Do the Biographies of Jesus Stand up to Scrutiny?
The Intention Test
- The gospels are written in a sober and responsible fashion. You don’t find outlandish flourishes and blatant mythologizing that you see in a lot of other ancient writings.
- It seems quite apparent that the goal of the gospel writers was to attempt to record what had actually occurred.
- The disagreements surrounding the early church, and those that continue today, demonstrate that Christians were interested in distinguishing between what happened during Jesus’ lifetime and what was debated later in the churches.
The Ability Test
- The ancient Jews were an oral culture in which there was great emphasis placed on memorization.
- 80-90% of Jesus’ words were originally in poetic form. It had a meter, balanced lines, and parallelism that would have made it much easier to memorize.
- The gospel writers and early Christian community were not playing a game of telephone. They were very careful to preserve the integrity of the message by constant monitoring and intervention to make corrections.
The Character Test
- The writers of the gospel were men of great integrity.
- They reported the words and actions of a man who called them to as exacting a level of integrity as any religion has ever known.
- They were willing to live out their beliefs to the point of ten of the eleven remaining disciples being put to grisly deaths.
The Consistency Test:
- There are numerous points at which the gospels appear to disagree. However, once you allow for paraphrase, of abridgment, of explanatory additions, of selections, of omission—the gospels are extremely consistent with each other by ancient standards, which are the only standards by which it’s fair to judge them.
- There is enough of a discrepancy to show that there could have been no previous concert among them; and at the same time such substantial agreement as to show that they all were independent narrators of the same great transaction.
- It would be very suspicious if all the ancient accounts of Jesus’ life were completely free of contradictions.
The Bias Test
- The gospel writers were not natural observers; they were Jesus’ devoted followers. Could this mean that they were motivated to change things to make him look good?
- It’s also possible they had a desire to record Jesus’ life with great integrity out of honor and respect.
- The disciples had nothing to gain except criticism, ostracism, and martyrdom. They had no financial incentive. If anything, they had every reason to keep quiet, to deny Jesus, and to downplay his teachings.
The Cover-Up Test
- Did the writers conveniently forget to mention details that are embarrassing or hard to explain?
- No—There’s a large body of Jesus’ teaching called the hard sayings of Jesus. Some of it is very ethically demanding.
- Mark 6:5 says that Jesus could do few miracles in Nazareth because the people there had little faith, which seems to limit Jesus’ power.
- Jesus said in Mark 13:32 that he didn’t know the day or the hour of his return, which seems to limit his omniscience.
- The gospels portray Jesus’ disciples as a bunch of self-serving, self-seeking, dull-witted people a lot of the time.
The Corroboration Test
- Within the last hundred years archaeology has repeatedly unearthed discoveries that have confirmed specific references in the gospels.
The Adverse Witness Test
- There were many enemies of Jesus who wanted to discredit the early Christian movement, but were unable to do so because their false version of history was more difficult to believe than the truth.