Is the New Testament Historically Reliable? Part 2

Posted On September 18, 2020

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Introduction

In Part one of this article we looked at evidence that our New Testament is an accurate copy of the original documents. Indeed, thousands of early copies provide scholars with very high confidence that it is.

We saw that all the little discrepancies in the copies do not pose a problem. Scholars have found that differences are minor, and that our New Testament is 99.5% pure.

Finally we know that our New Testament has not been corrupted over time. Modern translations draw from the earliest available Greek manuscripts. This isn’t the telephone game.

So we have an accurate copy of what the original writers said. But we still have to ask: Did the writers tell the truth? To answer this, we look internally for evidence that they were honest and accurate.

Following are seven key pieces of evidence that provide a good case that the writers told the truth.

Many Writers Were Eyewitnesses

Recall that the New Testament is a collection of 27 documents by some 9 different writers. Many of them were eyewitnesses to the events. Others lived in the same time period as eyewitnesses and used many of them for source material.

Consider the four gospels. Matthew and John were eyewitnesses to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Mark is said to have written down Peter’s eyewitness account. Luke drew on many eyewitnesses, likely including Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Further in the New Testament we have James, an eyewitness; and we have Paul, an eyewitness to Jesus after the Resurrection. Paul is responsible for 13 New Testament documents, which were letters to early churches.

We could compare the New Testament to the scripture of other belief systems. The entire Book of Mormon is the product of one person, Joseph Smith. Similarly, the Qur’an is the product of only Muhammad.

The Writings Came too Early to be Embellished

Let’s face it. Many people find the New Testament unbelievable because of all the miracles. In fact, I would bet that if it weren’t for the miracles, just about everyone would consider the New Testament real history.

But God has given us compelling evidence that the documents were not embellished. The fact that the writings came out so soon after the events—written while so many eyewitnesses were still alive—tells us that the miracles must be legitimate. Just how early are the writings?

The book of Acts fails to mention the deaths of Paul or James, so it was probably written before AD 62. The Gospel of Luke is a prequel to Acts, so was written before AD 60. Luke probably draws on some material from the Gospel of Mark, so Mark would have been completed in the mid AD 50s. All of Paul’s letters would be completed before his death, in the mid AD 60s.

This means that most of the New Testament was written between 30-40 years after the events. This is too soon for the writings to include myth or legend because way too many people who knew the truth would still be alive to discredit them. How do we know this?

Roman historian Sherwin-White observed that “Herodotus enables us to test the tempo of myth-making, and the tests suggest that even two generations are too short a span to allow the mythical tendency to prevail over the hard historic core of the oral tradition.” He adds that for the New Testament to contain legend, the rate of legendary accumulation would have to be “unbelievable,” and that more generations would be needed.^[1]

Philosopher William Lane Craig agrees, reiterating that “tests show that even two generations is too short to allow legendary tendencies to wipe out the hard core of historical fact.”^[2]

In other words, since the New Testament was written by the same generation as the eyewitnesses, there was not enough time for legend to develop. What they do contain, then, must be historical fact. The miracles can’t be legend.

Writers Challenge Their Audiences

What is fascinating is that we see some of the writers actually challenge their audiences to check out their stories. For example, in ca. AD 55, Paul wrote:

“I passed onto you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me.  Christ died for our sins…  He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day…  He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive…” (1 Corinthians 15:3-8). 

Paul is telling his audience that if in doubt, they can talk to many people who actually saw Jesus after the Resurrection, because they are still alive and available. Now, consider that if Paul was wrong about the Resurrection appearances, he would lose all of his credibility at this point. But he never did. The astonishing significance of this passage can hardly be overstated.

The Writers Demonstrate Honesty

The writers give us many clues that they are being honest. I will provide three.

First, their accounts are independent. Various discrepancies show there was no collusion. Matthew says there was one angel at the tomb. John says there were two. This is not a contradiction, and shows us that they didn’t even try to get their stories straight. Each wrote their account independently and honestly.

