New Testament - eyewitnesses
From PhiloWiki
Are there any written eyewitness accounts to Jesus?
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Christian views
- Resources are needed. Feel free to find and add resources.
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Secular views
- "For Christians, the accuracy of the Gospels is critical. To bolster its accuracy, they often refer to the fact that they were written by eyewitnesses. One thing that may get overlooked, however, is that the earliest Gospels were written at least a few decades after Jesus' death. How reliable can something be, written from memory 20 or 30 years later? This year I will attend my 20th high school reunion. For those old enough to have a few years between them and high school, how many can quote the lectures of their high school biology teacher? What if you got a few of your classmates together, and tried to remember everything your teacher said back then? How far would you get? Could you swear in court, that what you've written is what was actually said and meant, all those years ago? I for one, cannot quote a single sentence from my high school biology teacher, much less all he said. Heck, I can't even remember my commencement speech, and I wrote it.
- Or try this sometime: show a room full of people the evening news. Then have them come back a week later, and write down what was said. What do you think you'll get? Do you think they will even agree long enough to write anything down? Even reporters today, with all their modern recording equipment, often misquote people they've interviewed only hours ago. People sometimes have to sue, to get their statements accurately reprinted. It hardly seems likely, then, that people in Jesus day could have accurately recorded what he said, decades after he said it."
