It is a fact of literary forensics that a text can be authenticated or impeached by simply examining its internal structure. Federal agencies like the FBI employ forensic techniques in their examination of written text in order to determine its truthfulness. In my personal scholarship of the New Testament I have used these time tested procedures in proving the authenticity of these narratives.

Theodotus Inscription of Acts 6:9 [3]

A person who is sincerely honest does not need to be described as honest by the writer, only that we see their words and actions consistently honest throughout the entire story. Even those who deny that Jesus is a real person, stipulate that the story presented to us in the New Testament, reveals an incredible human being. Jesus is consistently seen as holy, separate from sin, deeply devoted to God, and willing to sacrifice His own life to save the world.

We learn these things by what we see in Jesus, not necessarily by any direct statements of the writers. We do the same thing in everyday life. We meet a person and very quickly we can tell what kind of person they are by the way they act and the words they use. We don’t need anyone to tell us what a person is like, we can determine this for ourselves by what we see and hear from their words and actions.

This premise of intrinsic attributes unspoken or explained in the New Testament, is visible, prevalent, and exists as an existential proof of the authenticity of the text.

For example: Paul writes fourteen books of the New Testament, depending upon whether you agree that he wrote Hebrews. How is it that Paul could have contrived an embellished narrative that is not true by the inclusion of so many personal letters which encourage, correct, rebuke, and instruct those to whom he addresses his letter?

In other words, most false narratives, myths, or contrived ancient literature, does not exist in the form of personal letters. In matters of historical significance, personal letters written between persons, are nearly always authentic conversations with genuine and truthful texts.

Deceivers do not write personal letter in order to create a false narrative intended to deceive. The presence of this attribute in the letters of Paul to the various churches that existed in Asia Minor at that time, is an empirical evidence that we can investigate, observe, and prove, whether they are contrived.

Over the past 2,000 years many people have endeavored to do this very thing. One of the world’s greatest archeologists and historians is Sir William Ramsay, who believed that the New Testament was a contrivance of errors. This was until he actually journeyed to Asia Minor in order to investigate the texts in the book of Acts for himself. Notice how Dr. Ramsay describes the accuracy and detail of Luke’s historical references in the Book of Acts:

“I began with a mind unfavorable to (the accuracy of the New Testament) but more recently I found myself brought into contact with the Book of Acts as an authority for the topography, antiquities, and society of Asia Minor. It was gradually borne upon me that in various details the narrative showed marvelous truth.”[1]

Dr. Ramsay believed, at the onset, that the accounts described in the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts were inaccurate. Over 100 years ago he undertook an expedition to Asia, to try and refute the New Testament, only to become so overwhelmed by the evidence that he became a follower of Jesus Christ. After Dr. Ramsey completed his extensive investigation, he said the following:

“Luke is a historian of the first rank; not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy…this author should be placed along with the very greatest historians.”[2]

Archeological Accuracy Points To Literary Accuracy

Since Luke’s description of cities, names, places, and customs are perfect in their historical accuracy, it is certain that the accounts of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are also accurate and reliable.

The fact that Luke has been confirmed as a scholarly historian of specific details regarding the history of the first century, it is certain that he also recorded the specific events of Jesus’ ministry with the same precision. Luke’s integrity as a historical scholar demands that we accept, with confidence, his testimony of Jesus’ resurrection, which is the foundation of the entire Christian church.

The Matter-Of-Fact Style Of Paul, The Scholar

Next time you read the letters of Paul, notice the personal nature of the texts where Paul is addressing people in a written letter, not trying to sell us a novel or story. Unique amongst all ancient literature, Paul uses a matter-of-fact style in his writing that adheres unembellished facts that are plain, straightforward, and bear no marks of deception.

It just so happens that in response to certain questions that people in these churches asked Paul by their own letters, he answers them with incredible wisdom. Paul directs his responses by referencing many hundreds of texts from the Old Testament scriptures. Paul shows us that he is a Biblical scholar unequalled by any other in the first century.

