Historicity of the New

Testament

Does it Matter?
Christianity is "built upon the foundation of faith in the
historical Jesus who is revealed by the historical New
Testament documents. It is of utmost importance that
these documents show themselves to be trustworthy
and reliable since they are the primary documentary
sources substantiating the object of the Christian faith,
who is Jesus Christ. Unlike other religious systems
which simply express a code of ethic, morality, and
philosophical ideas, the Bible claims to be God's divine
revelation for all of mankind and it verifies its claims
through historical evidence.John Rosser

General Notes

The New Testament is not a single source

Rather it is a collection of 26 separate and

independent sources

Technically each book should first be evaluated

independently

How Can We Determine Historicity?

There are two important aspects of New Testament

Historicity

The reliability of the documents themselves

i.e. that the documents as we have them correspond

reasonably well to the originals

The reliability of the witnesses whose words are

recorded in the New Testament

Manuscript Evidence

There are several general tests for the accuracy of

ancient manuscripts

Number of manuscripts

Age of manuscripts

Manuscript Evidence: Ancient Works

Manuscript Evidence: The New Testament

Number of copies:

5,000 Greek manuscripts

8,000 Latin Vulgates

350 Syriac

Over 20,000 in total

Nearly the entire New Testament can be reproduced from

quotations of the early church fathers prior to the year A.D.
325

Manuscript Evidence: The New Testament

Age of copies:

Earliest A.D. 120***

Fragment of the Gospel of John

A.D. 200

Major portions of the new testament

A.D. 350

Virtually all of the New Testament

***There is also a new fragment of the Gospel of Mark that is as

yet unpublished, believed to date to <100 A.D.

Reliability of New Testament Witnesses

There are two types of evidence to support the

claims contained in an ancient manuscript

Internal evidence

i.e. does the manuscript claim to contain eyewitness

evidence

External evidence

i.e. archaeological, etc.

Internal Evidence

Internal evidence is evidence within the manuscript that

justifies or retracts from their reliability

Scholars always give the documents the benefit of the

doubt, and start assuming relative reliability

Are there any contradictions?

Difficulties do not constitute errors

Internal Evidence

Examples of positive internal evidence:

The authors of the New Testament were often

themselves witnesses (or close companions of those)

Luke says he carefully investigated everything from

the beginning" (Luke 1:3)

Historical accounts and doctrine from different books

offer no obvious contradictions

Jesus' tomb was found empty by women

Enemies of Christianity living at the time o the Bible's

writing did not discredit it

External Evidence

External evidence is evidence outside the document itself

that corroborates or refutes the claims made within the
document
There are various types of external evidence

Archaeological evidence

Other historical evidence

Such as other historical documents

External Evidence: Archeology

Nazareth Inscription (1st slab of marble found in Nazareth)

Ordinance of Caesar. It is my pleasure that graves and

tombs remain undisturbed in perpetuity for those who
have made them for the cult of their ancestors... If,
however any man lay information that another has
either demolished them, or has in any other way
extracted the buried, or has maliciously transferred
them to other places... against such a one I order that a
trial be instituted... In the case of contravention I desire
that the offender be sentenced to capital punishment on
charge of violation or sepulture.

External Evidence: Archeology

Sir William Ramsey, after evaluating the credibility of the

Gospel of Luke

Luke is an historian of the first rank; not merely are his

statements of fact and trustworthy; he is possessed of
the true historic sense... In short, this author should
be placed along with the very greatest historians.

External Evidence: Written Works

There are a significant number of extra biblical sources for

events of the new testament

Specifically for the life of Jesus we will list several

The Jewish historian Josephus of the first century writes of

Jesus:

And there arose about this time Jesus, a wise man, if indeed we
should call him a man; for he was a doer of marvelous deeds, a
teacher of men who received the truth with pleasure. He lead away
many Jews, and also many Greeks. This man was said to be the
Christ. And when Pilate had condemned him to the cross on his
impeachment by the chief men among us, those who loved him at first
did not cease; for he appeared to them on the third day alive again, the
divine prophets having spoken these and thousands of wonderful
things about him: and even now the tribe of Christians, so named after
him, has not yet died out.

External Evidence: Written Works

Tacitus (A.D. 55 - A.D. 117)

Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and
inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their
abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from
whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during
the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators,
Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus
checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the
first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous
and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and
become popular.

Conclusions
The New Testament:
1)Has better manuscript evidence than any other
ancient text (by 100)
The Manuscripts are numerous and early
2) Claims to be historical

3) Is internally consistent
4) Is supported by Archeology
5) Is corroborated by external manuscripts