1. How reliable is the New Testament? Part 3 10/24/2014

2. Summary so far The New Testament is a historically accurate set of books based on: 1.The abundance of manuscript evidence 2.The small time gap between the manuscripts and the original writing 3.The small time gap between the actual events that took place and the writing of the New Testament books 4.The eyewitness testimony used to compile the New Testament books 2

3. What other evidence is there? Early Christian writers outside of the Bible Early non-Christian writers outside of the Bible A strange “eclipse” 3

4. Christian writers outside the Bible

5. Christian writers outside of the Bible Eusebius (275-339) Wrote Church History, a historical summary of the church up until his time. Was involved in the Council of Nicea (325) This gathering of church leaders was brought together to formally agree upon specific doctrines of Christianity. 5

6. Christian writers outside the Bible Irenaeus (180) Bishop of Lyons, a student of Polycarp (a follower of John) “Matthew published his Gospel among the Hebrews (i.e. Jews) in their own tongue, when Peter and Paul were preaching the gospel in Rome and founding the church there. After their departure (i.e. their death, which strong tradition places at the time of the Neronian persecution in 64), Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, himself handed down to us in writing the substance of Peter’s preaching. Luke, the follower of Paul, set down in a book the gospel preached by his teacher. Then John, the disciple of the Lord, who also leaned on His breast (this is a reference to John 13:25 and 21:20), himself produced his Gospel, while he was living at Ephesus in Asia.” Among Heresies III 6

7. Other Christian writers outside of the Bible Ignatius (70-110) knew all the apostles and was a disciple of Polycarp Clement of Rome (c. 95) used Scripture as a reliable source Polycarp (70-156) bishop of Smyrna was martyred for his faith in Jesus Tatian (170) compiled the Diatessaron which was a combination of all four gospel accounts in one narrative 7

8. The early Christian writers affirm what we read in the New Testament as being accurate and true If they did not believe what was written in the New Testament, they would not have given up their lives for the gospel Most of these church leaders were put to death for their faith 8

9. Non-Christian writers outside of the Bible

10. Josephus (37-100) A Jewish historian “Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist: for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism.” Antiquities of the Jews 18.5.2 10

11. Josephus writing of Jesus Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day. The Antiquities 18.63-64 11

12. Tacitus of Rome (115) Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome…Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty: then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. 12

13. Pliny the Younger, Letters 10.96-97 Meanwhile, in the case of those who were denounced to me as Christians, I have observed the following procedure: I interrogated these as to whether they were Christians; those who confessed I interrogated a second and a third time, threatening them with punishment; those who persisted I ordered executed. For I had no doubt that, whatever the nature of their creed, stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy surely deserve to be punished. There were others possessed of the same folly; but because they were Roman citizens, I signed an order for them to be transferred to Rome. 13

14. Pliny the Younger, Letters 10.96-97 they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so. When this was over, it was their custom to depart and to assemble again to partake of food--but ordinary and innocent food. Even this, they affirmed, they had ceased to do after my edict by which, in accordance with your instructions, I had forbidden political associations. Accordingly, I judged it all the more necessary to find out what the truth was by torturing two female slaves who were called deaconesses. But I discovered nothing else but depraved, excessive superstition. 14

15. From the writings of Josephus, Tacitus, and Pliny the Younger, much of what took place in the New Testament was affirmed by these non- Christian sources The character of Jesus, His divinity, His trial under Pontius Pilate, John the Baptist, and the gathering of Christians to worship Jesus are all referred to by these sources These writers were not trying to spread Christianity, they were simply writing about actual people and events 15

16. Darkness in the middle of the day? 45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. Matthew 27:45 (also Mark 15:33) 51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. 54 When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” Matthew 27:51-54 Did this really happen or was it an exaggeration? 16

17. Phlegon, a Greek historian Written in AD 137: In the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad (i.e., AD 33) there was ‘the greatest eclipse of the sun’ and that ‘it became night in the sixth hour of the day [i.e., noon] so that stars even appeared in the heavens. There was a great earthquake in Bithynia, and many things were overturned in Nicaea.’ Maier, Paul. Pontius Pilate (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House, 1968), p. 366. Phlegon’s citation is a fragment from Olympiades he Chronika 13, ed. Otto Keller, Rerum Naturalium Scriptores Graeci Minores, 1 (Leipzig Teurber, 1877), p. 101. 17