Today we have a guest piece by frequent contributor W. R. Miller.
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A common anti-Christian claim is that
people can’t remember details of events after thirty or forty years. According to biologist Richard Dawkins, “All
four of the gospels, by the way, were written long after the events that they
purport to describe, and not one of them by an eyewitness.” [1] Detroit,
Michigan attorney Bruce Townley [2] writes, “If one follows the majority of biblical scholarship, Mark was written
at or near 70 CE. This makes Mark (and consequently Matthew and Luke) 35-40
years after the death of Jesus. How many ‘eyewitnesses’ were still alive over
that time period?”[3] In the Oxford
Annotated Bible, Pheme Perkins makes the claim, “Scholars generally agree
that the Gospels were written forty to sixty years after the death of Jesus. They thus do not present eyewitness or contemporary
accounts of Jesus’ life and teachings." [4]
On the contrary,
the evangelists themselves testify to their own eyewitness accounts.
1 Peter 5:1
Therefore, I exhort the
elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of
Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed…
2 Peter 1:16-17
For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the
power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His
majesty.
1 John 1:1-3
What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our
eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the
Word of Life – and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and
proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was
manifested to us – what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that
you too may have fellowship with us…
John 21:24-25
This is the disciple who is
testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his
testimony is true. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which
if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not
contain the books that would be written.
Luke 1:1-4
Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things
accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from
the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, it seemed fitting
for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to
write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; so that
you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.
Acts 2:23-24, 32
“This man (Jesus) was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and
foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by
nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from
the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on
him… God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.”
Acts 3:15
“You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are
witnesses of this.”
Acts 4:20
“For we cannot help
speaking about what we have seen and heard”
Acts 4:33
With great power the
apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and
much grace was upon them all.
Acts 10:39-42
“We are witnesses of
everything he (Jesus) did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him
on a tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to
be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had
already chosen – by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the
dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and testify that he is the
one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead.”
The
evangelists’ testimony is documented in the New Testament.
What is a testament?
American Heritage
Dictionary:
tes•ta•ment
“n. Something that serves as tangible proof or evidence" [5]
Oxford English Dictionary:
testament,
¶3.erron.= TESTIMONY; witness. [6]
What is testimony?
Oxford English Dictionary:
testimony, n.
1. a. Personal or documentary evidence or
attestation in support of a fact or statement; hence, any form of evidence or
proof.
b.
Any object or act serving as proof or evidence. [7]
Websters College Dictionary:
testimony, n.:
1. The statement or declaration of a
witness under oath, usu. in court.
2. Evidence in support of a fact or
statement; proof.
3. Open declaration or profession,
as of faith. [8]
Experts in the science of jurisprudence acknowledge the
eyewitness value of the testimony of the evangelists. These include Dr. John Ankerberg, Richard J.
Bauckham, Dr. Tim McGrew of Western Michigan University; Principal Ross
Clifford of Morling College, Australia; Francis Bowen of Harvard; Thomas Arnold
of Rugby; William Paley; John Warwick Montgomery, Emeritus Professor of Law and
Humanities at the University of Luton; Simon Greenleaf, Royall Professor of Law
at Harvard, “Upon the existing Law of Evidence more light has shone from the
New World than from all the lawyers who adorn the courts of Europe,” according
to the London Law Magazine; and many
others listed here.