We find Paul seeking to prove that Jesus is the Messiah by quoting prophecies written hundreds or even a thousand years before Jesus arrived, which predict a crucified and risen Messiah. In Paul’s letters he quotes texts from the four Gospels, written by men that Paul believed had saw Jesus with their eyes, and recorded their testimony about what they saw and heard.

We see in the Book of Acts that the Disciples of Jesus had already assembled their Gospels that they were using in preaching Jesus to the people in various towns all over Asia Minor. Later we see Paul carrying these same Gospels himself as he sought to prove to the people he was addressing that Jesus is the fulfillment of all the prophets wrote. In order to accomplish this Paul used two sources.

1. The Old Testament scriptures that predict a Messiah.
2. The New Testament Gospels that the men who saw Jesus, either wrote of dictated, documenting that Jesus had fulfilled these Old Testament prophecies.

Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there; and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. However, when the disciples gathered around him, he rose up and went into the city. And the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe. And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.” ~Acts 14:19-22 (NKJV)

The early writing of the Synoptic Gospels are important to the missionary journeys of Paul in Asia Minor because he describes his witness to these various people as coming from the authority of the Gospels—written by Matthew, Mark and Luke, and personally revealed to Paul by Jesus.

Without a written testimony from the men who had seen Jesus, Paul would not have the proper authority to preach the Gospel of Christ. In Acts 15, Paul states that he was teaching the Gospel that he received from the men who had been with Jesus during the years of His public ministry.

The following are a few of the locations where the Gospel of Christ was being preached and taught very early after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension to heaven.

The Gospel Was Being Taught In Jerusalem, Asia Minor, And The World

• Acts 2:21: (Jerusalem) “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Just 50 days after Jesus had ascended back to heaven.
• Acts: 8:25 (Jerusalem:) “So when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.
• Acts 14:6-7, 14:21 (Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia:) they were preaching the gospel there.
• Acts 16:10 (Macedonia:) we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.
• Acts 15:1-3 Paul received the Gospel from the eyewitnesses and directly from Jesus. “I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received.”
• Romans: 1:15 (Rome:) I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.
• 1 Corinthians: 1:17 and 4:15 (Corinth). For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect…in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
• 2 Corinthians: 8:18 (by Titus), 9:12-13 (proof of the ministry), 10:14 (authority of the Gospel), 10:16 (teach the Gospel in regions beyond Corinth), 11:7 (teach the Gospel free of charge).
• Galatians: 1:7-9 (warning not to believe any other Gospel).
• Ephesians: 1:13 (received the Gospel and believed), 6:19 (Paul declaring the ministry of the Gospel).
• Philippians: 1:15 (fellowship of the Gospel), 1:17 (Paul appointed to defend the Gospel).
• Colossians: 1:5 (Paul taught the word of truth from the Gospel), 1:23 (the hope of the Gospel).
• 1 Thessalonians: 2:2 (teach the Gospel), 2:4 (entrusted with the Gospel), 2:8 (Paul imparts the Gospel), 3:2 (Timothy taught the Gospel of Christ).
• Hebrews: 1:2 (the Gospel is preached).
• 1 Peter: 1:12, 1:25, 4:6 (the Gospel was preached).

How could Paul prove that the Gospel of Christ was authentic and reliable if he did not have a written text from the eyewitness who had seen and heard Jesus? In 1 Thessalonians 2:13, the Gospels are described as the word of God, scripture equal to those of the Old Testament: For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us (the Gospels), you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

It is clear from this text that Paul had the Gospels with him as he went from town to town, telling people about Jesus and all that He had said and done.

It would be impossible to convince people that Jesus was the true Messiah if Paul could not produce the Gospel scriptures and demonstrate from these texts, how Jesus had fulfilled every Messianic prophecy of the Hebrew scriptures. Jesus gave an example of how this would be possible after He had risen from the dead, when He met two of the disciples on the road to Emmaus: Then Jesus said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures (Luke 24:44-45).