Second, some of the testimony was embarrassing. In the garden of Gethsemane, the disciples fell asleep during Jesus’ most desperate hour. Peter denied Jesus three times. To include this information when it could have been discretely left out is evidence of a desire to be honest, rather than avoid embarrassment.

Third, all of the apostles were willing to die for their stories. We don’t know for sure, but church tradition tells us that almost all of them did. Is it possible that 12 men would die horrible deaths for something they all knew was a lie, without ever recanting their story? Not likely. Instead, because they saw Jesus resurrected from the dead, they believed what he said. They knew that they too can have life after death. It changed everything for them, and it should for us as well.

The Writers Demonstrate Accuracy

Skeptical scholars have been testing the Bible for centuries, but it still stands. In fact, New Testament writers did not shy away from including many historical facts that could be checked. In the book of Acts, Luke names 32 countries, 54 cities, and 9 islands without a single mistake.^[3] All have been verified to be true. The gospel of John contains some 59 details that have been confirmed in the same way.^[4]  

Archaeology Confirms Many Details

Books have been written on archaeology and the Bible. Following are just a few interesting discoveries that affirm the New Testament.

The pool of Bethesda, along with its 5 porches or colonnades (described in John 5:2) has been discovered near the sheep gate in Jerusalem. Until the 19^th century, there was no evidence outside of the Gospel of John that this pool existed, so some scholars argued that it was only metaphorical. But it’s real.

The Pontius Pilate inscription shows that Pilate actually was a real person.

The ossuary of Joseph Caiaphas, the high priest at the time of the Resurrection, has been discovered. The Jews would put the bones of those who had passed away in these boxes, called ossuaries.

The ankle bone from a first century crucifixion victim has been discovered. It still contains the rusty nail stuck in the bone.

Non-Christian Sources Affirm Basic Facts

We have at least ten historically credible, non-Christian writers who mention Jesus within 150 years of his life.^[5] Piecing together just these non-Christian sources, we would be able to say that:^[6]

• Jesus lived during the time of Tiberius Caesar.
• He lived a virtuous life.
• He was a wonder-worker.
• He had a brother named James.
• He was claimed to be the Messiah.
• He was crucified under Pontius Pilate.
• He was crucified on the eve of the Passover.
• Darkness and an earthquake occurred when he died.
• His disciples believed he rose from the dead.
• His disciples were willing to die for their belief.
• Christianity spread as far as Rome.
• Christian disciples denied the Roman gods and worshipped Jesus as God.

Conclusion

We have good evidence that the New Testament writers accurately gave us the truth. They were eyewitnesses or contemporaries who reported eyewitness accounts of others. The writings came far too early to contain embellishment or legend, else they would have been challenged. The writers demonstrate honesty by: showing a lack of collusion, including embarrassing details, and being willing to die for their stories. They demonstrate accuracy. And finally, archaeology has confirmed much in the New Testament, as have many non-Christian writers outside of the Bible.

We can be sure that what we read in the New Testament is actually true. All of it.

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^[1]A. N. Sherwin-White, Roman Society and Roman Law in the New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963), 188-191.

^[2]William Lane Craig, Knowing the Truth About the Resurrection, 101; cited in Norman Geisler,12 Points That Show Christianity Is True (Indian Trail, NC: NGIM, 2016), 93.

^[3]Norman Geisler and Ronald Brooks, When Skeptics Ask: A Handbook on Christian Evidences (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2013), 219.

^[4]Craig L. Blomberg, The Historical Reliability of John’s Gospel Issues and Commentary (Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press, 2001) cited in Norman Geisler and Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway, 2004), 263-268.

^[5]Gary R. Habermas, The Historical Jesus, Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ (Joplin, MO: College Press, 1996), chapter 9. The ten non-Christian sources are Josephus; Tacitus, the roman historian; Pliny the Younger, a Roman politician; Phlegon, a freed slave who wrote histories; Thallus a first century historian; Suetonius, a Roman historian; Lucian, a Greek satirist; Celsus, a Roman philosopher; Mara Bar-Sapion, a private citizen who wrote to his son; and the Jewish Talmud.

^[6]Joseph Holden and Norman Geisler, The Popular Handbook of Archaeology and the Bible (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2013),295-296.