McGrew
Reasonable Faith Belfast
November 07, 2011
2 Peter 1:16
For we did not follow cleverly devised myths
when we made known to you the power and
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were
eyewitnesses of his majesty.
2
Why defend the Gospels as history?
• The “minimal facts” argument dispenses
with the defense of the substantial
historical truthfulness of the Gospels.
• But if their substantial historicity can be
credibly maintained, they afford much
richer resources for argument than the
“minimal facts” approach does.
3
Two trilemmas
• Liar, Lunatic, or Lord
• Deceivers, Dupes, or Direct Witnesses
– Either what the authors of the Gospels said was
true or it was false.
– If it was true, we have the word of some direct
witnesses.
– If it was false, either they knew that it was false
(deceivers) or they did not (dupes).
4
Assessing historical credibility
• External tests
– Attributions of authorship
– Early use in other works
– Integration with other sources
• Internal tests
– Overall consistency among the books
– Undesigned coincidences
5
External Evidence: Attribution
• Augustine’s criterion (Contra Faustum 33.6)
Why does no one doubt the authenticity of the books
attributed to Hippocrates? “[B]ecause there is a
succession of testimonies to the books from the time
of Hippocrates to the present day, which makes it
unreasonable either now or hereafter to have any
doubt on the subject. How do we know the authorship
of the works of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Varro, and
other similar writers, but by the unbroken chain of
evidence?”
6
The attestation: summary of the facts
• The attestation of authorship is not only
significant and early, it is also geographically
diverse, coming from every quarter of the
Roman empire.
– Irenaus in France
– Papias in Asia Minor
– Clement in Alexandria
• There is no rival tradition of authorship for
any of the four Gospels.
7
Assessing historical credibility
• External tests
– Attributions of authorship: Strong and consistent
– Early use in other works
– Integration with other sources
• Internal tests
– Overall consistency among the books
– Undesigned coincidences
8
External Evidence: Early use
• Polycarp’s Epistle to the Philippians (~108)
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Matthew
Mark
Luke
Acts
Romans
1 Corinthians
2 Corinthians
– Galatians
– Ephesians
– Philippians
– 1 Thessalonians
– 2 Thessalonians
– Hebrews
– 1 Peter
. . . and more . . .
9
Early use of the Gospels and Acts
Assessing historical credibility
• External tests
– Attributions of authorship: Strong and consistent
– Early use in other works: Overwhelming
– Integration with other sources
• Internal tests
– Overall consistency among the books
– Undesigned coincidences
11
External Evidence: Integration
• We are not looking here for non-Christian
reports of the resurrection or the life of Christ.
• We are looking for the writers to demonstrate
familiarity with the Palestinian setting and the
Greco-Roman world in general.
• Philostratus’s Life of Apollonius illustrates what
happens when the author is not a well-informed
contemporary.
12
External Evidence: Integration
•
•
•
•
“Augustus” in Acts 25:21
The denarius in Luke 20:24-25
Archelaus in Matthew 2:22
The titles of local and regional officials
–
–
–
–
–
Cyprus
Philippi
Thessalonika
Ephesus
Malta
• Allegations of error
13
Augustus who?
• In Luke 2 we are told of a decree sent out by Caesar
Augustus just prior to Jesus’ birth (c. 6 BC).
• When John the Baptist begins his ministry (Luke 3:1,
2), Augustus is long dead and we are in the fifteenth
year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar (AD 27)
• About 30 years later still (~AD 60), Paul makes an
appeal from Festus to Augustus (Acts 25:21).
• No competent forger writing long after these times
would make such a reference without explaining it.
14
Oh, that Augustus!
• Nero, upon becoming
Emperor, was styled Nero
Claudius Caesar Augustus
Germanicus.
• The coin at right shows
his preferred title clearly.
• Luke passes a first test.
15
The denarius: Luke 20:24-25
“Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and
inscription does it have?” They said,
“Caesar’s.” He said to them, “Then render
to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and
to God the things that are God’s.”
16
The image on the denarius
“You shall not make for
yourself a carved image, or
any likeness of anything
that is in heaven above, or
that is in the earth beneath,
or that is in the water
under the earth.”
Exodus 20:4
17
The inscription on the denarius
AUGUSTUS TI CAESAR DIVI AUG F
“Augustus Tiberius Caesar,
son of the Divine Augustus.”
“You shall have no other gods
before me.” Exodus 20:3
18
A curious detour: Matthew 2:22
But when [Joseph] heard that Archelaus
was reigning over Judea in place of his
father Herod, he was afraid to go there,
and being warned in a dream he
withdrew to the district of Galilee.
