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The New Testament is Reliable

You ever stop and wonder, how do we know the New Testament is a reliable source of information about Jesus?

The New Testament is Reliable

Here are the top 7 reasons why scholars say the New Testament is reliable.

1. Critical Scholars and Early Dates

No serious scholar thinks the gospels were written hundreds of years later.

Even the leading skeptic, Bart Erhman, puts them all in the 1st century AD.[1] And he dates Mark to within 3½ decades from Jesus.

  • Matthew – 80-85 CE
  • Mark – 70 CE – as early as 36 years from Jesus!
  • Luke – 80-85 CE
  • John – 90-95 CE

But there are other scholars who go much earlier.

John A. T. Robinson, who shaped liberal Christian scholarship, dated Matthew and John to as early as 40 AD.[2] If true, this would put the writings to within 7 years from Jesus’s resurrection!

  • Matthew – AD 40 to about AD 60 – as early as 7 years from Jesus!
  • Mark – about AD 45 to AD 60 – as early as 12 years from Jesus!
  • Luke – before AD 57 to 60AD
  • John – about AD 40 to 65AD – as early as 7 years from Jesus!

2. Gospel Nucleus Dates Very Early

Even if we didn’t know anything about the dates of the gospels, we can still date the nucleus of the gospel to within months of the resurrection.

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul talks about a creed that he received. The creed is that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and was raised on the third day. And he appeared to Cephas, the Twelve, and over 500 people at once.

Most historians date this creed at 30-35 AD[3]. One scholar goes on to say that this “was formulated as tradition within months of Jesus’ death.”[4]

All of this shows the resurrection isn’t a legend that developed after many centuries.

3. Scholars and Jesus’s Existence

There’s near universal consensus among scholars that Jesus existed. And his crucifixion is even mentioned outside the Bible.

Here are two examples.

There’s a Jewish historian named Josephus who wrote in A.D. 94 and said Jesus was a teacher with a large following. And Pilate condemned him to the cross.[5]

There’s also a Roman historian named Tacitus who wrote around 116. He called the resurrection a ‘superstition’ because he was an unbeliever but confirmed that Jesus lived during the reign of Tiberius, he was executed by Pontius Pilate, the church started in Judea and made its way to Rome.[6]

4. Copyists Were Experienced Scribes

In general, the people copying the New Testament letters weren’t amateurs.[7]

Different scholars have studied the manuscript styles to try to gauge the skill level of these copyists.

One study from 2016 concluded this: “the vast majority of the Christian papyri were copied by trained scribes.”[8]

They also weren’t in the habit of changing the text and writing whatever they wanted. There were some exceptions,[9] but generally, they were very careful to faithfully reproduce the letters as best they could.[10]

5. Many Details Have Been Confirmed

The gospels and other New Testament letters are rich in detail. We find names of cities and rulers, and read about the people and traditions of that day. Archaeology has confirmed many of the people and places.

For example, there are over 100 precise details in the book of Acts that have been confirmed.[11]

  • Correctly named ports (Acts 13:4-5)
  • To correct language spoken in Lystra—Lycaonian (14:11)
  • Cultural association of two gods—Zeus and Hermes (14:12)
  • Correct order of approach from Cilician Gates into Derbe, then Lystra (16:1; 15:41)
  • Description of Philippi as Roman colony (16:12)
  • The altar to an “unknown god” (17:23)
  • Ananias being high priest at that time (23:2)
  • The right route to sail in view of the winds (27:7)
  • Over 100 details confirmed

It’s extremely reliable. And the person who wrote Acts is the same person who wrote the Gospel of Luke.

6. Evidence About Who Wrote the Gospels

Papias said around 95-110 AD that Mark wrote his gospel from the notes he took while listening to Peter.

“Mark, having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote accurately what he remembered (or recorded) of the things said or done by Christ…”[12]

Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian all said Luke was the author of his gospel. And they’re all from the second century AD.[13]

Irenaeus also said a disciple of John named Polycarp told him that John wrote his gospel in Ephesus.[14]

All this lines up with the claims inside the gospels that they’re eyewitness testimony.

