Comparison of the Bible with other ancient historical documents as to their historicity.

1. TheBibleasHistory:
Luke,JohnandActs

2. There are many biblical minimalists – skeptics - out
there, particularly in academia. And many of them,
such as Rudolf Bultman, Julius Wellhausen, and Bart
Ehrman, are recognized as authorities on the Bible.
It seems every year at Christmas or Easter, we see
magazine or tv articles questioning the historical
accuracy and general authority of scripture. Books
likeThe DaVinci Code make bestseller lists. We have
groups like the Jesus Seminar making
pronouncements undercutting the reliability of the
Biblical text.

3. NEWS FLASH:These groups are not using equitable
standards when assessing the Biblical texts!! But, if
we examine the Bible by the same historical
standards as other texts of approximately the same
era, how does the Bible compare? This question will
be our topic for study tonight.

4. Historians use the following criteria when assessing the reliability of
ancient texts:
1. Documentary Style – Is the text written with intent of conveying
historical facts?

5. Historians use the following criteria when assessing the reliability of
ancient texts:
1. Documentary Style – Is the text written with intent of conveying
historical facts?
2. ReliableTransmission – Has the text been reliably copied and
transmitted?

6. Historians use the following criteria when assessing the reliability of
ancient texts:
1. Documentary Style – Is the text written with intent of conveying
historical facts?
2. ReliableTransmission – Has the text been reliably copied and
transmitted?
3. Date of Original Composition – How close to the date of the
events is the date of the writing of the original text?

7. Historians use the following criteria when assessing the reliability of
ancient texts:
1. Documentary Style – Is the text written with intent of conveying
historical facts?
2. ReliableTransmission – Has the text been reliably copied and
transmitted?
3. Date of Original Composition – How close to the date of the
events is the date of the writing of the original text?
4. External Corroborating Evidences –What other evidences do we
have to support the statements within the text?

8. Historians use the following criteria when assessing the reliability of
ancient texts:
1. Documentary Style – Is the text written with intent of conveying
historical facts?
2. ReliableTransmission – Has the text been reliably copied and
transmitted?
3. Date of Original Composition – How close to the date of the
events is the date of the writing of the original text?
4. External Corroborating Evidences –What other evidences do we
have to support the statements within the text?
5. Character ofWitnesses - Are they reliable?

9. DOCUMENTARY STYLE

10. DOCUMENTARY STYLE
Here Luke is obviously stating his intent to deliver historical
facts to his readers! He had interviewed witnesses and set
out to write an orderly account of the events surrounding
Jesus’ life. And he filled his text with facts:

11. DOCUMENTARY STYLE

12. RELIABLETRANSMISSION
How far back can we go and still have copies of the originals? Let’s
look at the NewTestament.
• CodexVaticanus -complete Bible – 300’s AD
• Codex Alexandrinus – complete Bible - 400’s AD
• Chester Beatty Papyri – large sections of NT – 150 AD
• John Rylands fragment – portions of John 18 – 90-125 AD (Egypt)
• Magdalen Papyrus - Matthew 26:23 and 31 – 71-100 AD (Thiede)
• Over 15 other fragments – within 150 years of composition

13. RELIABLETRANSMISSION
How many copies do we have of the Biblical text?
• We have over 5,700 Greek manuscripts, over 10,000 Latin
manuscripts, and over 15,000 in other languages such as Syriac,
Coptic, Slavic, Ethopic, and Armenian.
How does this compare to other ancient texts?
• < 2400 Homer’s works; written in 800 BC; earliest manuscripts 250
AD, 1050 years after his composition.
• Caesar’s GallicWars; written ~ 55 BC; earliest manuscripts ~ 850 AD,
900 years after composition.
• Tacitus (Roman historian); wrote ~ 100 AD; earliest copies 900 AD
(only 2 still exist)
• History byThucydides; written 430 BC; earliest copies 900 AD, over
1300 years later (only 8 survive)

14. EARLY COMPOSITION
We’re going to look at the date of the composition of Luke and Acts. Acts
first, since, if we can know the date of the composition of Acts, we also
know Luke is earlier.
So, was Acts composed early? What do we know that would indicate that
it was?
• Luke got all the small details right!! (“You would have had to have been
there” principle – such minutia soon forgotten)
-- Acts 28; Paul on Malta; Publius, Chief Man of the Island; 1st Century
inscription
-- Roman jurisdictions – Legate (emperor) and Proconsul (senate);
changed over time; multiple references; Luke got them all right
-- Luke 3:1, 2 Lysanias, tetrarch of Abilene

15. EARLY COMPOSITION
“Conspicuous Silence” in Acts
-- there is no mention war before fall of Jerusalem – 66-70 AD
-- there is no mention martyrdoms, of James (61), Paul (64) or Peter (66)
(extraBiblical evidence these died in the early to mid-60s)
-- tone toward the Roman occupiers in Acts is peaceable; not at all hostile
CONCLUSIONS:
Acts was completed before 61 AD
Luke was completed before Acts; ie, in the mid-50s AD, within 25 years
of the events recorded!

