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The REAL Jesus |
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By MIKE FLETCHER
It is in the New Testament where the detailed historical descriptions of Christ’s life are presented and as we consider them we need to first look at when they were written.
For instance, we know from sources outside the Bible that the Apostle Paul died during Nero’s persecution in 64 A.D. We also know that Paul was still alive at the close of Acts, so Acts must have been written sometime before 64 A.D. Since Acts was a continuation of Luke's Gospel, we know that Gospel must have been written even earlier still.
Scholars tell us that the Gospel of Mark predates the Gospel of Luke. This supports the writing of Mark in the 50s A.D., only about two decades after the crucifixion of Jesus.
Now maybe, like me, you had heard that we couldn’t trust this stuff. Sure, they had old records but that doesn’t mean they’re accurate. That, in fact, is what many critics claim, that the Gospels were fabricated or seriously distorted as the stories of Jesus evolved into the late 1st or early 2nd century. However, this theory is simply not supported by the evidence.
That's because we now have significant evidence that the New Testament we read today is remarkably accurate as compared to the original manuscripts. Of the thousands of copies made by hand before the printing press, we have approximately 24,000 manuscripts, including more than 5,300 Greek manuscripts from the New Testament alone.
In face, as I researched Jesus’ life, I found that the Bible is better preserved, by far, than the accepted writings of Homer, Plato and Aristotle. Other than minor grammatical and cultural differences, scholars carefully pouring over these writings unequivocally say that God’s Word has been remarkably preserved and accurately translated over the years.
So, in documents and teaching that we can now trace back to nearly the same time as Jesus walked the earth, we can be sure that we have a genuine account of His life.
Let me try and put this in perspective. Back in 1975 as a journalist, I covered the disappearance of ex-teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa, who vanished from a meeting he was supposed to have after last being seen in front of a restaurant at Telegraph and Maple Roads. How many of you remember Hoffa and that story?
I spent years afterwards investigating that case and wrote hundreds of newspaper articles and even – in 1993 - a nationwide TV documentary about Hoffa. I recounted dozens of incidents of Hoffa’s life and facts about his associations with politicians and mobsters, the strikes he led and the speeches he delivered.
Suppose none of it was true? Or suppose I greatly exaggerated his impact on the labor movement and politics. If I had done that, my reports would have been instantly exposed as we’re seeing now with Jason Blair, the New York Times reporter who is in such trouble today for making up stories about the Washington DC sniper and other stories.
Why would I have been exposed if I made up the Jimmy Hoffa story? Because many, many thousands of people who read and saw my reports are still alive and remember hearing and seeing Hoffa when he was alive.
The New Testament writers did not fabricate the life of Christ. They wrote out their accounts and sent them to the people of Judea—the very people who had witnessed Christ’s activities—within 20 to 30 years of His crucifixion.
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