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The New Testament's Historical Reliability - Part 1

The Documentary Evidence

1.     Best Evidence Rule

The documentary evidence shows that the text we currently possess is an accurate representation of the original New Testament documents. Even though we do not have the originals anymore, this is not an issue that is unique to the Bible; it is a question we can ask of other documents that have come down to us from antiquity. Besides, the copies of the New Testament are not far more removed from the originals and can rightfully stand in as the originals under the common legal procedure known as the Best Evidence Rule. Federal Rules of Evidence § 1001. Follow the link for more http://www.delightinhim.com/the-new-testaments-historical-reliability-part-1.html

The New Testament's Historical Reliability- Part 2

The Eyewitness Testimony

A strong case can be made for the fact that much of the New Testament, including the Gospels and the sources behind them, was written by eyewitnesses. In the legal practice, determining the credibility and accuracy of an eyewitness account is a well trod practice. While eyewitnesses can be notoriously unreliable, the court’s reliance on eyewitness testimony is, and always will be, bedrock of our judicial system. Judging what weight to give testimony is a solemn and private duty left to the jury and yet common sense principles can still be gleamed from the process. The cross-examination of a witness by an opposing attorney is a public act and the sorts of questions that are relevant can generally be grouped into four categories: communication, perception, memory, and candor. Find more at http://www.delightinhim.com/the-new-testaments-historical-reliability-part-2.html

 

The New Testament's Historical Reliability - Part 3

The Corroborating Evidence

I.      The Accuracy of the New Testament Authors

When people begin religious movements, it is often not until many generations later that people record things about them. But the fact is that we have better historical documentation for Christ than for the founder of any other ancient religion. For example, although the Gathas of Zoroaster, about 1000 B.C. are believed to be authentic, most of the Zoroastrian scriptures were not put into writing until after the third century A.D. The most popular Parsi biography of Zoroaster was written in A.D. 1278. Find more at  http://www.delightinhim.com/the-new-testaments-historical-reliability-part-3.html