19
A curious detour: Matthew 2:22
Since Herod the Great was dead, it was
only natural that his eldest son, Archelaus,
would take the throne. So why does this
news cause Joseph to change plans and go
into Galilee?
20
The news about Archelaus
• Herod the great had died, and his son
Archelaus had taken his place, not long
before the Passover of 4 B.C.
• As the feast approached, a mob of angry
Jews killed some Roman soldiers.
21
The news about Archelaus
• In panic, Archelaus sent a troop of armed
horsemen to surround the Temple, with
orders not to let anyone outside go in and not
to let anyone inside get out.
• He then sent in soldiers and slaughtered 3,000
Jews in the Temple.
• Passover was canceled.
22
Joseph’s decision in context
As Mary, Joseph, and the young Jesus made
their way north from Egypt, they must have
encountered distraught Jewish pilgrims
carrying the news of Archelaus’s massacre.
23
The accuracy of Acts
• Colin Hemer, The Book of Acts in the Setting of
Hellenistic History (Tübingen: Mohr, 1989), pp. 10858, goes through the last 16 chapters of Acts almost
verse-by-verse.
• Hemer lists 84 specific facts from those 16 chapters
that have been confirmed by historical and
archaeological research—ports, boundaries,
landmarks, slang terminology, local languages, local
deities, local industries, and proper titles for
numerous regional and local officials.
24
The accuracy of Acts: some examples
• The governor of Cyprus is called the ἀνθύπατος
(proconsul) (Acts 13:7),
• . . . while the magistrates of Philippi were στρατηγοί
(governors) (Acts 16:20, 22),
• . . . and those of Thessalonica are simply πολιτάρχαι
(rulers) (Acts 17:6, 8),
• . . . the chief executive magistrate in Ephesus is a
γραμματεὺς (town clerk) (Acts 19:35),
• . . . and the ruler of Malta is only a πρώτος (chief
man) (Acts 28:7).
25
Allegations of error
• An inquiry into the integration of the Gospels
and Acts with external sources is not complete
until we have asked what can be said against
them.
• To avoid the charge of cherry picking, we will
consider only passages that have been called
errors by Christianity’s critics.
26
Six alleged historical errors
• The Gospels err in reference to kings and governors
• The Gospels err in reference to the high priests
• John invents a landmark to make a metaphorical
point
• Nazareth didn’t exist at the turn of the first century
• There were no synagogues in Capernaum in the first
century
• Luke bungles the date of the census under Quirinius
27
Those kings and governors …
Matt 2:22, Archelaus is reigning as a king in Judea
Matt 27:2, ~ AD 30, Pilate is governor of Judea
Acts 12:1, ~ AD 41, Herod is king of Judea
Acts 23:33, ~ AD 56, Felix is governor of Judea
28
Thomas Paine’s accusation
“[T]here could be no such
person as a King Herod,
because the Jews and their
country were then under the
dominion of the Roman
Emperors who governed then
by tetrarchs, or governors.”
—Thomas Paine, “Examination of Prophecies,”
in Daniel Edwin Wheeler, ed., The Life and
Writings of Thomas Paine, vol. 7 (New York:
Vincent Parke and Co., 1908), p. 262.
29
Flavius Josephus
Flavius Josephus, a
Jewish historian, was
born around AD 37 and
wrote The Jewish War
and Antiquities of the
Jews late in the first
century.
30
Josephus and Matthew agree
• Matthew 2:22 says, not that Archelaus was
king, but that he was reigning as king (in
Greek, βασιλεύει, “kinging”).
• His claim to the throne had not been certified
by Caesar, and one of the complaints against
him was that he had already taken the
kingship over to himself, before Caesar had
granted it to him. (Antiquities 17.9.5)
31
Josephus and Luke agree
There was no time during the previous thirty
years, nor ever afterward, when there was a
king at Jerusalem, except the last three years
of the life of Herod Agrippa I.
—See Josephus, Antiquities 18.6.10 and 19.5.1
32
The witness of the coins
• Matthew 2:1–“in the
days of Herod the king
…”
• ΗΡΩ∆ΟΥ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ,
“King Herod.”
33
Prutot of Herod Agrippa I (AD 37-44)
Each of these coins bears the inscription ΑΓΡΙΠΠΑ
ΒΑCΙΛΕΟC – “Agrippa the King” (cf. Acts 12:1)
34
Two high priests? Luke 3:1-2
In the fifteenth year of the reign of
Tiberius Caesar, . . . during the high
priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the
word of God came to John the son of
Zechariah in the wilderness.
