A Woman's Guide to Knowing What You Believe by Patty Houser

Author:Patty Houser [Houser, Patty]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL012130, REL067030, Christian women—Religious life, Theology, Doctrinal Theology
ISBN: 9781441228840
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2015-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

In fact, the early church fathers cited the New Testament so much that even if there were no surviving Greek manuscripts in existence today, the entire New Testament, with the exception of eleven verses, could be re-created from the scriptural citations of these early church fathers.13

It’s clear by the sheer number of times the early church fathers cited the New Testament that they viewed it as God’s sacred Word that was accurate, authentic, and reliable.

Finally, we want to look at whether or not other historical documents written by people outside the faith confirm or deny the reliability of the New Testament.

Non-Christian Support

If other works of antiquity corroborate the events in the New Testament, works written by people who had no ulterior motive to fabricate the events, then there is good reason to believe the New Testament is reliable. Were there any such works?

Yes. For instance, Tacitus, a Roman historian considered to be one of the most accurate ancient historians, recorded that Pontius Pilate ordered Jesus to be crucified (Annals). He even implicitly stated that there were people who truly believed Jesus rose from the dead. In addition, Suetonius, Emperor Hadrian’s chief secretary, wrote about the Romans kicking the Jews out of Rome because of the continuous quarrels and conflicts they had about Jesus. Furthermore, Josephus, a Pharisee and ancient Jewish historian who worked under Roman authority, wrote that Jesus was a teacher, miracle worker, and charismatic man with a group of followers who followed Him while He was alive and continued to follow Him even after His death.

In addition, the following New Testament events were documented by people outside the faith:14

John the Baptist was martyred.

James, Jesus’ brother, was martyred.

Jesus was from Nazareth.

Jesus lived a righteous life.

Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate, during the reign of Tiberius Caesar, during Passover, and He was thought to be the Jewish King.

There was an eclipse of the sun at the very moment Jesus died.

Jesus’ disciples truly believed that Jesus rose from the dead the third day after He died.

Jesus performed miracles others called “sorcery.”

Jesus’ followers quickly multiplied and were as far-reaching as Rome.

Jesus’ disciples refused to worship anyone else as God.

Jesus’ disciples lived moral lives.

Jesus’ disciples worshiped Jesus as God.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.