Criticism, Canon, and Historical Truth of the Gospels - Essay Example

Lecturer Criticism, Canon, and Historical Truth of the Gospels The books of the New Testament, including the Gospels, were written long after the death of Jesus Christ. Some of the epistles were also were also written after the death of the apostles. For instance, Mark, Matthew, Luke and John were written in the AD 50, AD 60, AD 61 and AD 80 respectively. Nevertheless, each of these authors was still able to directly quote from Jesus Christ or his disciples. Some were even written much later. However, each of them had their own sources of information. This paper focuses on the sources of information used by these authors in the writing their New Testament books (Duling, and Perrin 37). Personal Experiences The first source of information for the authors of the New Testament came from their own experiences. Some of the New Testament writers were writing accounts of events which they actually witnessed by themselves. This applies to the authors of the Synoptic Gospels. First, the book of Matthew which is the very first book in the New Testament was written by Matthew himself. As recorded in the Bible, Jesus Christ, during His ministry, had a total of 12 disciples. One of them was called Matthew who was later attributed to the authorship of the book of Matthew. Before his call, Matthew (initially known as Levi) was a tax collector (Matthew 9:9). Although this was one of the most loathed jobs by the Pharisees, Jesus did not show much concern about the sinful nature of this to be disciple. Instead, He decided to call him to join His team of disciples who would later accompany Him wherever He went to during His entire ministry (Duling, and Perrin 37). Therefore, as one of the close associates of Jesus Christ, it means that Matthew was able to observe Him carry out all the sermons, perform miracles and interact with the Jews and Gentiles during his lifetime. Meaning, when he decided to write the book of Matthew, he never had to rely on any other source of information rather than his own observations. As a disciple, he was supposed to be actively involved in the ministry of Jesus. Just like the other disciples, he was supposed to accompany Jesus Christ wherever He was (Kelber 86). After all; one quality that Jesus expected from His disciples was commitment. As a committed follower, each disciple was expected to abandon any attachment with earthly commitments which might have hindered them from concentrating on the work of spreading of the gospel especially to the oppressed Jews. Because of such closeness, Matthew was able to gather first-hand information about the works of Jesus and report them according to his own observations. On the other hand, John who is believed to have written the book of John was also a disciple of Jesus Christ. He was also called by Jesus Christ to leave his normal life and join Him in spreading the good news to the Jews. This is recorded in the books of Matthew 4:21 and Mark 1:19-20. Just like Matthew, John was also present during the ministry of Jesus. Thus, he was in a better position to personally observe the activities of Jesus as He preached, casted out demons and performed miracles in order to win the hearts of the Jews. This is a clear indication that he was also one of the authors who would easily quote Jesus’ statements since he was actually present during the time when they were said. As a disciple, he would not need to rely on any other source of information. Instead, he only had to memorize or record whatever he had heard from Jesus whom he had been traveling with from one place to another (Brown 172). This made his work to be reliable since it did not pass through any third party. He was the actual witness who must have accurately recorded only what he heard or saw being done by Jesus Christ. By being part of Jesus’ ministry, these apostles were in a position of knowing everything that he did. Given that by this time, the culture of writing had not gained significance amongst the Jews, it would be quite challenging to find people who had recorded these actions. Therefore, by attending Jesus’ sermons and seeing Him perform miracles in different regions of Palestine, these disciples would get the most reliable information. Since they could see, they could as well remember and be able to write town when the time came for them to participate in the authorship of the Bible. This explains why most of the other Gospel or New Testament writers later relied on their works as a point of reference. As witnesses, they would be trusted as one of the most reliable sources of information for the writing of the New Testament. Accounts from Eye Witnesses Even if the New Testament has a total of 27 books, it is obviously accepted that all of their writers had first-hand information about whatever they were writing. While a few authors such as Matthew and John were giving accounts of their personal experiences, the rest of the writers had not been born by the time what they wrote happened. In other words, they later wrote about the historical events which actually happened long before they were born (Duling and Perrin 83). This implies that they did not see what happened, but had to rely on other people who had witnessed them happen during their lifetime. During the ministry of Jesus, there were lots of people who were attracted by His teaching. Wherever He went to, there would be hundreds of people listening to Him or following Him. At some points, He had to chase away some of them who wanted to join His disciples. Because of His popularity, He became a figure which everyone wanted to associate with. Thus, some would fill the roads where He would be passing through as He went about preaching to the people. For instance, during one time, He preached to a total of 5,000 men. This shows how many people liked His work. Unlike other preachers or teachers of the law, Jesus appealed to everyone especially the low class which the majority in any given society. Since He managed to attract a lot of people, it means that there was a very big number of those who witnessed Him preach and perform miracles. So, later, when the Bible was being authored, it is some of these people who were relied upon by the writers to account for them much about the work of Jesus Christ. Because they were with Him at the time of His ministry, they would be so resourceful to these authors to whom they narrated the story of Jesus and even gave them some of His quotes which they would have otherwise not known (Kelber 86). This is how some of the authors of the Bible who were not witnesses managed to know about what information to write. It is obvious that not everyone could be a witness. Hence, the few who were lucky to have first hand information transmitted it to the authors. This discussion does not only apply to the Gospel writers, but to any other author who contributed to the writing of other sections of the New such as the epistles. Although they did not see people like Jesus Christ, Paul, Peter, Stephen and other apostles preach to the people, they would still rely on the other third parties who were actually witnesses when these statements were made. May be they were among the congregation who saw or heard it from their accomplices who saw/heard it happen. It would be a good source of information because during the time of the early Church, the Jews heavily relied on oral tradition as the main method of transmitting information from one person to another. From Fellow Authors A part from personally observing or gathering evidence from those who were present during the teachings of Jesus Christ and the apostles, some writers still had to heavily borrow their content from their colleagues who had already written books in the Bible. This explains why most of the information in the New Testament especially the Gospels is similar (Brown 139). Since they had been inspired by God (through the power of the Holy Spirit) to participate in the writing of the Bible, some of the authors had no option, but to read the works of their colleagues then heavily borrow from them. Meaning, even if they were themselves not present and also had no eye witnesses to account for them whatever had happened, they would still be able to quote the apostles. However, some writers like Luke and Mark who were not apostles, but wrote books in the Bible, used their closeness to the apostles to gather information to include in their respective books. For instance, although Mark was not an apostle, he was very close to Saint Paul. He accompanied him to several places during his missionary journeys. This is recorded in Acts 12:25 and 2Timothy 4:11. Therefore, even though he personally had not experiences about Jesus, he would still acquire a lot of information from his mentor. The same applies to Luke who also travelled with Saint Paul until the end of his missionary journeys when everyone else had abandoned him (Kelber 80). Because of such closeness, these authors managed to gather important information which they included as part of the content of their books. Works Cited Brown, Raymond E. An Introduction to the New Testament. Anchor Bible Reference Library; New York: Doubleday, 2008. Print. Duling, Dennis C. and Perrin, Norman. The New Testament: Proclamation and Parenesis, Myth and History, 3d edition. New York: Harcourt Brace, 2000. Print. Kelber, W. H. The Oral and Written Gospel: The Hermeneutics of Speaking and Writing in the Synoptic Tradition, Mark, Paul, and Q. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005. Print. Read More