For example, the person who wrote John’s gospel claims to be an eyewitness in John 21. He gave many details like how Jews and Samaritans didn’t get along, how Jacob’s well was in a town called Sychar in Samaria, how it was noon when Jesus came to this well and he was hungry. The amount of detail throughout his gospel suggests he really was an eyewitness.

And Luke says the other gospels writers who weren’t eyewitnesses compiled their gospels from those who were (Luke 1:1-4).

7. More Manuscripts than Any Other Ancient Text

Yes, there are many differences between the manuscripts because they were copied by hand, and not all manuscripts are as early as others, but we can be confident that we know what the original message was.

One New Testament scholar puts it this way:

“we are better situated to reconstruct the original of the New Testament than that of any other ancient book.”[15]

What it comes down to is this: “if you don’t think you can trust the New Testament text, then you really can’t trust any ancient text.”[16]

Conclusion

These 7 points convince many that the New Testament is a reliable collection of letters. And if it’s reliable, then Christians have all the more reason to place their faith and trust in the one these letters speak about: Jesus Christ.

Sources

  1. Bart Ehrman, “A Synopsis of Each New Testament Book,” The Bart Ehrman Blog, last modified November 11, 2019, accessed May 13, 2022, https://ehrmanblog.org/a-synopsis-of-each-new-testament-book/. ↑
  2. John A. T. Robinson, Redating the New Testament (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976), 352. ↑
  3. For a good sample, see “Does the ‘1 Corinthians 15 Creed’ Date to about AD 30?” BeliefMap.org. Accessed May 13, 2022. https://beliefmap.org/bible/1-corinthians/15-creed/date#historians. ↑
  4. James Dunn, Jesus Remembered (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), 855, emphasis theirs. ↑
  5. Not all details from Josephus here are accepted, but the majority of scholars hold to this minimal data. Michael R. Licona, The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach (Downers Grove, IL; Nottingham, England: IVP Academic; Apollos, 2010), 235-242. ↑
  6. Ibid., 242, 243. ↑
  7. Zachary J. Cole, “Myths about Copyists: The Scribes Who Copied Our Earliest Manuscripts,” in Myths and Mistakes in New Testament Textual Criticism, ed. Elijah Hixson and Peter J. Gurry (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2019), 134-144. ↑
  8. Alan Mugridge, Copying Early Christian Texts: A Study of Scribal Practice (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2016), 147 in Elijah Hixson and Peter J. Gurry, eds., Myths and Mistakes in New Testament Textual Criticism (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2019), 139. ↑
  9. Peter J. Gurry, “Myths about Variants : Why Most Variants Are Insignificant and Why Some Can’t Be Ignored,” in Myths and Mistakes in New Testament Textual Criticism, ed. Elijah Hixson and Peter J. Gurry (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2019), 209. ↑
  10. Zachary J. Cole, “Myths about Copyists: The Scribes Who Copied Our Earliest Manuscripts,” in Myths and Mistakes in New Testament Textual Criticism, ed. Elijah Hixson and Peter J. Gurry (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2019), 146-150. ↑
  11. Colin J. Hemer, The Book of Acts in the Setting of Hellenistic History, ed. Conrad H. Gempf (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1990). ↑
  12. Papias in J. H. Farmer, “Mark, the Gospel According To,” ed. James Orr et al., The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (Chicago: The Howard-Severance Company, 1915), 1989. ↑
  13. Mark Strauss, “Who Wrote the Gospels, and How Do We Know for Sure?,” Zondervan Academic, accessed May 14, 2022, https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/who-wrote-gospels. ↑
  14. Ibid. ↑
  15. James B. Prothro, “Myths about Classical Literature: Responsibly Comparing the New Testament to Ancient Works,” in Myths and Mistakes in New Testament Textual Criticism, ed. Elijah Hixson and Peter J. Gurry (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2019), 85. ↑
  16. Ibid., 84, emphasis theirs. ↑