Did the New Testament Authors Tell the Truth?
The Second "E": Eye-Witness Testimony
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In the original post in this series I outlined The Five E’s and Three C’s of New Testament Reliability. In this post I will expound upon the second “E,” Eyewitness Testimony, and how it provides another strong line of evidence in support of the reliability of information given to us by the New Testament authors.
In the previous post we covered the Earliness of the New Testament documents and the base fact that reports that are recorded closer to the time of the event in question are generally considered more reliable than later accounts unless there is sufficient reason to call this into question. Related to the earliness of the New Testament documents is the fact that they were written either by eye-witnesses of Jesus’ life and ministry or by people in close proximity to eyewitnesses.
Eyewitnesses as Corroborators
The last well documented direct eyewitness of Jesus, the apostle John, is thought by many scholars to have died sometime in the mid to late 90’s A.D. The latest possible date for any of the New Testament documents is for the book of Revelation, written by John the apostle, in about 95 A.D.1 In other words, all of the documents in the New Testament which witness to Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection from the dead, were written in the time of the eye-witnesses of Christ. Keep in mind that there were far more eye-witnesses of Christ and his ministry than directly named in the New Testament; numbers easily reaching into the 10,000’s.
The large number of eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life and ministry, and the fact that all of the N.T. documents were composed within the time frame of those eyewitnesses, is a fact not to be ignored when considering their veracity. Why? Because every claim that the New Testament authors made about Jesus had the potential to be called into question by other eyewitnesses if what they said didn’t correspond with what was widely known and seen by thousands of other people.2 In fact, in the beginning of Christianity’s first few years the religion grew like wildfire in the very place with the greatest concentration of eye-witnesses to Jesus; Jerusalem.
It was in Jerusalem where Jesus was publicly crucified before the eyes of thousands of people from all over the Roman Empire during the Jewish festival known as Passover. The book of Acts, written by Luke the Evangelist, notes that from the time of Passover until another festival known as Pentecost many Jews had gathered from all over the Roman Empire to observe the celebration. Luke recorded that Jewish faithful such as “Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians”3 were all present in Jerusalem throughout this time.
The Crucifixion of Jesus, ordered by Pontius Pilate was not carried out privately, behind closed doors, rather it was a very public execution. The New Testament has four separate documents that give a direct witness to Jesus’ life, teaching, death, and resurrection. Matthew the Evangelist tells us about the very public nature of Christ’s crucifixion in his account.
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.
As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. 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!”
There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.4
How many people saw Jesus? No exact number is given, but what is obvious is that Jerusalem would have been crowded to max capacity for the Passover celebration and Jesus was forced to walk the streets, with his cross, to a hill called Golgotha for his public execution between two criminals. In just this account we note that a man from Cyrene (a city in north Africa, modern day Libya) was compelled to help Jesus carry his cross,5 just one of the many thousands of people who would have been crowding the streets to see what was going on during this unusually lively festival. Beyond the travelers to Passover we see that Jesus’ accusers were present, many of Jesus’ disciples were present, and we mustn’t forget that Pilate and many Roman soldiers were present.
Some years down the road the apostle Paul had the opportunity to give his testimony for Jesus before King Agrippa of Judea. Paul reminds the king that these things of which he is speaking “have not been done in a corner”6 but in the open for the whole world to see. It is facts like these, the undeniable witness of thousands and thousands of people to these facts, that led to the conversion of around 3,000 people7 after Peter’s first open air sermon to the people who had come to Jerusalem for Passover and Pentecost. The number just continued to grow rapidly from there to the extent that those who sought to oppose the growth of the church admitted that the message the Christians were preaching about Jesus’s Lordship and his being risen from the dead had “turned the world upside down.”8
Paul, when writing to the Corinthian Christians in his first letter, reminded the believers there that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection had been seen by many people, in many different places, in large groups, small groups, and in individual appearances.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.9
Paul’s letter was written c. 56 A.D., well within the age of the eyewitnesses. As he noted himself about the witnesses, “most of whom are still alive” as he was writing his letter. In other words, go ask for yourself, there are countless people who saw Jesus alive, crucified, and risen. A bold claim to make in a day when the vast majority of eye-witnesses are still alive if these things are not so.