35
High priest for a year? John 18:13
First they led him [Jesus] to Annas, for he
was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who
was high priest that year.
36
Did Luke and John blunder?
“[A]ny person being acquainted with the
history and polity of the Jews, must have
known that there never was but one high
priest at a time, ... no Jew could have been
ignorant that the high-priest’s office was
not annual, but for life, ...”
–Robert Taylor, The Diegesis, 3rd ed. (1845), p. 126.
37
Luke and John vindicated
Annas (sometimes called Ananus) had held
the office of high priest from A.D. 6-15, but
Pilate’s predecessor had deposed him and
then successively appointed and deposed
one after another, including one of
Annas’s sons. Joseph Caiaphas, his son in
law, was the fourth of these.
—See, Josephus, Antiquities 18.2.2
38
Luke and John vindicated
Throughout the period of the Gospel
events and for more than a decade
afterward, Annas kept the power of the
high priesthood and controlled the
Temple through his sons, five of whom
were appointed high priest by Roman
procurators.
39
Luke and John vindicated
Josephus himself uses the same language,
e.g. The Jewish War 2.12.6 (“And both
Jonathan and Ananias, the high priests …”)
40
How this fact sheds light on Acts
Acts 23:5: “I did not know, brothers, that he
was the high priest, …”
Ananias had been the high priest, but he had
been deposed, and his successor had then
been murdered. In the meantime, Ananias
took it upon himself to step back into the high
priest’s role.
—See Josephus, Antiquities 20.8.8 ff.
41
The pool at Bethesda: John 5:2
In a passing remark, John describes the
pool at Bethesda as having five στοας —
roofed colonnades, or walkways. “Now
there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a
pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has
five roofed colonnades.”
42
Alfred Loisy on the pool of Bethesda
«Les anciens qui croyaient
trouver dans la source un
symbole du judaïsme, et
dans les cinq portiques une
allusion aux cinq livres de
la Loi, rencontraient sans
doute la pensée de
l'évangéliste.»
—Alfred Firimin Loisy, Le Quatrième Évangelie
(Paris: Alphonse Picard et fils, 1903), p. 386.
43
The pool of Bethesda
44
The pool of Bethesda
Archaeological work at the pool of Bethesda
in 1956 revealed that it was located near the
Sheep Gate, just as John said, surrounded by
four roofed colonnades—and spanned across
the middle by a fifth.
45
Frank Zindler on Nazareth
“[A]t the turn of the era, there
was no place called Nazareth,
and we do not know when the
place now called by that name
became so identified. . . .
Nazareth was as mythical as the
Mary, Joseph, and Jesus family
that was supposed to have lived
there.”
—Frank Zindler, “Where Jesus Never
Walked,” American Atheist 36 (1996-7),
pp. 33-42.
46
A Jewish archaeologist on recent
excavations in Nazareth
“The discovery is of the utmost importance since it reveals for the very first
time a house from the Jewish village
of Nazareth and thereby sheds light
on the way of life at the time of Jesus.
The building that we found is small
and modest and it is most likely typical
of the dwellings in Nazareth in that
period.”
— Yardenna Alexandre, excavation director
for the Israeli Antiquities Authority, “For the
Very First Time: A Residential Building from
the Time of Jesus was Exposed in the Heart of
Nazareth” (12/21/09)
47
Robert M. Price on Synagogues and
Pharisees in Capernaum
“A major collision between the
gospel tradition and archaeology
concerns the existence of
synagogues and Pharisees in pre70 C.E. Galilee. Historical logic
implies that there would not have
been any, since Pharisees fled to
Galilee only after the fall of
Jerusalem.”
—Robert M. Price, The Incredible
Shrinking Son of Man (2003), p. 14
48
Frank Zindler on the existence of
Capernaum
“Capernaum, like Nazareth, is
unknown outside the gospels
before the end of the first
century.”
—Frank Zindler, “Where Jesus
Never Walked”
49
Luke 7: 1-5 on Capernaum
• After [Jesus] had finished all his sayings in the
hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. Now
a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the
point of death, who was highly valued by him. When
the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him
elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his
servant. And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded
with him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy to have you
do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the
one who built us our synagogue.”
50
Implications of the Gospel statements
• Luke’s language suggests that the synagogue at
Capernaum was a particularly impressive structure
that required considerable funds to construct.
