The New Testament Witness to Christ and His Kingdom, Student Workbook, SW13

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T H E N E W T E S T A M E N T W I T N E S S T O C H R I S T A N D H I S K I N G D O M

A P P E N D I X 3 0

Readings on the New Testament’s Historical Credibility

The Historical Accounts of Yeshua: Truth or Fiction?

Luke 1.1-4 - Dear Theophilos: concerning the matters that have taken place among us, many people have undertaken to draw up accounts based on what was handed down to us by those who from the start were eyewitnesses and proclaimers of the message. Therefore, Your Excellency, since I have carefully investigated all these things from the beginning, it seemed good to me that I too should write you an accurate and ordered narrative , so that you might know how well-founded are the things about which you have been taught. John 20.30-31 - In the presence of the talmidim, Yeshua performed many other miracles which have not been recorded in this book. But these which have been recorded are here so that you may trust that Yeshua is the Messiah , the Son of God, and that by this trust you have life because of who he is. John 21.24-25 - This one is the talmid who is testifying about these things and who has recorded them. And we know that his testimony is true . But there are also many other things Yeshua did; and if they were all to be recorded, I don’t think the whole world could contain the books that would have to be written! 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that there are discrepancies within the narrative accounts, many feel that the credibility of the New Testament as a historical document is compromised or even denied .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 (Matt. 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. The Modern Critical View I: What Is the Historical Credibility of the New Testament?

Verses taken from David H. Stern, The Complete Jewish Bible

Howard Clark Kee. Understanding the New Testament . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1983. p. 9.