The Authenticity of the Gospels by Peter L P Simpson

Author:Peter L P Simpson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion/Biblical Criticism & Interpretation/New Testament/Language Arts & Disciplines/Authorship/translating & interpreting
Publisher: Elm Hill
Published: 2019-02-13T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 4

EXTERNAL HISTORICAL EVIDENCE

Section 1: Matters of Principle

What then about the extrinsic and historical evidence for the dating and authorship of the Gospels since, as noted, rejection of the ancient evidence is integral to the historical critical method? Indeed, if this evidence were accepted, while there would still be questions about the artistry or literary critical elements of the Gospels (of the sort that scholars and theologians have long discussed and answered in different ways), there would be none about how these elements are to be mined for constructing theories about dating and authorship. The ancient evidence would already have answered such questions, at least as to the basic fact if not as to all the details.

The rejection of the ancient evidence is curious, and first because it is comparatively recent. Up until about the 1600s this evidence was considered to be decisive. What happened or changed for the view of the ancient evidence to change? The short answer is the rationalism that led to the rejection of the supernatural, as is evident particularly in Spinoza.74 The original rationalism of Spinoza has long since been dismissed, but the rejection of the supernatural, and the limitation, or rather reduction, of the natural to the materially scientific has remained. The limitation has no warrant.

There is no good reason to suppose that the material or natural sciences are adequate to the whole of experienced reality, or to suppose that, because the natural sciences do not concern themselves with what transcends natural causes, therefore the supernatural does not exist. The limits of these sciences are built into their method and are legitimate as far as they go. What is not legitimate is to make merely methodological posits into an ontological principle. To do so has no justification in fact or reason. Not in reason because whether there is anything supernatural in the world is a matter of empirical evidence, and reason must follow the evidence not rule some of it out a priori. Not in fact because there is plenty of empirical evidence of supernatural things happening both now and in the past.75 Such evidence needs to be weighed carefully, of course, but whether the evidence stands up to examination is something that presupposes the collection of the evidence, and one cannot, without begging the question, reject some of the evidence from the collection because it does not fit the theory one prefers. The theory must be determined by the evidence, not the evidence by the theory. On this point Leo XIII was again percipient:

higher criticism will resolve itself into the reflection of the bias and the prejudice of the critics… and seeing that most of them are tainted with false philosophy and rationalism, it must lead to the elimination from the sacred writings of all prophecy and miracle, and of everything else that is outside the natural order.76

In support of this argument, and to confirm the oddity of the attitude taken toward the historical evidence by practitioners of the historical critical method, it is worth quoting some of their more telling remarks.

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