F. F. Bruce, M.A., D.D., F.B.A., of the University of Cambridge,
wrote, “The evidence indicates that the written sources of our Synoptic Gospels
are not later than c. A.D. 60; some of them may even be traced back to notes
taken of our Lord’s teaching while His words were actually being uttered. The
oral sources go back to the very beginning of Christian history. We are, in
fact, practically all the way through in touch with the evidence of
eyewitnesses. The earliest preachers of the gospel knew the value of this
firsthand testimony, and appealed to it time and again. ‘We are witnesses of
these things,’ was their constant and confident assertion. And it can have
been by no means so easy as some writers seem to think to invent words and
deeds of Jesus in those early years, when so many of His disciples were about,
who could remember what had and had not happened. Indeed, the evidence is that
the early Christians were careful to distinguish between sayings of Jesus and
their own inferences or judgments. Paul, for example, when discussing the vexed
questions of marriage and divorce in I Corinthians 7, is careful to make this
distinction between his own advice on the subject and the Lord’s decisive
ruling: ‘I, not the Lord,’ and again, ‘Not I, but the Lord.’ And
it was not only friendly eyewitnesses that the early preachers had to reckon
with; there were others less well disposed who were also conversant with the
main facts of the ministry and death of Jesus. The disciples could not afford
to risk inaccuracies (not to speak of willful manipulation of the facts), which
would at once be exposed by those who would be only too glad to do so. On the
contrary, one of the strong points in the original apostolic preaching is the
confident appeal to the knowledge of the hearers; they not only said, ‘We
are witnesses of these things,’ but also, ‘As you yourselves also know’
(Acts 2:22). Had there been any tendency to depart from the facts in any
material respect, the possible presence of hostile witnesses in the audience
would have served as a further corrective." [9]
At his website (and in his book), police detective J. Warner
Wallace of Cold Case Christianity
provides a thorough analysis of why the eyewitness testimony of the evangelists
is reliable:
Why does
Perkins believe the evangelists were not eyewitnesses? Because, she says, “Scholars generally agree
that the Gospels were written forty to sixty years after the death of Jesus.” How would witnessing the miracles of
Christ—the feeding of thousands of people, the healing of multitudes of people,
calming a storm and walking on water, resurrecting Lazarus and himself—be
forgotten forty to sixty years later?
Principal Drummond of Oxford
said: “If we suppose that the Synoptic Gospels were written from forty to sixty
years after the time of Christ, still they were based on earlier material, and
even after forty years the memory of characteristic sayings may be perfectly
clear. ... I have not a particularly good memory, but I can recall many sayings
that were uttered forty, or even fifty, years ago, and in some cases can
vividly recollect the scene." [10]
The Honorable Justice Ken R
Handley, AO OStJ QC, observed, “This is a remarkable piece of historical
evidence written at a very early date, when eyewitnesses were still alive.
Anzac Day this year has reminded us that there are still survivors of the First
World War, 81 years after it ended, who remember what happened. I had
first-hand experience as a judge of a remarkable parallel. In February 1964, HMAS
Melbourne sank HMAS Voyager. In October 1996, over 32 years later, I
sat on the Court which heard the appeal by the Commonwealth from the award of
damages by a jury to a Mr. McLean who had been a sailor on Melbourne and claimed to have
suffered post traumaticstress disorder. Our
decision is in the official Law Reports.
(Commonwealth of Australia v McLean (1996) 41 NSWLR 389.) Survivors gave
evidence at the trial and had the clearest recollection of what had happened.
Under the Evidence Act 1995, Mrs. McLean was able to say in court in
1996 what her husband had told her in 1964 shortly after the collision. (Evidence
Act 1995 (NSW) s 64.) Hearsay evidence,
such as Luke has incorporated in his Gospel and Paul included in his letter to
the Corinthians, is now accepted in court in civil cases if it was fresh in the
memory of the original speaker. The 32 years in this case was longer than the
interval of 20 years or so to the date of 1 Corinthians." [11]
Actor Mark Hamill, best known as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars series, has been able to
recall dialogue after nearly 40 years almost verbatim.
Here is his audition, in which he speaks the line, “Fear is
their greatest defense. I doubt if the actual security there is much greater
than it was on Aquilae or Sullust and what there is is most likely directed
towards a large scale assault.'
The line is never used in the movie. Yet, he is able to recite it 22 years later for
the BBC programme, Omnibus: [12\
Twenty-nine years after
the audition, Hamill recalled in the documentary, Empire of Dreams, [13] “I can remember a
line from the screen test which I don't think ever will leave me. Luke says, 'But we can't turn back. Fear is their greatest defense. I doubt if the actual
security there is any greater than it was on Aquilae or Sullust and what there
is is most likely directed towards a large scale assault.'
“And I read that line and I thought, 'Who talks like this?' So I just did it sincerely.”
