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

Append i x

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Appendix 50 The Modern Critical View From Howard Clark Kee, Understanding the New Testament

I. What is the historical credibility of the NT?

Once it is acknowledged that there are differences of outlook within the New Testament and that there are discrepancies within the narrative accounts, many feel that the credibility of the New Testament as a historical document is compromised or even denied . Candor requires us to acknowledge, no matter what our point of view, that the New Testament writings record events that occurred at least a generation before they were written down. When we add to this the New Testament’s own description of the disciples as illiterate (Acts 4.13), we must acknowledge that there was a crucial stage of oral transmission of the Jesus tradition before the Gospels were produced as we have them . The differences that are evident among them are in some cases not matters of great consequence – such as whether the family of Jesus lived originally in Bethlehem (Matthew 2) or whether they were only temporarily there, but resided in Nazareth (Luke 2). Nevertheless, a serious effort to understand the NT must come to terms with these differences and seek to account for them. ~ Understanding the New Testament , p. 9 We must also call into question whether it is appropriate for us to impose our supposed standards of historical objectivity on documents like the NT. As John 20.31 puts it, he has reported the story of Jesus’ spectacular acts (“signs”) in order “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Clearly not all his readers are going to share his conclusions, but he is forthright in telling his readers his aims. And those aims are not objective reporting. Using the term in its root sense, of a means of propagating a point of view or belief, the New Testament is not objective history, but propaganda. But then history in any time and culture is always event plus interpretation; it is never merely objective, in the sense of lacking a framework of interpretation or point of view. What is required is to be aware of the writer’s assumptions, the aims of the writings, what its vocabulary, style, and conceptual language presuppose . ~ Understanding the New Testament , p. 9

II. Are the accounts of Jesus’ Passion propaganda?