WAS JESUS A REAL PERSON? - PART SEVEN

                                       WAS JESUS A REAL             PERSON?

     PART SEVEN

        (copied from 
         Y-Jesus.com)


The New Testament

Skeptics like Ellen Johnson also dismiss the New Testament as evidence for Jesus, calling it biased. However, even most non-Christian historians consider ancient New Testament documents as solid evidence for Jesus' existence. Cambridge historian, Michael Grant, an atheist, argues that the New Testament should be considered as evidence in the same way as other ancient history.

"
If we apply to the New Testament, as we should, the same sort of criteria  as we should apply to other ancient writings containing historical material, we can no more reject Jesus' existence, than we can reject a mass of pagan personages,
whose reality as historical figures is never questioned.

"

The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) are
primary accounts of Jesus' life and words. Luke begins his Gospel with these words to Theophilus;

"Since I  myself have carefully examined everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you most excellent Theophilus." 

Noted archaeologist, Sir William Ramsey, originally rejected Luke's historical account of Jesus. However, he later acknowledged ,"Luke is a historian of the first rank.....  this author should 
be placed along with the very greatest historians .....  Luke's history is unsurpassed in respect of its trustworthiness."   

The earliest accounts of Alexander were written 300 years after him. But how close to the life of Jesus were the Gospels written ? Would eyewitnesses to Jesus have still been alive, or was there enough time for a legend to have developed? 

In the 1830s, German scholars argued that the New Testament was written in the 3rd century, much too late to have been written by Jesus' apostles.  However, manuscript copies, discovered in the 19th and 20th centuries, by archaeologists proved these accounts of Jesus were written much earlier. 

William Albright dated all the New Testament books "between a.d.50 and  a.d.75." 
 John A.T. Robinson, of Cambridge, dates all New Testament books  by a.d.40-65.
Such early dating means they were written when eyewitnesses were alive, much  too early for a myth or legend to develop.

After C.S. Lewis read the Gospels, he wrote: "Now  as a literary historian, I am perfectly convinced that ....  the Gospels are ... not legends.
I have read a great deal of legend and I am quite clear that they are not the same sort of thing." 

The quantity of manuscripts for the New
Testament is enormous.
Over 24,000 complete or partial copies of its books exists, putting it far above all other ancient documents.

No other ancient, historical person , religious or secular, is backed up by as much documentation as is Jesus Christ. Historian Paul Johnson remarks: "If we consider that Tacitus for example, survives, in only one medieval manuscript, the quantity of early New Testament documents is remarkable. 

next post 27th August