A Biblical Vision, Part II: Mastering the New Testament Witness to Christ

Sess ion 1: Int roduct ion: The Cent ra l i ty of Jesus of Nazareth to the New Tes tament 15

e. Josephus, “the so-called Christ” whose disciples “reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive,” ( Antiquities XVIII.33; XX.9.1).

3. The New Testament as the premiere source of information about Jesus of Nazareth

a. F.F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? , “the authenticity and general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established.”

b. Numbers of books and copies of classic historical documents

(1) The Histories of Tacitus (two copies which date 1,000 years after he wrote)

(2) Caesar’s Gallic Wars (10 copies)

(3) Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War (8 copies)

(4) Livy’s History of Rome (20 partial copies)

c. The New Testament (5,000 manuscript copies produced less than 50 years after the NT itself was written!)

4. Jesus’ teaching of the Old Testament

a. General claims about the OT

(1) Scripture cannot be broken, John 10.35.

(2) The Scriptures must be fulfilled, Luke 24.44.