16. EXTERNAL CORROBORATION
For external corroborating evidence, we are going to turn to the Gospel
of John, the gospel considered to be the least historic.
PLACES

17. EXTERNAL CORROBORATION
For external corroborating evidence, we are going to turn to the Gospel
of John, the gospel considered to be the least historic.
PLACES
1. John 4:5 Sychar and Jacob’s well

18. EXTERNAL CORROBORATION
For external corroborating evidence, we are going to turn to the Gospel
of John, the gospel considered to be the least historic.
PLACES
1. John 4:5 Sychar and Jacob’s well
2. John 5:2, 3 Bethesda Pool

19. EXTERNAL CORROBORATION
For external corroborating evidence, we are going to turn to the Gospel
of John, the gospel considered to be the least historic.
PLACES
1. John 4:5 Sychar and Jacob’s well
2. John 5:2, 3 Bethesda Pool
3. John 6:59 Capernaum synagogue

20. EXTERNAL CORROBORATION
For external corroborating evidence, we are going to turn to the Gospel
of John, the gospel considered to be the least historic.
PLACES
1. John 4:5 Sychar and Jacob’s well
2. John 5:2, 3 Bethesda Pool
3. John 6:59 Capernaum synagogue
4. John 9:6, 7 Pool of Siloam

21. EXTERNAL CORROBORATION
For external corroborating evidence, we are going to turn to the Gospel
of John, the gospel considered to be the least historic.
PLACES
1. John 4:5 Sychar and Jacob’s well
2. John 5:2, 3 Bethesda Pool
3. John 6:59 Capernaum synagogue
4. John 9:6, 7 Pool of Siloam
5. John 11 Cave tombs

22. EXTERNAL CORROBORATION
For additional external corroborating evidence, let’s turn to all the
gospels.
PEOPLE
1. Herod the Great
-- Matthew 2:16 “Massacre of the Innocents” - Josephus
-- “I would rather be Herod's pig than his son.” Macrobius,
Roman writer
-- paranoid – killed several members of his own family for fear
of losing power, including 2 sons
-- image on coins
-- built at least 11 palaces; enlargedTemple Mount,Temple

23. EXTERNAL CORROBORATION
For additional external corroborating evidence, let’s turn to all the
gospels.
PEOPLE
2. Romans 16:23 Erastus, Corinth’s director of public works

24. EXTERNAL CORROBORATION
For additional external corroborating evidence, let’s turn to all the
gospels.
THINGS
1. Stoneware – John 2:6

25. EXTERNAL CORROBORATION
For additional external corroborating evidence, let’s turn to all the
gospels.
THINGS
1. Stoneware – John 2:6
2. James ossuary

26. EXTERNAL CORROBORATION
For additional external corroborating evidence, let’s turn to all the
gospels.
THINGS
1. Stoneware – John 2:6
2. James ossuary
3. Caiaphas ossuary

27. RELIABILITY OFWITNESSES
1. The disciples/apostles obviously believed they had seen Jesus risen.
This fact is confirmed by several extrabiblical sources.
2. Jesus’ disciples stood to gain nothing by being false witnesses.
They stood to loose their families (disowned by their Jewish
families), homes, and their lives.
3. Eleven of the 12 disciples are reported to have been martyred for
their beliefs concerning Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection rather
than recant. Some accounts are historic; some are tradition.
4. Witnesses may give their lives for things for which they have been
deceived, but these witnesses had every opportunity to know all
the facts concerning these matters.
5. Based upon these factors, we have no reason to doubt the veracity
of these witnesses nor those who recorded their histories.

28. We started tonight’s study with the question: If we
examine the Bible by the same historical standards as
other texts of approximately the same era, how does
the Bible compare?
Based upon the historical criteria, how has the Bible
fared as compared to other texts?
If those other texts are treated as good history, why,
from a scholarly approach, should the Bible be
treated any differently?

29. CONCLUSIONS:
There is a large body of evidences from outside the
Bible, from archaeological sources, from
documentary historical sources, that the NT
documents are accurate. The Biblical texts were
composed early and are written in a documentary
style.We’ve got good reason to believe they were
copied accurately. More and more key figures
mentioned in the Biblical text are being confirmed as
figures of history. The authors were there at the time
of the events described in the NT and recorded what
they saw and knew accurately.