• Other passages in the Gospels (e.g. Mark 1, Matthew
4) make it plain that Capernaum was Jesus’ principal
base of operations in Galilee.
• Have the Gospel authors been caught in a huge
mistake?
51
Archaeologists on excavations at
Capernaum
“The first-century Capernaum synagogue in which
Jesus preached has probably been found. Because
more than one synagogue may have existed in
Capernaum at this time, we cannot be sure that this
new find was Jesus’ synagogue. But this recently
discovered first-century building is certainly a likely
candidate. . . . The conclusion that this was a firstcentury A.D. synagogue seems inescapable.”
—James F. Strange and Hershel Shanks, “Synagogue Where Jesus
Preached Found at Capernaum,” Biblical Archaeology Review 9 (1983).
52
Excavations at Capernaum
Trench 25 at Capernaum,
showing:
• Limestone walls of the 4th
or 5th century synagogue
(A),
• Basalt wall of the 1st
century synagogue (B), and
• Cobbled pavement of the
1st century synagogue (C)
53
The synagogue at Capernaum
• The walls of the 1st century synagogue at Capernaum
are unusually thick—well over a meter—and its floor
plan shows it to have been a building with an interior
space of nearly 450 square meters, larger than most
1st century synagogues discovered elsewhere in
Galilee.
• This fits very well with the implication in Luke 7:1-5
that this synagogue was particularly magnificent.
54
Luke 2:1-2 on Quirinius and the census
• A common translation: In those days a decree
went out from Caesar Augustus that all the
world should be taxed. This first taxation was
made when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
• Two problems:
– There is no record that Caesar Augustus ever
taxed the entire Roman empire
– Quirinius did not become governor of Syria until
about twelve years later
55
Looking closely at the Greek of Luke 2:1-2
• In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus
that all the land (οἰκουμένη) should be registered
(ἀπογράφεσθαι). This first registration was set in motion
(ἐγένετο) when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
– Luke uses οἰκουμένη to mean Judea (Acts 11:28)
– The registration (ἀπογραφή) is not a taxing per se
– The verb ἐγένετο indicates that the initial registration
was used as a basis for the taxation that was made or
set in motion when Quirinius became governor a dozen
years later. Luke uses this verb in this fashion to
indicate that something subsequently transpires (Acts
11:28)
56
Consequences of this reading
• Luke’s passing mention of the census under Quirinius
(Acts 5:37) does not have to be explained away.
• Luke’s brief reference to the registration
corresponds to an allusion in Josephus, Antiquities
17.2.4, to an oath of allegiance to Caesar in Judea
near the end of the reign of Herod the Great—which
would be taken at the time of a registration.
• There is no need to pre-date the governorship of
Quirinius to 6 BC. All apparent chronological
discrepancies disappear.
57
The moral of the story
• The New Testament authors get these details
right even though they are only incidental to
their purpose.
• These writers are not setting out to write the
history of Palestine in the first century. But
they are intimately familiar with that history.
58
An historian sums it up
“It is evident that the entire historical
framework, in which the Gospel picture
is set, is real; that the facts of the civil
history, small and great, are true, and the
personages correctly depicted. . . .”
59
An historian sums it up
“. . . To suppose that there is this minute
historical accuracy in all the accessories
of the story, and that the story itself is
mythic, is absurd.”
—George Rawlinson, The Historical Evidences of the Truth of
the Scripture Records (New York: John B. Alden, 1884), p. 204.
60
Assessing historical credibility
• External tests
– Attributions of authorship: Strong and consistent
– Early use in other works: Overwhelming
– Integration with other sources: Extensive and strong
• Internal tests
– Overall consistency among the books
– Undesigned coincidences
61
Internal Evidence: Overall Consistency
• The Gospels tell broadly the same story
• Differences in emphasis or selection
• Chronological vs. thematic organization
62
An example of minute consistency
• Luke 3:1—“In the fifteenth year of the reign of
Tiberius Caesar … the word of God came to John the
son of Zechariah in the wilderness.”
• Tiberius began to reign in the year AD 12, and he
became sole emperor upon the death of Augustus in
AD 14. Coins indicate that his reign was dated from
the earlier year.
• Calculating from the earlier date, John the Baptist
began his ministry in about AD 27.
63
An example of minute consistency
• John 2:20—“The Jews then said, ‘It has taken fortysix years to build this temple, and will you raise it up
in three days?’”
• Herod the Great began construction of the Temple in
about 18 BC.
