Beginning February 18, 2024, there were posted in these pages seven articles about the text of the New Testament. When I began those posts, there was no plan to address any grand theme common to all seven articles – I was just following my nose, as it were. By the time (July 12, 2024) I had posted the most recent one, however, such a theme had clearly emerged: Jesus is alive. There are no gaps in the proof of this. We can know it, rest in it, and rejoice in it.
So let’s take a step back and attempt a concise, integrated summary of what we have learned. What have these authors shown us?
ONE
Bauckham, “Jesus and the Eyewitnesses,” posted May 13, 2024: The Gospels were written very near in time to the events, and either the authors were eyewitnesses or they had immediate access to the eyewitnesses.
TWO
Greenleaf, “As to Their Honesty” (April 23, 2024): The Gospel writers were honest. When they said they were sure they had seen the risen Christ, they were telling the truth. As another scholar said, “They lived it, they died for it.”
THREE
Metzger, “The Recovery of the New Testament” (February 18, 2024): What the Evangelists wrote – the text of the New Testament – has been fully recovered for all practical purposes. Bible scholars, including skeptical scholars, acknowledge this.
FOUR
Habermas, “He is Risen” (March 30, 2024): The claims of the Gospels as to the historicity of the events in the life, death, and the Resurrection of Jesus meet more than abundantly all of the well-established historiographical criteria for historicity which professional historians generally apply in researching and writing about the past. Indeed, the general outline of the entire Gospel narrative has been verified by extra-biblical documents, which satisfies two criteria for historicity, namely, multiple attestation and in some cases, enemy attestation. (This extra-biblical record has not been discussed in these pages previously, so a summary description is provided in the Appendix for your edification.)
FIVE
Licona: “Jesus, Contradicted” (July 17, 2024): Most of the differences among the Gospels can be understood if we take account of the fact that the conventions governing the practice of historiography were different in the First Century, such that ancient biography was a genre unto itself, in which writers were encouraged to alter the details of a story when doing so would be an “improvement,” so long as the essence of the story is preserved.
SIX
Greenleaf: “Pearl of Great Price” (April 7, 2024): The Person of Jesus is superlative in every way. The very existence of His story testifies to His deity, because no mere human could have invented such a character.
SEVEN
Habermas: “Minimal Facts” (June 12, 2024): If for any reason someone should, after considering all of the above, still harbor doubts concerning the reliability of the New Testament, such a person should ponder what is known as the “minimal facts” argument for the historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus. In recent years, there has developed a near unanimity among bible scholars as to the historicity of most of the facts surrounding the death, burial, and Resurrection of Jesus, as related by the authors of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. While only a “strong minority” acknowledge the Resurrection itself, both liberal and conservative scholars have acceded to the rest of the narrative.
To my mind, the most salient element of this consensus is the effect which Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances had on his followers. According to the author of the Gospel of John, after the crucifixion the disciples “were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jews.” John 20:19. Their leader had just been executed, and the disciples must have feared they could be next. But then Jesus appeared in their midst and within days they were found boldly preaching the Resurrection to thousands. When they were hauled before the Jewish authorities, they defiantly proclaimed the Resurrection yet again. Even skeptical scholars acknowledge these facts and have abandoned all of the proposed naturalistic explanations for the disciples’ transformation.
Conclusion
So if the Gospel writers had reliable sources for their biographies of Jesus (Bauckham); if they were honest (Greenleaf); if we have the text of their original writings (Metzger); if the Gospel accounts are confirmed by reliable extra-biblical sources (Habermas); if what were once thought to be discrepancies in the Gospel accounts were manifestations of the prevailing literary conventions of the time (Licona); if the Person portrayed in the Gospels is more than humanly wonderful (Greenleaf); if a Resurrection is the most plausible explanation for the transformation of Jesus’ followers and the success of His movement (Habermas); and if no plausible naturalistic explanation can be found; then as Habermas writes, “a stronger case could hardly even be imagined,” and the honest seeker has found his home.
(Want to know more? Read the posts. Better yet, read the books!)
Appendix
EXTRA-BIBLICAL EVIDENCE FOR JESUS AND THE GOSPEL
Extra-biblical evidence for Jesus and the Gospel story comprises nearly two dozen sources from the first 150 years after the Crucifixion. Notable among these sources are the Roman historians Tacitus and Seutonius, the Greek historian Thallus, the Jewish historian Josephus, and Pliny the Roman administrator. This evidence is, in Habermas’ words, “quite impressive”; and so it is. By corroborating very many of the events recorded in the Gospels and in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, these extra-biblical sources support the view that the authors of the Gospels and of the Book of Acts were reliable witnesses. Here is a partial list of the things they recorded:
Jesus’ ministry centered in Palestine.
He was said to have been born of a virgin.
He had a brother named James.
He was from a poor family.
He was known as wise and virtuous.
He had many disciples, both Jew and gentile.
He was known as the Son of Man.
His disciples regarded Him as the Son of God.
He was worshiped as deity.
Some believed He was the Messiah.
He taught the need for conversion, the importance of faith and obedience, the brotherhood of believers, the requirement of abandoning other gods, and the immortality of the soul.
He reportedly performed miracles and cast out demons.
He predicted His death, Resurrection, and return.
He was crucified on Passover by Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius.
His executioners gambled for his garments.
There were darkness covering the land and earthquakes when He died.
Several non-canonical theological works affirm the Resurrection: the Treatise on the Resurrection, the Gospel of Truth, the Gospel of Thomas, the Apocryphon of John.
Soon after He died, His teaching broke out again and reached Rome before A.D. 49 – less than 20 years after the death of Jesus – when Claudius expelled Jews from the city due to what was thought to be the influence of Jesus’ teachings. (This event is described in Acts 18.)
Joshualetter 