Do the Gospels Contain Eyewitness Testimony? An Overlooked Aspect of the Debate
Since the Gospels are Greco-Roman biographies, we should not be surprised that their authors would want to include eyewitness testimony. After all, the principle that historical accounts should be based on eyewitness reports (either directly indirectly) was an established value among all the ancient historians ranging from Herodotus to Thucydides to Polybius and even to Josephus.
But the issue isn’t just whether they would have wanted to include such testimony, but whether reliable eyewitness testimony was readily available. Put in the form of a question, were there named individuals in the early Christian movement who were understood to have witnessed the events related to Jesus of Nazareth and were actively … Continue reading...
Is the Gospel of John History or Theology?
Over the years, biblical scholars have challenged the historicity of the canonical gospels on a number of fronts. But, no gospel has taken it on the chin like the Gospel of John. Ever since Clement of Alexandria’s famous statement that the gospel of John was “a spiritual Gospel” (recorded in Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 6.14.7) critics have suggested that John has very little to do with history and has much more to do with theology.
The reasons for such critiques of John are not difficult to find. John writes the story of Jesus in a lengthy, drawn-out style, (quite different than the pithy language of the Synoptics), he includes unique … Continue reading...