Eyewitnesses and the N. T. Authorship
The four primary documents which directly sought to give an account of Jesus’ life, ministry, teaching, death, and resurrection are the Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The rest of the New Testament documents address the details concerning Jesus less directly (since most of them are about expounding on the principles of Jesus’ teaching and the Christian life) but they are no less valuable as they contain many statements that help corroborate these account (some examples of this have already been given above).
Of the four Gospel accounts two of them were written by Jesus’ immediate disciples/apostles. Matthew (also known as Levi) and John were both with Jesus from the beginning of his public ministry onward. They wrote from their immediate experiences with Jesus as they walked with him everyday for a period of at least three years.
Mark may have been with Jesus part of the time10 but, regardless, it is well documented by early extra-biblical sources that he was a close associate of Peter (one of Christ’s apostles) and that his Gospel was written in accordance with Peter’s teaching.11
Luke’s account is written from a fascinatingly different angle. He is the only gentile (meaning he was not a Jew) to become one of the New Testament authors. He is also, admittedly, later to the game. Luke was possibly converted under the ministry of the apostle Paul during one of his missionary journeys. In his preamble to his Gospel Luke wrote,
Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.12
Luke’s approach to writing his Gospel was to gather information from the eyewitnesses and make an orderly account from those testimonies. In other words, Luke played the role of investigative journalist and interviewed many people about these things and compiled their many accounts into one ordered narrative. This is much like someone might do (and as had been done) when interviewing men who fought in World War II about their experiences and then taking those stories and organizing them into a fluid account.
As for the rest of the New Testament documents:
Acts: Also written by Luke. Interestingly, if one pays close attention to this history of the growth of the church he or she will note the subtle shift in Luke’s language from third person narrative to first person plural. In other words, he describes the earlier events in Acts as what “they” did but later describes many events as what “we” did because he had become a member of the missionary party along the way.
Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and Hebrews13: These books, which make up the majority of the N. T. documents were written by Paul (Saul of Tarsus). Paul describes himself as “one untimely born” because his conversion and subsequent calling as an apostle of Jesus came after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Paul describes, numerous times, his conversion experience. On the road to Damascus, with letters in hand from the high priest and ruling council of the Jews (the Sanhedrin) to arrest Christians for preaching Jesus’ resurrection, he was confronted by Christ himself.
But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; and taking food, he was strengthened.
For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?” But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.14
So Paul’s eyewitness account of Jesus is certainly unique, being a later encounter with Christ, but as it comes to his teaching about Jesus’ life and ministry he made sure that he got the details right. How? By going to the original eyewitness and checking his facts against them. In his letter to the Galatians he explains how he went to the apostles in Jerusalem to lay before them the gospel message he had been preaching since his conversion, meeting James, Peter, and John among other eyewitnesses, and he tells the Galatians that they “added nothing to me.” In other words, they affirmed he had the facts correct.
James: This book was written by Jesus’ half brother (the full son of Joseph and Mary) who became the leader of the Jerusalem church. Jude is another New Testament document written by one of Jesus’ half brothers. One really interesting point to note is that Jesus’ own brothers did not believe in him during his ministry. Mark’s Gospel tells us that when Jesus’ family heard of the great crowds that had come to him “they went out to seize him, for they were saying, ‘He is out of his mind.’”15 Matthew records that Jesus’ affirmed that his true family were those who believed in him, rather than mere flesh and blood.
While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”16
John’s account tells us also “For not even his brothers believed in him.”17
It’s reasonable to ask, what has to happen to make James and Jude go from thinking their brother is insane, claiming to be God in flesh and the Messiah, to advocating these claims themselves? What would have to happen in your life before you started believing your sibling was God? What would make James go from believer to introducing himself as “a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ”18 and Jude as “a slave of Jesus Christ and brother of James?”19 Only Jesus’ resurrection makes sense of this dramatic change in the life of two of the closest (and longest standing) eyewitnesses to Jesus.
1 & 2 Peter: Written by the apostle Peter, who oversaw Mark’s Gospel, a direct eyewitness and one of Jesus’ closest apostles. Peter, John and James the sons of Zebedee (a different James than the one who wrote the letter mentioned above) often spent more alone time with Jesus than did the other apostles. They were with him for the event known as the transfiguration (Matthew 17) and they were with him in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-46). Their closeness to Jesus, even beyond his other close disciples, allowed them to witness several important events that few others did.