• Calculating from this day, Jesus’ first confrontation in
the Temple, at the beginning of his public ministry,
took place in about AD 28.
64
Some alleged inconsistencies
• Luke has Jesus’ ascension on the same day as
the resurrection, unlike the other Gospels.
• The four Gospels disagree as to which women
went to the tomb on the morning of the
resurrection.
• Mark 16:8 says the women “told no one,”
contradicting all three of the other Gospels.
65
Luke and the ascension
• At the end of his Gospel, Luke gives a selective
and telescoped narrative of events without
clear chronological indicators. He does not,
however, say that Jesus ascended on the day
of the resurrection. (And in Acts 1 he goes into
great detail on the subject.)
• Verdict: FALSE—Overreading
66
The women at the tomb
• Each Evangelist names one or more women
who went to the tomb on Easter morning. All
of them indicate that there were multiple
women there. None of them claims to give an
exhaustive list. Luke (24:10) expressly says
that there were others whom he leaves
unnamed.
• Verdict: FALSE—Misreading
67
Mark 16:8—Do the women never tell?
• The best manuscripts of Mark do terminate abruptly
at Mark 16:8, but this is almost certainly not the end
of the account as Mark originally wrote it: the
original ending of Mark is lost.
• Mark regularly uses “no one … but …” constructions
– Mark 5:37 (no man ... but),
– Mark 9:9 (no one … except Jesus alone)
– Mark 10:18 (no one is good … except God alone)
• Verdict: FALSE—Misrepresenting the state of the
text
68
Assessing historical credibility
• External tests
– Attributions of authorship: Strong and consistent
– Early use in other works: Overwhelming
– Integration with other sources: Extensive and strong
• Internal tests
– Overall consistency among the books: Very good
– Undesigned coincidences
69
Undesigned Coincidences
Sometimes two works by different authors
interlock in a way that would be very unlikely
if one of them were copied from the other or
both were copied from a common source.
For example, one book may mention in
passing a detail that answers some question
raised by the other. The two records fit
together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
70
What Such Interlocking Shows
Fictions and forgeries aren’t like this.
But we would expect to find such undesigned
coincidences in authentic records of the same
real event told by different people who knew
what they were talking about.
71
A Simple Example: Matthew 26:67-68
Then they spit in his face and struck him. And
some slapped him, saying, “Prophesy to us,
you Christ! Who is it that struck you?”
72
An Example: Matthew 26:67-68
What is the point of this taunt? Why couldn’t
Jesus simply see who had struck him?
73
The Explanation: Luke 22:63-64
Now the men who were holding Jesus in
custody were mocking him as they beat him.
They also blindfolded him and kept asking
him, “Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?”
Luke’s account supplies a detail that Matthew
had left out, and that detail explains what is
puzzling in Matthew.
74
The Cumulative Force of Undesigned
Coincidences
One undesigned coincidence might be an
accident—like having two unrelated pieces of
a jigsaw puzzle fit together, just by chance.
75
The Cumulative Force of Undesigned
Coincidences
But if we discover numerous undesigned
coincidences crisscrossing the documents,
it becomes ridiculous to insist that they are
all just accidental.
76
Example #2: Matthew 8:14-16
And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he
saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever.
He touched her hand, and the fever left her,
and she rose and began to serve him. That
evening they brought to him many who were
oppressed by demons, and he cast out the
spirits with a word and healed all who were
sick.
77
Example #2: Matthew 8:14-16
If the people believed that Jesus could
truly heal the sick, why did they wait
until evening to come to Him?
78
The Explanation: Mark 1:21, 29-32
On the Sabbath he entered the synagogue
and was teaching. ... And immediately he left
the synagogue and entered the house of
Simon and Andrew, with James and John.
Now Simon’s mother-in-law lay ill with a
fever, …That evening at sundown they
brought to him all who were sick or oppressed
by demons.
79
The Explanation: Mark 1:21, 29-32
The people waited until sundown because
they did not want to violate the Jewish
prohibition against work on the Sabbath.
Mark supplies the detail that Matthew
leaves out.
80
Mark Explains Matthew
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
81
Example #3: The Transfiguration
(Luke 9:28-35)
• Jesus’ face is altered and his clothing
becomes dazzling white.
• Moses and Elijah appear in glory and speak
with him of his departure.
• A cloud covers them, and a voice comes out
of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my
Chosen One; listen to him!”
82
Example #3: Luke 9:36
And they kept silent and told no one in
those days anything of what they had
seen.
83
Example #3: Luke 9:36
They what??!