The entire basis of the testimony about Jesus in the New Testament, is founded upon what the Hebrew prophets had written about the Messiah. Jesus ordered His life perfectly so that He would fulfill every prophecy written for the Messiah. On the road to Emmaus Jesus showed the two disciples that He met, precisely how He had fulfilled these prophecies. Then Jesus told these two men something spectacular. In addition to the prophets writing that Messiah would suffer, die and rise again; the message of His death and resurrection would be proclaimed to all the nations: Then Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said, “Yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah would suffer and die and rise from the dead on the third day. It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.’ You are witnesses of all these things (Luke 24:45-48).

Don’t miss what the above verse is saying: It was predicted in the Old Testament that the Gospel of the Messiah would be proclaimed to all the nations. It was not possible to reach all the nations of the world unless a written text was sent out to the world.

What these men had seen and heard—they were commanded by Jesus—to immediately tell the entire world. This could only be accomplished if the testimony was written in letters and dispatched to the world. They could not simply tell people orally, this would not accomplish a world-wide ministry. The text had to be written and sent out just as the letters of Paul had been dispatched. Jesus instructed the Apostle John that he should; “write what you see in a book and send to the seven churches which are in Asia” (Revelation 1:11). This was the method used by the early Christian church to convey news of Jesus and the teaching of His Gospel to people in distant lands.

The Apostles who saw Jesus risen from the dead were commanded by Him to be His witnesses to the entire world. In Acts 1:8 after Jesus had risen, He told the Apostles, “you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” A witness is someone who sincerely tells other people what they have seen and heard. In different ways, twenty-nine times within the book of Acts, these men are described as telling the world about Jesus as His witnesses. The only way they could accomplish this impossible task was if Jesus did what He had said in John 14:25-26; “I will send the Holy Spirit to remind you of all I said and did,” and  then empower these simple fishermen to do extraordinary things by the power of the Holy Spirit, Acts 4:33: “The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all.”

It was essential in winning souls for Christ that there were written texts from the eyewitnesses who saw and recorded that Jesus had fulfilled each of the Old Testament prophecies. This is what Jesus was describing in Luke 24 above, You are witnesses of all these things.

Paul began his first missionary journey through Asia Minor in 45 A.D. It is clear that he had these texts from the Gospel writers with him as he moved from town to town.

Evidence In The Text

This brings us to the next internal, literary, forensic principle that is observed. Paul was carrying with him, these written Gospel texts that were penned by the Apostles who recorded their testimony because Jesus commanded then to do this important work.

The idea that Jesus never intended that His disciples would write a preserved story of Him, is preposterous. Noted New Testament scholar, Mitchell Reddish states in his Seminary textbook:

“Jesus of Nazareth was not an author, but a teacher and preacher. His method of communication was exclusively oral. Furthermore, there is no indication that Jesus expected or desired that his message would be preserved in writing and passed along for generations.”

Here is the problem with the above statement that is often repeated many times, in many other books; there is absolutely no evidence to prove that any of these statements by Mitchell Reddish are true. In fact, there is evidence in the New Testament text that impeaches all of Reddish’ assumptions. Jesus repeatedly tells His disciples to write all they had seen.

Twelve times Jesus tells John to write everything that he has seen:

• “Write in a book everything you see…” Rev. 1:11
• “Write down what you have seen…” Rev. 1:19
• “Write letters…” Rev. 2:1, 2:8, 2:12, 2:18, 3:1, 3:7, 3:14
• “Write this down…” Rev. 14:13
• “Write this…” Rev. 19:19
• “Write in a book everything you see…” Rev 21:11

Mitchell Reddish said: “there is no indication that Jesus expected or desired that his message would be preserved in writing and passed along for generations.”

