ARE THE GOSPELS RELIABLE - PART 1

                                            ARE THE GOSPELS               RELIABLE ?

           PART 1

      (copied from
        Y-Jesus.com)


Are the New Testament gospels the true eyewitness history of Jesus Christ, or could
the story have been changed through the
years?  Must we simply take the New 
Testament accounts of Jesus by faith, or is
there evidence for their reliability?

The late ABC News anchor, Peter Jennings 
was in Israel, broadcasting a television special 
on Jesus Christ. His program "The Search for
Jesus"  explored the question of whether the
Jesus of the New Testament was historically
accurate.

Jennings featured opinions on the Gospel 
accounts from DePaul professor  John Dominic
Crossan, three of Crossan's colleagues from the Jesus seminar,  and  two other Bible scholars.
(The Jesus Seminar is a group of scholars, who
debate Jesus' recorded words and actions and
then use red, pink. grey or black beads to cast
votes indicating how trustworthy they believe 
statements in the Gospels are.

Some of the comments were stunning. There on National TV  Dr Crossan  not only cast doubt on
more than 80% of Jesus'  sayings but also denied
Jesus' claims to Divinity, His miracles and His
resurrection. Jennings clearly was intrigued by
the image of Jesus, presented by Crossan.

Searching for true Bible history is always news.,
which is why every year Time and Newsweek go
on a quest for Mary, Jesus, Moses or Abraham.
Or - who knows? -  maybe this year it will be 
"Bob - the untold story of the missing 13th 
disciple."

This is entertainment, 
and so the investigation
will never end or yield       
answers, as that would
eliminate future programming. Instead,
those with radically
different views are thrown
together, like an episode of
Survivor, hopelessly convaluting, the issue rather
than bringing clarity. 

But Jennings report did focus on one issue that 
ought to be given some serious thought. Crossan
implied that the original accounts of Jesus were 
embellished by oral tradition and were not written
down until after the apostles  were dead.  Thus
they are largely unreliable and fail to give us an
accurate picture of the real Jesus. 

How are we to know if this is really true?


to be continued  on  14th February