84
The Explanation: Mark 9:9
And as they were coming down the
mountain, [Jesus] charged them to tell
no one what they had seen, until the
Son of Man had risen from the dead.
85
The Explanation: Mark 9:9
Mark gives us the command but doesn’t
say whether they obeyed it; Luke records
their obedience but omits the command.
86
A Growing Network of Explanations
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
87
Interlude: Inventing a Gospel story
The challenge: you want to invent—
forge—a miracle story about Jesus and
pass it off as an authentic account.
At the beginning, you’re going to set it up
by having Jesus ask one of his disciples a
question.
88
Interlude: Inventing a gospel story
The setup for the miracle story is going
to have to do with money and food.
Which disciple do you pick?
89
Example #4: John 6:5
Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a
large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus
said to Philip, “Where are we to buy
bread, so that these people may eat?”
Why Philip?
90
Putting the Pieces Together
Luke 9:10-11—On their return the apostles
told him all that they had done. And he
took them and withdrew apart to a town
called Bethsaida. When the crowds learned
it, they followed him, …
91
Putting the pieces together
John 12:21—So these came to Philip,
who was from Bethsaida in Galilee …
92
Luke and John fit together like pieces
of a puzzle
Luke doesn’t mention Philip in this
context at all; John doesn’t mention
Bethsaida as the setting of the miracle.
Only by putting them together can we
understand why Jesus speaks to Philip in
John 6:5.
93
The Network Keeps Growing
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
94
Example #5: John 21:15
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus
said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John,
do you love me more than these?”
Why does Jesus ask Peter whether he
loves him more than the others do?
95
The Explanation: Mark 14:29
Peter said to him, “Even though they all
fall away, I will not.”
Mark records (though John does not)
Peter’s boast that he was the most
faithful of Jesus’ disciples.
96
Example #6: Mark 6:31,39
• And he said to them, “Come away by
yourselves to a desolate place and rest a
while.” For many were coming and
going, and they had no leisure even to
eat.
• Then he commanded them all to sit
down in groups on the green grass.
97
About that green grass …
98
The Explanation: John 6:4
Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews,
was at hand.
99
Each Gospel contains something
explained in one or more of the others
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
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Example #7: Luke 23:2-4
And they began to accuse him, saying, “We
found this man misleading our nation and
forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and
saying that he himself is Christ, a king.” And
Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the
Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said
so.” Then Pilate said to the chief priests and
the crowds, “I find no guilt in this man.”
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Example #7: Luke 23:1-4
This sequence of events is completely baffling.
1.
2.
3.
4.
The Jews make a grave accusation,
Pilate questions Jesus on this very point,
Jesus admits to the charge, and
Pilate promptly declares him to be innocent!
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The Explanation: John 18:33-38
Pilate entered his headquarters again and
called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the
King of the Jews?” . . . Jesus answered,
“My kingdom is not of this world. ... Pilate
… went back outside to the Jews and told
them, “I find no guilt in him. …”
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Two Undesigned Coincidences
In John’s account, Pilate’s question to
Jesus seems to come out of nowhere.
Luke gives the accusation but not the full
answer; John gives the full answer but
not the accusation.
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Malchus’s ear
• John 18:10 tells us that Peter cut off the ear of
the high priest’s servant.
• In John 18:36, Jesus tells Pilate, “… If my
kingdom were of this world, my servants
would have been fighting, that I might not be
delivered over to the Jews.”
• Doesn’t cutting off someone’s ear with a
sword count as fighting?
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The answer: Luke 22:51
• But Jesus said, “No more of this!” And he
touched his ear and healed him.
• Peter could not be arrested for assault, nor
Jesus contradicted, because there was no
physical evidence of the struggle.
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The Ring of Truth
The numerous undesigned coincidences
show that the Gospels were written by
people who knew what really happened
and reported it honestly.
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The Ring of Truth
The separate narratives are independently
grounded in the same actual facts.
The details of four different Gospels,
written by four different authors, interlock
with one another and explain one another.
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Assessing historical credibility
• External tests
– Attributions of authorship: Strong and consistent
– Early use in other works: Overwhelming
– Integration with other sources: Extensive and strong
• Internal tests
– Overall consistency among the books: Very good
– Undesigned coincidences: Extensive and convincing
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Extra material on attribution of
authorship
•
•
•
•
•
Augustine’s criterion, cont’d.
Irenaeus
Papias
Clement of Alexandria
Apology of Aristides (~AD 125)
– “The Evangelical Holy Scriptures”
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