II.

Historical Reliability

By historical reliability I mean, does the book present what really happened, Is it the record of earliest Christians concerning the Jesus they knew and loved? 

There are two main ways of testing historical reliability with ancient documents: first is the manuscript evidence itself- are there physical documents early enough to realistically document these things? Related to this is the additional factor of are the documents referred to in other literature contemporary to the literature being examined. These kinds of literary evidence are called external evidence. The second way is called internal evidence: Do the contents of the documents fit the time, place and events in which they have their setting?

First of all, the manuscripts for the New Testament’s presentation of Jesus are early. Actual copies of the New Testament documents exist within 100-150 years of the events, and writings of second generation Christians have survived that fill that gap by quoting and paraphrasing most of the New Testament writings, so that we can know with certainty that the major New Testament writings were written well within the first century during the lifetimes of the Apostles of Jesus.

Also, when you look at the cultural setting that these writings present, it is clearly a 1^st century setting. The people, places, and events mentioned all fit with 1^st century Palestine as we know of it from other literature and archaeology, rather than 2^nd century Palestine or later. From other finds such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, and other surviving Jewish, Roman, and Greek literature, the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament make sense in the first century- with the political issues of that day, with the theological thinking of that day, and with the social and cultural customs of that day.  Because of this, and the manuscript evidence that also confirms this, we can take the New Testament presents to us the testimony of the earliest Christians concerning Jesus.  In the last century, many skeptical scholars tried to defend views that the Gospels were written well after the lives of the 1^st generation of Christians. Because of the discoveries of early manuscripts, the testimony of the second generation of Christians, and the way the Gospels fit the 1^st century setting such views can no longer be realistically defended.

The earliest Christians believed that Jesus was the true Messiah of Israel. They believed He performed the miracles recorded in the gospels. They also believe that He rose physically from the dead after being crucified at the hands of the Romans. And most controversially, they believed that these things demonstrated that He was the universal Lord and Savior of mankind, and that He somehow was Israel’s God, Yahweh, who had personally entered history and made atonement for mankind’s sins.

Perhaps the most important way this can be seen is in how Jesus presented Himself as Israel’s Messiah.  The Jews of the 1^st century were expecting a person with the title of Messiah.  With this, they had developed different views of what kind of a person this Messiah would be.