This man is considered a New Testament scholar who is teaching young people at university these unprovable posits with no evidentiary proof. This is the reason that so many young people, who start out with great faith in Jesus, end up with a dead faith by the end of their first year at seminary.

Mitchell Reddish intends that his book would be used as a textbook for seminary students. He states in the author’s comments for this book, the following:

“An Introduction to the Gospels is designed to be a textbook for courses on the Gospels, for use at the college and beginning seminary level.”

If you purchased this book or were given it as part of your seminary or university class, this is the information you would first see regarding the New Testament.

1. The assertion by Reddish that the Gospels were not written until much later, is based upon his assumption that Jesus never told the disciples to write a record for Him. In fact, Jesus told the Apostles immediately after He was risen from the dead, to take what they had seen “to all the nations,” in Luke 24:47. In Acts 1:8, just prior to Jesus’ ascension back to heaven, He said “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” It would not be possible to accomplish this without a written record that was distributed to all the known parts of the world. Paul was able to reach the people of the known world, only by publishing written letters that were distributed throughout Asia Minor early in the first century by known postal routes.
2. The assertion by Reddish that the writers were not eyewitnesses, cannot be proven by anyone. This conclusion is based solely on opinions, conjecture, speculation, and general consensus amongst other scholars holding the same view of the New Testament. Again, using the text itself as the authority, the writers themselves clearly state that they saw Jesus with their own eyes. See the first chapter, “Eyewitness Accounts,” for detailed proof that these texts were written by eyewitnesses.
3. The claim by Reddish that Paul’s letters were written before the Gospels has no actual physical evidence to prove this assertion. It is based upon his opinion and the opinions of other liberal scholars. In fact, we can prove from the evidence of the New Testament itself that the letters of Paul were not all written before the Gospels. We have textual evidence that the text Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 5:18, he received from Luke’s Gospel, 10:7, which must have existed before Paul wrote his letters.
4. The idea of Reddish that because Jesus did not write anything Himself, He did not intend that the men who He called to be His witnesses would also not write a lasting record of all they had seen and heard, is preposterous. This was the very reason that Jesus called these men to follow Him and witness what He was doing. Jesus was fulfilling the Old Testament scriptures of the Messiah and unless these men wrote a permanent record of how and when He did this, it would never be known to later generations.
5. The entire purpose of Jesus’ arrival on earth was to herald the arrival of the Messiah that God promised the world. If this was not accomplished by eyewitnesses who heard and saw Jesus do the things that He accomplished; if the text was not immediately written and sent to the world; if Jesus never intended that a record would be written at all, the coming of the Messiah to earth to die for the sins of the world and offer redemption to every person, would be useless. Of course Jesus called eyewitnesses to record what they saw and write their testimony immediately. Of course Jesus wanted a permanent record to be made. If not, then the entire narrative of Jesus makes no sense at all.

In John chapter 17, Jesus is praying to the Father and asking Him to protect the men who have been with Him and have heard and seen all that He has said and done. Jesus said: “Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world.” ~John 17:11. He continues in verse 20 with the words: “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message.” ~John 17:20

Jesus is specifically stating that the men who have seen Him and all He has done, will write their testimony about Jesus and many others will believe in Jesus through their message.

The internal structure of the New Testament presents us with proof that Jesus did intend that the men who saw Him, would write a testimony of all He said and did and send it to the world. The often asserted idea that Jesus never intended this, is easily impeached by anyone who simply reads what Jesus said to these men.

See: “You Are My Witnesses: The Men Who Saw Jesus”

What Does The Evidence Prove?

Listen to what Jesus told the Apostles after He had risen from the dead:

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me—everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” ~Acts 1:8

Does this sound to you like Jesus wanted these twelve men who had seen the most spectacular events in the history of the world, to wait 20, 30, 40 years or more before they wrote a record of all that Jesus had said and done?

Jesus called these twelve men to testify as eyewitnesses at that moment. All the miracles that they saw could never be repeated; yet all these things must be known to the world for all time. Jesus wanted the people of that moment who were still alive to know these things, and also every person throughout history.

