"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
I have recently been dealing with attitudes and opinions expressed by certain philosophies and agnosticism regarding the authenticity and foundation of Christianity in general and Christian Science; The Bible. The existence of Jesus is also frequently called into question. I decided to do some research on this to look various non-Christian claims or dismissals in the face, for example that the gospels are all different and do not corroborate each other.
Well, I found the Gospels not only to corroborate on another, but to complement one another too. They give us a fuller picture. This is also true of many of the different translations of the Bible to a certain extent. A different wording can help us get a clearer or an expanded understanding of a certain phrase or passage.
I found a very good article in the internet straight away entitled “Recent Perspectives on the reliability of the Gospels” by Gary R. Habermas which first appeared in the Christian Research Journal, vol 28 number 1 (2005).
The article highlights the methods commonly used to authenticate ancient documents and states “...approximately one-and-a-half non-Christian, extrabiblical sources confirm many details from Jesus’ life and teachings as found in the Gospels. Early Christians such as Clement of Rome, Ignatius, and Polycarp provide even more confirmation, writing just 10 years or less after the completion of the New Testament.”
It goes on “One of the strongest evidences possible for reliability is when early sources are derived from eyewitnesses who actually participated in some of the events. Historian David Hackett Fischer dubs this “the rule of immediacy” and terms it “the best relevant evidence.” With particular relation to the books of the Bible following the Gospels I read, “One reason critical scholars take Paul’s testimony so seriously is that his writings provide a very early date as well as eyewitness testimony to what Paul believed was a resurrection appearance of Jesus. This is conceded even by atheist scholar Michael Martin.”
The article concludes and demonstrates that “There are a number of pieces of evidence that, especially when taken together, confirm the traditional picture regarding the life and teachings of Jesus. This is not to say that all the pertinent questions have been answered, but the available evidence from a variety of
angles confirms the strong foundation on which we can base the general reliability of the New Testament reports of the historical Jesus.”