Jesus Walked

Are the Gospels Accurate?

Christianity in the US is in a critical spot.

• Biblical Literacy is becoming increasingly worse even though we have more access to Scripture now than ever before.

• Additionally, it is one thing to read the Bible, it is another thing to be able to defend its truth.

The answers to our doubts and questions are not always going to be served to us on a silver platter.

• In this day and age of mass information and research, we have to do the duty of understanding the validity of our faith.

Does this mean we can answer every question there is about Jesus and Scripture? No.

• Sometimes our best answer is "I don't know."

• However, this response should not be a crutch out of ignorance.

1 Corinthians 15:14-19
And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to befalse witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if infact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only forthis life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Ancient Manuscripts

Manuscript- Any handwritten copy or portion of a text.

Say I were to write the sentence on a piece of paper "I saw you yesterday." and someone were to copy that on another piece of paper as "I saw you today."

• What percentage did the person translate correctly? ~75%

  • That manuscript would not be very accurate.

 The New Testament is composed of roughly 140,000 words in the Greek Translation.

All together we have 5600 manuscripts of the New Testament in Greek.

• These together provide us with an accuracy of 99.5% of the original writings.

Apart from the Greek we have 24,000 written manuscripts in other ancient languages.

However, these manuscripts often face scrutiny by several religious and non-religious people.

• The basis of the entire LDS (Mormon) faith is that the Bible was mistranslated.

• Muslims also believe that the Bible was mistranslated, which is why the "Angel Gabriel" came to Muhammad to "correct" the truth.

Dead Sea Scrolls

Well, throughout 1947-1956 the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.

• These included 100s of Biblical passages and books that dated back as far as ~250 BC.

• One of the most important finds was the near entirety of the book of Isaiah

• This manuscript is dated to roughly 125 BC.

Our closest Manuscript before this was written around 1000 AD, roughly 1100 years later.

• You would imagine written copies of something 1000 years apart would have significant differences. However, this is not what we find.

Passage Differences Example

Isaiah 5:2 Dead SeaScroll ~125BC
“He dug it out, cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines. He built a watchtower within it and also hewed out awinepress in it. Then he waited for it to produce grapes, but it produced wild grapes.”

Isaiah 5:2 Masoretic Text Manuscript ~1000AD
“He broke the ground, cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines. He built a watchtower inside it, He even hewed a wine press in it; For he hoped it would yield grapes. Instead, it yielded wild grapes.”

However, even this is not enough for others when it comes to the existence of Jesus and the validity of the Gospels.

• What we need to do then is look at sources outside of Scripture.

Extra-Biblical Historians

Tacitus- Roman Historian
The Annals – Book 15 (80-110AD)

• Covered the History of 14–68AD

• Annals- a record of events year by year.

Book 15 writes on the rule of the Roman Emperor Nero, and how he blamed fires in Rome on Christians

(Paraphrased) "Nero blamed and subjected a group of people disliked for their unusual beliefs, known as Christians, tosevere suffering. The name "Christian" comes from Christ, who lived during the time of Tiberius and was executed by aRoman official named Pontius Pilatus. After a brief period of quiet, this peculiar belief system, which was consideredharmful, resurfaced not just in Judea, where it originated, but also in Rome. Rome, being a city that attracts all kinds ofstrange and shameful things from around the world, saw this belief become more popular."

 Josephus- Jewish Historian

• Josephus is the most commonly cited non-Christian historian when it comes to the the reality of a Historical Jesus.

• However, his passage on Jesus has faced scrutiny for some time now.

The Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, Chapter 3 (93-94AD)
"(63) Now, there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderfulworks-a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many ofthe Gentiles. He was [the] Christ; (64) and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, hadcondemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again thethird day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day." 

With this passage there seems to be an issue.

• If Josephus is not a Christian, why would he write "He was the Christ"?

Many people question the authenticity of this due to its seemingly contradictory nature.

• (It is important to note, every ancient manuscript we have from these texts contain this passage on Jesus)

The Three Views

1. It has been slightly altered

This is the most common view that atheist scholars have.
There are also many Christian scholars that hold this perspective.

• The argument is that, while Josephus likely write about Jesus calling him a "wise man," it seems that additions were made to bolster his account, such as identifying Jesus as "the Christ".

• Just because changes may have been made does not mean it does not have any validity.

• This argument is further argued because an early Christian Historian, Origen, scrutinized Josephus's work because he did not recognize Jesus as Christ.

2. It is a Paraphrase

G. J. Goldberg Ph.D. in 2022 published a study that has shifted the perspective of what Josephus was actually doing with the passage on Jesus.

• Goldberg argues that Josephus is actually paraphrasing a common creed among Christians that would have been said around his time.

• This would mean Josephus is not confessing Jesus as Christ, but he is simply repeating what others have said.

• This would then account for the contradictory statements of Jesus being just a "wise man" vs. "the Christ" as Josephus adding his opinion to the paraphrased creed.

• Josephus through his historical accounts paraphrases a large number of accounts, and Goldberg argues that in the same way he is paraphrasing Luke 24:13-35.

3. It is a forgery

• A very small minority of Non-Christian researchers argue it was completely fake and added later.

• This can simply not be proven, as all our manuscripts include it.

• Their evidence is typically based out of bias.

What Can we Conclude?

1. Scripture has not been heavily altered from its original writing.

2. Jesus is one of the most historically documented people.

   1. (He is not just a person, we will get into his deity in future lessons)

3. The New Testament has the most historically reliable ancient writings.

 While this lays a great foundation for what is to come from this series, it does not answer the case posed in 1 Corinthians 15: 14-19, the Resurrection.

• To get to verifying the Resurrection we are going to have to go even deeper into the Gospels and Historical accounts.