Are the Gospels Reliable?
Background
Introduction
“The Gospels are biased”, “The Bible is just a big game of Telephone”, “The story of Jesus is just a myth”, “The Bible is corrupted”. I am sure you heard one of these or a similar objection from either friends, family, or strangers. This can seem hard to answer, especially considering Jesus would have walked the early 2000 years ago. How can those stories have survived intact today without any corruption or changes?
The good news is, that you can be very confident that the Bible and more specifically the Gospels are very reliable, and we have more textual evidence available to us than most other ancient writings.
This objection is purely an intellectual one, with that in mind, it is still important to be graceful when answering this question. You can do this by acknowledging that this is a common objection, and definitely share if you have had questioned this before as well. From there you can go into answering this question, and there are many ways to do it. Ultimately this wont be about winning an argument, but just presenting information they may not have heard before, or have been misinformed on, as there is a lot of misinformation regarding this online. Aim to leave them with something to think about.
What The Bible Says
When explaining why the Bible or Gospels are reliable, what we want to do it avoid quoting the bible in terms of things it claims. This is because we have not yet proven the Bible or Gospels to be reliable, so any claims the Bible makes will fall flat to the objector.
One primary verse that should absolutely be avoided is:
This verse to someone who does not feel that the Bible is trustworthy will find this circular and self affirming which is not beneficial for discussing or providing evidence. Additionally in context, Paul would have been writing this describing the Old Testament (Tanakh) as the New Testament would not have been established yet. It is a good verse overall, but not for this objection.
Let us look at some verses that actually help us in this discussion so you can understand.
Eyewitness Claims
2 Timothy 3:16 — “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness”
Luke 1:1-4 — “In as much 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.”
John 21:24a — “This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things”
Mark 8:31-33 — “And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
Embarrassing Claims
Luke 24:8-10 — “And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles”
Early Creeds
1 Corinthians 15:3-8 — “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.”*
*Most Bible Scholars (including critical/secular ones) affirm that this creed was likely an oral tradition that was widely recited within the first 5 years of the Resurrection. Some argue Paul likely received it when he met with Peter and others for the first time around 3 years after Christ’s death. Some scholars hold the view that it may even be as early as 2 months post resurrection.
How to Answer
Approach
Begin by acknowledging that this is a very common objection, and again if you have also had doubts about this, share that story, and use it to transition into the content below that is relevant to you. Again you shouldn’t be looking to “Win”, instead you are sharing details that they may never have heard or thought of.
This objection often times has two flavors. One is an objection to the content not being truthful, and the other to the content being changed over time. If it isn’t clear which direction the objector is going, feel free to ask questions to get clarity so you can answer the real objection they have.
Responding to the content not being truthful:
A good portion of the objections you will see will object to the content not being truthful. Many people may challenge that either Jesus is a myth, or the disciples made up a story for fame or fortune. However these are baseless claims for multiple reasons and we will dive into that right now.
You can take a few approaches to start the discussion, but working inside out is very practical as you want to show that the text does not fit the bill for fiction, and then you can support it with extrabiblical content.
IN:
The Gospel of Luke in chapter 1 demonstrates that Luke had taken great care in interviewing the eyewitnesses available to him, and writing an accurate account based upon the available testimony, all within a few decades of the events.
Additionally the Gospel accounts include embarrassing and unexpected details that would be unlikely to exist if the accounts were made up. We see Jesus rebuking Peter and calling him Satan, as well as Peter denying knowing Christ 3 times after Jesus was seized. Beyond that in context of ancient Israel, the testimony of a woman would have been seen as less valuable overall, and in some legal cases were not even allowed to give testimony, yet in the Gospel accounts we see women as the first witnesses to the empty tomb.
Also, we can see early creeds, such as the one in 1 Corinthians 15 which were oral recitations that confirmed the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. The nature of the creed and Paul sharing that it had been given to him suggests it was spreading very early, and likely was shared with Paul when he first met with Peter and others, about 3 years after the events.
Finally, differences in similar accounts across the 4 Gospels actually speak to authenticity between eyewitness testimonies. Detectives today note that the same exact story told by witnesses and suspects correlates to collusion rather than an authentic testimony. The fact that the Gospel accounts differ show they are independent and the story wasn’t “planned” out together.
OUT:
Outside of the Gospels you can find a strong number of sources by ancient standards corroborating the existence of Jesus and the events portrayed in the Gospels. You can find Roman Historian Tacitus speaking about Jesus being executed by Pontius Pilate, and “a most mischievous superstition” rising in Judea and Rome. You have Jewish Historian Josephus writing about Jesus’ crucifixion, and affirming that he was referred to as “the Christ” and had a brother named James
Archaeologic evidences help support people and places recorded in the Gospels as being true history. The “Pilate Stone” presents that Pontius Pilate was a real prefect of Judea. Archeology has discovered ruins matching the description of the “Pool of Bethesda”, which was thought to have not existed given no known pools in Jerusalem matched the description or had the unusual architecture described in the Gospel.
Responding to the content not being changed:
Opponents of Christianity often will describe the Bible being put together like a giant “Game of Telephone”, or will say the original text has been changed or corrupted, often times pointing at King James as the culprit. The reality is, we can be confident that our Bibles today are true to what the original text might have said. Lets find out why.
The New Testament is the best attested ancient work both in manuscript quantity (over 24,000 manuscripts), and dating to the originals (some within 30 years)
We have 3 full New Testament Codex’s that date within the 300-400s. These Codex’s, Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, and Alexandrinus, match the New Testament we have today nearly in its entirety, the differences are mostly minor, and even critical scholars affirm that these differences do not impact/change core doctrines.
If someone wants further clarification on how so many manuscripts help but don’t hurt our case you can use this description typically attributed to Wes Huff:
Think of the manuscripts as a puzzle, its not that we have 90% of the puzzle, its more like we have 120%, what textual critics can do is see which pieces belong to the puzzle, which are duplicates, and which are pieces that belong to a completely different puzzle.
If someone wants further clarification on how the manuscripts were copied to ensure there were no errors:
We can see from the manuscripts that we have, that scribes took great care when copying texts. This is demonstrated via added notes, decorative markings to denote certain thoughts, and also occasionally space left open in case a debated text was deemed original.
Additional Content and Comments/Notes
Much of the content not being truthful arguments are also partial arguments for the Resurrection being true. As such ensuring you are familiar with “The Case for the Resurrection” is useful for this discussion, as well as it being helpful for both demonstrating Jesus’ Divinity, as well as “Does God Exist?” objections.
Additional Resources
Worksheets
Feel free to use any and all worksheets below for yourself or in an apologetics group setting
Videos
Some good video resources created by others that may benefit you. If you come across a video reacting to someone, pause it after the objection is made, and try out answering the question yourself before the reactor responds.
Apologetics Canada: Can I trust the Bible Playlist (Multiple Videos)
Frank Turek responds to a student challenging the Bibles Reliability (9 minutes)
Stand to Reason: Are the Gospels Reliable History? (9 minutes)
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