In John’s Gospel Jesus promised that He would remind these men of everything they had seen and heard so they could write a reliable account. ~John 14:26

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would testify of Him  to these men. Then they must testify about Him to the world, because they had been with Him from the beginning. ~John 15:26

The evidence that the Gospels were written immediately after Jesus rose from the dead, is found in the text itself where Jesus makes this requirement an imperative.

In Acts chapter 6, a dispute arose between the Greek Christians and the Hebrew Christians. The Greeks felt that the daily needs of their widows for food was not being taken care of, as it was for the Hebrew widows. The twelve Apostles decided to appoint seven men to oversee this daily distribution of food for these widows. What follows in this text is of critical importance.

And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word. ~Acts 6:3-4

The reason the twelve Apostles gave for the appointment of these seven men, was so that they could spend their time in prayer and teaching the word. What word? It wasn’t the Old Testament scriptures only, it was also the Gospels. The Old Testament scriptures were not sufficient to prove Jesus was the Messiah without the testimony from the Apostles who described how they had seen Jesus fulfill all these prophecies. The Gospel accounts were essential in proving that Jesus had fulfilled the Hebrew prophecies of the Messiah.

The Apostles wanted to focus their efforts on teaching the word of God, these Gospels. Unless they were able to demonstrate that Jesus had fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies for the Messiah, as documented in the Gospels, they would never be able to prove Jesus was the true Messiah.

This demands that the Gospels must have already been written by this time. We know that Paul had not written any of his letters this early. He doesn’t even meet Jesus until Acts 9.

We know that the testimony of the Apostles who had written what Jesus had said and done, was carried to the church at Thessalonica. Paul writes that when they began to teach the people there what Jesus had said and done, they received these words as “the word of God.” Paul is not talking about the Old Testament scriptures. There would be no need to specify that the Old Testament was the word of God. The people already knew this. Paul is describing the words of the Apostles who had already written their testimony about Jesus as the Gospels. This is what Paul was teaching the people at the church at Thessalonica. These people accepted the Gospels as the word of God, scripture equal to the Old Testament.

For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. ~1 Thessalonians 2:13

This is clear evidence that the Gospels must have already existed by this early date when Luke penned the book of Acts. Of course this is true because Acts is the second book of Luke, after his own Gospel.

There is absolutely no evidence anywhere that the Apostles waited for decades to write their testimony. This idea comes from a few liberal New Testament scholars as their opinions, but not because there is any proof that this is really true.

The text of the New Testament is where we find the evidence. It is by what Jesus said regarding His desire that these twelve men would tell everyone what they had seen, and the statements of these men who said they saw Jesus with their own eyes, that we can correctly understand that the New Testament was written by men who saw Jesus and heard Him. These men certainly did not wait, they began to write immediately after Pentecost and started to distribute these texts all over the world within a short period of time. They did this because Jesus told them to write a remembrance and tell the world immediately.

How Did The New Testament Writers Accurately Document Every Old Testament Prophecy Of The Messiah?

In 2013 I began writing my first book, “The Prophecies of the Messiah.” After 35 years of studying the Old Testament scriptures that describe the Messiah, and reading in the New Testament how the writers had documented that Jesus fulfilled these prophecies, I realized that the world needed to know these important facts. As I began to write and record all the evidence that existed for Jesus fulfilling these 400 prophecies, I was astonished.

The result of this 35 year endeavor was the production of a book that was like no other, which precisely and exhaustively documented the 400 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. After writing for nearly a year and composing 4,042 pages of documentation and personal application, Prophecies of the Messiah was published. I have updated this book recently and added important facts to the first edition.

It is not possible that the Men who penned the 27 books of the New Testament, conspired with the men who wrote the 39 books of the Old Testament, to deceive the world into believing that Jesus is the Messiah.

