Aletheia

Authorship and internal evidences: part 1

Not only is the Bible reliable according to all other accurate outside sources, but also it internally attests to its own validity by both the authorship and also the time and place of the writing. First of all, the authorship of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John have never been questioned by the church. But who they were also attests to their validity. Matthew was a hated tax collector and Mark and Luke were not even disciples but were Gentiles. This leaves them each with no ulterior motive. They had nobody to please and nobody in an influential position would pay them any attention. The time of their writings adds another stone to the foundation. The amount of time that passed between the writings and the actual events is incredibly small therefore removing nearly all possibility of inaccuracy. The approximate date of Jesus crucifixion was A.D. 30 - 32. The book of Acts (written by Luke, a doctor with a meticulous nature) was written before A.D. 62. Some of his material was borrowed from Luke. This means only that he was a good historian by checking all available and most accurate first hand witnesses. Mark, the gospel was written c. A.D. 59-60. Thirty years is a very short time to remember, especially for a very specific event with extreme unlikelihood and life changing effects. But it gets better. Paul gives the closest testament yet. He was neither an apostle nor a Christian until A.D. 32 as is calculated from his writings. In his first writings (which were c. A.D. 40) he quoted a creed that had obviously been established since before his conversion. "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter and then to the Twelve." 1 Cor. 15:3, 4. The key words are "passed on" and "received." This would place any writings from which he got this creed within 2 to 10 years of the resurrection. Everyone with a normal memory can remember something extremely out of the ordinary and life changing with great detail even if it happened five or even ten years ago.

But wait, there's more. There are even further evidences of validity in the way they wrote. Luke 1: 1-4 says "Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught." Luke wasn't writing to the people, but to a single person in order to confirm the accounts that his master had heard. It is most likely that Luke was a Greek slave and doctor in a rich Jewish household. His master Theophilus had in all probability sent him out to research the fantastic stories of a man who had performed thousands of miracles whose life ended in the most horrible way possible but then, according to hundreds of witnesses had risen from the dead. The gospel of Luke is the account of a doctor with a meticulous nature who was after historical truth and accuracy. Another evidence is that Paul in the almost all of his epistles wrote on tough issues and doctrines that would not be easy to accept especially equality of Jews a Gentiles in the eyes of God. This shows that they did not write whatever they wanted nor did they write to please the people, but rather to show them the truth of their errors and the proper path in which they should walk set forth by the example and words of Jesus as well as the moving of Holy Spirit.

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