1, 2, 3 John & Revelation: John, the son of Zebedee, who wrote the Gospel bearing his name also wrote these four documents. His Gospel contains much information that is unique to his specific account. This can be accounted for by two facts. First, he was as noted above closer to Jesus than many of the other disciples (as Matthew affirms in his Gospel). Second, John was the last of the apostles. He outlived everyone else and would have been aware of the other three accounts and he likely felt it important to record other details which had not yet been preserved in writing but had only been taught orally up to that point.
The Value of Eyewitness Accounts
The fact that all of the New Testament documents were written in the time of the many eyewitnesses allows for them to have been checked and critiqued if need be. The claims made by them would have struggled to gain the traction they did if they could have been gainsaid by thousands of people but, contrary to this, they were found to be undeniable by the countless eyewitnesses. Hence the thousands of conversions right at the outset of the gospel’s proclamation by Peter (to the eyewitnesses).
All of the claims about Jesus’ teaching and life made by later accounts such as the faux Gospels of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, the claims of the Qur’an in the 7th century, or of any of the cults like The Latter Day Saints in the 1800’s lack the credibility of being written by eyewitnesses in the time of other eyewitnesses.
Eyewitness accounts have always been, and remain, important when establishing the truth of what happened at a particular event. In court cases eyewitnesses are often the most critical part of establishing the facts of a case. Often convictions are gained by only one or two eyewitness accounts, but clearly the number of eyewitnesses for the life of Jesus are well beyond this. How does one contradict the consistent testimony of so many people? If, in a modern court case, a prosecuting attorney could put 500+ people on the stand who all would say that they witnessed the same event, what jury could ignore this? The attempts to account for the evidence surrounding Jesus’ death and resurrection in some other way have failed utterly. There is simply too much in favor of the accounts given, as they were given.
The New Testament documents are very early witnesses to Jesus, and they are written by eyewitnesses or close associates thereof, in the time of eyewitnesses, and this should hold great weight when considering the reliability of the New Testament authors reports.
There are, however, some good arguments for a significantly earlier date. Some scholars make the case for Revelation being written c. 68 A.D. prior to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman general Titus in 70 A.D.
It is not for no reason that the extant spurious Gospels of Christ were all written in the second and third centuries, years after the death of the last eye-witnesses. The circulation of these pseudonymous documents, with their outlandish claims about the person of Jesus, his words and activities, would have been quickly squelched if put forward in the time of the eye-witnesses. The bold and bizarre claims of The Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Judas, and other 2nd-3rd century false accounts of Jesus’ life and teachings would have gained no audience if they had been presented earlier.
Acts 2:9-11a
Matthew 27:27-56
The cross would not only have been heavy, but Jesus had been rather brutally beaten prior to his procession to his death.
Acts 26:26
Acts 2:41
Acts 17:6
1 Corinthians 15:3-11
Some scholars think the young man in Mark 14:51-52 is a reference to Mark himself.
Eusebius’ Church History (c. 315 A.D.) is one good source that affirms Mark wrote under Peter’s teaching.
Luke 1:1-4
Many modern scholars, even conservative ones, think Paul is not the author of Hebrews. Nevertheless this was the consistent position of the early church and I think the arguments against Pauline authorship are unconvincing personally. Perhaps a post for another time.
Acts 9:1-22
Mark 3:21
Matthew 12:46-50
John 7:5
James 1:1
Jude 1:1
Thank you so much. Excellent teaching. One of the courses I took at Ligonier Ministries was "The New Testament Canon" by Dr. Michael J. Kruger.
In that course he addresses how critical scholars have popularized the idea that the canon was arbitrarily imposed on Christians in the 4th and 5th centuries in an effort to elevate one form of Christianity above others. He covers the rigorous process employed by biblical scholars and early church leaders to set the criteria for what should be in the cannon of officially recognized scripture, what should be left out and how the decisions were made.
It was one of the most inspiring and enlightening courses I've ever taken on the validity of scripture. Your teaching in this series does not waiver from Dr. Kruger's course. Thank you again.
Here is a link to the first part of a video version of the Ligonier course. I think it's 10 bucks for a download of the full content. Well worth the price.
https://www.ligonier.org/learn/series/new-testament-canon/the-problem-of-canon
Good job Jacob! Just going to leave the obligatory Catholic perpetual virginity of Mary post here. (Details omitted because we all know how this argument goes, and no one really wants to have it again).