The documentary played both the audition and Hamill recalling
the dialogue 29 years later.
On June 6, 2014, thirty-nine
years after his screen test, Mark Hamill recalled his screen test thirty-nine
years after the fact, and once again recited the “Fear is their greatest
defense” line. [14]
Hamill—as well as Handley and Drummond—demonstrate that it is
possible to recollect minutia decades in the past.
What the evanglists believed was more than minutia. What they believed was the Gospel, with the
power to change lives.
Jesus commissioned his disciples to, “Go ye therefore, and
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have
commanded you” [15] Henceforth, the disciples did exactly that,
presenting the Gospel orally in the beginning, and in written form years later.
Again, in Acts 1:8, Jesus said, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is
come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem,
and in all Judaea, and in Samaria,
and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
Do you see the word, “witnesses”?
Jesus had also told his disciples, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the
Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all
things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." [16]
So for the evangelists, memory would not be a problem. And how could the miracles of Jesus Christ be
forgotten, or for that matter, the miracles God did through the disciples?
Perkins also claimed, “Neither the evangelists
nor their first readers engaged in historical analysis." [17]
The eminent legal scholar Dr. John Warwick Montgomery
points out, “Far from avoiding contact with secular history, the New
Testament is replete with explicit references to secular personages, places,
and events. Unlike typical sacred literature, myth, and fairytale (“Once upon a
time...”), the Gospel story begins with 'There went out a decree from Caesar
Augustus that all the world should be taxed.'“
He adds, “Modern archaeological research has confirmed again
and again the reliability of New Testament geography, chronology, and general
history. To take but a single, striking example: After the rise of liberal
biblical criticism, doubt was expressed as to the historicity of Pontius
Pilate, since he is mentioned even by pagan historians only in connection with
Jesus' death. Then, in 1961, came the discovery at Caesarea
of the now famous 'Pilate inscription,' definitely showing that, as usual, the
New Testament writers were engaged in accurate historiography." [18]
After many years of research, Oxford archaeologist Sir
William M. Ramsay concluded, “Luke is a historian of the first rank; not merely
are his statement of fact trustworthy; he is possessed of the true historic
sense; he fixes his mind on the idea and plan that rules in the evolution of
history, and proportions the scale of his treatment to the importance of each
incident. He seizes the important and critical events and shows their true
nature at greater length, while he touches lightly or omits entirely much that
was valueless for his purpose. In short,
this author should be placed along with the very greatest of historians." [19]
Such is the trustworthiness—and reliability—of the New Testament
accounts.
[1] Richard Dawkins, The Magic of Reality:
How We Know What’s Really True, Free Press, 2012, pp. 254-255.
[4] Perkins,
The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the
Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books: New Revised Standard Version, Oxford
University Press, 2007 edition, “Introduction to the Gospels,” p. 4.
[5] “testament.” The American Heritage® Dictionary of the
English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 11 Aug.
2009.
[6]Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, 1989. Accessed
online August 11, 2009. © Oxford
University Press, 2009.
[8] Websters College Dictionary. © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd.
Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
[9] The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?,
Fifth edition, Downers Grove,
IL: InterVarsity Press, 1960.
[10] Cf. Marcus Dods, The Bible, Its Origin and Nature,
1921, p. 184.
[11] Ken Handley, “A Lawyer Looks at the Resurrection”. Reprinted
from Kategoria: A Critical Review, v. 15. 1999, pp. 3-4. Handley’s copious credentials are listed here.
[12] Omnibus--George Lucas:
Flying Solo,” BBC-1, March 23, 1997.
[13] Empire of
Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy, 2004 documentary on A&E Network and DVD
supplement.
[14] In the first of three interviews by James Arnold
Taylor, the voice of Ben Kenobi in The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels. Hamill was visiting Disneyland
promoting “Star Wars Weekends.”
[17] Perkins, The
New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books: New
Revised Standard Version, Oxford University Press, “Introduction to the
Gospels,” 2010 edition, p. 1744.
[18] Montgomery,
Human Rights and Human Dignity, pp.
143-44.
[19] Ramsey, Luke the Physician, pp. 177-79, 222.
