Historicity of the New Testament

Does it Matter?

Christianity is "built upon the foundation of faith in the historical Jesus who is revealed by the historical New Testament documents. It is of utmost importance that these documents show themselves to be trustworthy and reliable since they are the primary documentary sources substantiating the object of the Christian faith, who is Jesus Christ. Unlike other religious systems which simply express a code of ethic, morality, and philosophical ideas, the Bible claims to be God's divine revelation for all of mankind and it verifies its claims through historical evidence.John Rosser

General Notes

The New Testament is not a single source Rather it is a collection of 26 separate and

independent sources Technically each book should first be evaluated

independently

How Can We Determine Historicity?

There are two important aspects of New Testament Historicity

The reliability of the documents themselves i.e. that the documents as we have them correspond

reasonably well to the originals

The reliability of the witnesses whose words are recorded in the New Testament

Manuscript Evidence

There are several general tests for the accuracy of ancient manuscripts Number of manuscripts Age of manuscripts

Manuscript Evidence: Ancient Works

Manuscript Evidence: The New Testament

Number of copies:

5,000 Greek manuscripts 8,000 Latin Vulgates 350 Syriac Over 20,000 in total

Nearly the entire New Testament can be reproduced from quotations of the early church fathers prior to the year A.D. 325

Manuscript Evidence: The New Testament

Age of copies:

Earliest A.D. 120*** Fragment of the Gospel of John

A.D. 200 Major portions of the new testament

A.D. 350 Virtually all of the New Testament

***There is also a new fragment of the Gospel of Mark that is as yet unpublished, believed to date to

Reliability of New Testament Witnesses

There are two types of evidence to support the claims contained in an ancient manuscript Internal evidence

i.e. does the manuscript claim to contain eyewitness evidence

External evidence i.e. archaeological, etc.

Internal Evidence

Internal evidence is evidence within the manuscript that justifies or retracts from their reliability

Scholars always give the documents the benefit of the doubt, and start assuming relative reliability

Are there any contradictions? Difficulties do not constitute errors

Internal Evidence

Examples of positive internal evidence:

The authors of the New Testament were often themselves witnesses (or close companions of those)

Luke says he carefully investigated everything from the beginning" (Luke 1:3)

Historical accounts and doctrine from different books offer no obvious contradictions

Jesus' tomb was found empty by women Enemies of Christianity living at the time o the Bible's

writing did not discredit it

External Evidence

External evidence is evidence outside the document itself that corroborates or refutes the claims made within the document

There are various types of external evidence

Archaeological evidence Other historical evidence

Such as other historical documents

External Evidence: Archeology

Nazareth Inscription (1st slab of marble found in Nazareth)

Ordinance of Caesar. It is my pleasure that graves and tombs remain undisturbed in perpetuity for those who have made them for the cult of their ancestors... If, however any man lay information that another has either demolished them, or has in any other way extracted the buried, or has maliciously transferred them to other places... against such a one I order that a trial be instituted... In the case of contravention I desire that the offender be sentenced to capital punishment on charge of violation or sepulture.

External Evidence: Archeology

Sir William Ramsey, after evaluating the credibility of the Gospel of Luke

Luke is an historian of the first rank; not merely are his statements of fact and trustworthy; he is possessed of the true historic sense... In short, this author should be placed along with the very greatest historians.

External Evidence: Written Works

There are a significant number of extra biblical sources for events of the new testament

Specifically for the life of Jesus we will list several The Jewish historian Josephus of the first century writes of

Jesus: And there arose about this time Jesus, a wise man, if indeed we

should call him a man; for he was a doer of marvelous deeds, a teacher of men who received the truth with pleasure. He lead away many Jews, and also many Greeks. This man was said to be the Christ. And when Pilate had condemned him to the cross on his impeachment by the chief men among us, those who loved him at first did not cease; for he appeared to them on the third day alive again, the divine prophets having spoken these and thousands of wonderful things about him: and even now the tribe of Christians, so named after him, has not yet died out.

External Evidence: Written Works

Tacitus (A.D. 55 - A.D. 117) Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and

inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name 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 only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.

Conclusions

The New Testament:

1)Has better manuscript evidence than any other ancient text (by 100) The Manuscripts are numerous and early

2) Claims to be historical3) Is internally consistent4) Is supported by Archeology5) Is corroborated by external manuscripts

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