First of all, the men who wrote these 400 prophecies did not know or understand all that they were writing. God directed them by the Holy Spirit to record these words, but they themselves did not know all that they were saying.

Even the Disciples of Jesus did not understand, at first, that Jesus had been fulfilling these 400 prophecies during his life, death, and resurrection. These men state in the text that it was not until afterwards that they realized Jesus had been intentionally fulfilling all that the prophets wrote. Why would Jesus do all of these things, yet not intend that they would understand them until after He died?

His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him. ~John 12:16 (NKJV)

The answer is obvious, Jesus was seeking to document by empirical evidence that He had perfectly fulfilled every one of the 400 prophecies that were written in the Old Testament that must be fulfilled by any candidate for Messiah.

It was Paul who examined all of these prophecies and compared them to what Jesus had said and done, and repeatedly stated that He believed Jesus is the true Messiah.

Then Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said, “Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen:

“Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to you the word of this salvation has been sent. For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they did not know Him, nor even the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled them in condemning Him. And though they found no cause for death in Him, they asked Pilate that He should be put to death.

Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. But God raised Him from the dead. He was seen for many days by those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses to the people.

And we declare to you glad tidings—that promise which was made to the fathers. God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm:  Notice how Paul references the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah with an event that Jesus fulfilled in the New Testament:

You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.’ (Psalms. 2:7; Heb. 1:5)

And that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He has spoken thus:

I will give you the sure mercies of David.’ (Isaiah 55:3)

Therefore He also says in another Psalm:

You will not allow Your Holy One to see corruption.’ (Psalms. 16:10; Acts 2:27)

“For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption; but He whom God raised up saw no corruption. Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. ~Acts 13:16-39 (NKJV

The Proficiency That Paul Displays In:

1. Knowing all the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah.
2. Applying these prophecies to Jesus in the New Testament.
3. Documenting these scriptures and events for us in the text to prove that these are NOT embellished or manufactured narratives but truthful and scholarly evidence that the text is true and Jesus is the Messiah.

It is not possible that Jesus, the writers of the New Testament, and the writers of the Old Testament, all got together and fabricated the prophecies, and documenting that Jesus fulfilled these predictions.

• These men did not know each other.
• They lived hundreds of years apart from each other.
• The writers didn’t understand what they were writing at the time, or that Jesus had fulfilled these prophecies until after He had been crucified and risen from the dead.

These are but a few of the hundreds of eviences left to us in the artifacts of the New Testament. If this is a subject that interest you and further discovery is desirable, please see my recent publication: “You Are My Witnesses: The Men Who Saw Jesus.”

1. When Were The Gospels Written?
2. Were The Gospels Written By Eyewitnesses?
3. Did The Gospel Writers Borrow From Each Other?
4. Has The Text Of The New Testament Been Changed?
5. Is The New Testament Filled With Errors?
6. Were The Four Gospels Written Anonymously?
7. The Body Of New Testament Evidence
8. Are There Sources For Jesus Outside The New Testament?
9. Is The New Testament A Valid Historical Narrative?
10. Did Jesus Really Claim To Be God?

NOTES:

[1] William M. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveler and the Roman Citizen, 1982, page 8
[2] William M. Ramsay, The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament, 1915, page 222
[3] The Theodotus Inscription from a Synagogue of Freedmen (liberated slaves). Stephen contended with some men from this synagogue (Acts 6:9). This item was previously displayed in the Rockefeller Museum.

Categories: Agnostics and Skeptics, Bart Ehrman, Historical Validity of the New Testament, How The NT Writers Remembered, Literary authenticity of the New Testament, Messianic Prophecies, Messianic Prophecy Bible, Mitchell G. Reddish, New Testament Criticism, Robert Clifton Robinson, Secular sources for Jesus, The Historical Jesus, The Historical Jesus

Tags: 400 Messianic Prophecies, Is Jesus the Messiah?, New Testament Criticism, The New Testament as a Historical Document, The Prophecies of the Messiah, When were the Gospels written?