The Problem of the Gospels

What do you call a detective that solves cases accidentally? Sheer Luck Holmes

Why did Spidermans evil twin fail his drivers test? He was a bad parallel parker.

John 5 is where we will launch from.

You know the end of the Lord’s prayer… yours is the kingdom… and he probably never said that… it was probably added a little later… aren’t those claims unchristian… doesn’t that mean you can’t trust them. Of course not.... it means we have to dig a little deeper and it means we have to learn to read them for what they are… its not like they made all this stuff up… but we are going to look into it… and discuss it…

Sometimes the people that are closest to the Bible get Jesus wrong… and we see this early in Jesus ministry… look at what he says to these dudes

John 5:39–40 ESV

39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

Later he says

John 5:46–47 ESV

46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

Early look at baby gender… it would be weird if I go back and look at that once he was born...

IT would be weird because the real thing was born.... hes saying the same thing… everythign the Bible was telling you about is here right now… you have to look at me… and if you don’t believe in me you will not believe the Bible

Let’s make sure we don’t make that same mistake… what are the gospels… for testaments about the life of Jesus… some of the most important pieces of literature ever written. Its truth but truth on fire with a purpose…

They are recofnized as the authoritative biographies of the life of Jesus.... what are they… they are theological history… they are are greek style biography. Fact based story but at another level they are Jewish storytelling presenting a prophet in light of God with a message for the world… they both prioritize accurate retelling of facts with good story telling… its agreat history and theology… the gospels arent biographies in the sense we think they are today. They had license to write in any order they wanted to to get their point across… now that doesn’t mean they made stuff up, but it does mean they could put stuff in any order they wanted to so they could make the point they were trying to make… it was quite okay for them to do that. they culd paraphrase to make sure the audience understood...

An example… Matthew says Kingdom of Heaven....over 50 times.... luke and mark said kingdom of god… which is it… this is an example of how the authors wanted to report the story… so what did he say… well he said both.,, Matthew wanted to use Heaven so much more because he had a very Jewish audience… and they had great reverence for GOd in written form and everytime they read it they would have to take a break and go wash and cleanse themselves… so he wanted to make it to be able to easier to read… and he truthfully Jesus used both, but to make this easier on his audience Matthew just used Heaven.... also… the time when it would come… kingdom of heaven...

God so loved the world… greek no words… t

they didnt have to maintain chronology....

In Mark he clusters together the miracles in chapter 1 and parables in chapter 4 is this okay? by todays standards of course not, but by their standards absolutely there was no other way they knew to do it… they knew the flexibility to move it around and it helps us to know that....

Half heals a blind man.... walk around like trees… touch again… why… a story about disciples in the midst… youre the messiah… no and he is putting these stories together on purpose… the disciples see Jesus in the same way… like blind man walking around… and they need jesus to touch them again so they can see clearly… and that is what he does in the second half of the gospel...

skeptics will say that means its a failure.. no thats how it worked...

“Each Gospel in its own unique way is depicting the life of Jesus as the climax to Israel’s history. Specifically the old Testament story and giving this climax...

Matthew is trying to tell you it is the climax to the story…through those geneologies… the new and better moses… no longer egypt… now rome instead of egypt… waiting on a new savior to come and save them...

Luke third… structures around israels kingship… he is the new david… Davids story progresses… he leads this crew of followers throught the wilderness… and it comes to climax when he is annointed king over Israel and his first act is to go take Jerusalem as the capital … David’s annointing is followed by his taking on of Goliath single handedly as a representative of israel… same as the story with Jesus the way he lays it out he wants you to see him as king and fulfilment of that story

SO can we trust it… here is why scholars trust it.., the criterion of embarassment… the inclusion of stuff in the gospels that would have caused lots of problems in the early church.... they wouldnt have put stuff that would weaken...

For example Jesus not knowing the end of all thigns even though he says he knows everything… when you coming back… no idea.... or matthew 26… his job is to save everyone.... and he says can you take this cup from me I dont want to do it anymore,,,, why woiuld they include that… its the riterion of embarassment

The criterion of the authors themselves… if you were creating a religion you wouldnt give scholarship to these guys… why would christians as early as the second century ascribe these writings to these characters… Mar and Luke werent disciples.... mark is best known for his abandoning of paul

Here is the thing, matthew = tax collector… mark and luke not even disciples and john is so different that people challenge it… so the early church could have ascribed the writings to anyone… but they cou;ldnt have chosen a worst group if it was made up… there are no competing traditions… early historians all point to these guys as the author.

Even as CHristian controversies arose in the first and second century… baptism… women in ministry… circumcision… and the early church never thought to go back and change what was written here… becasue they could have… and scholars look and say thats what makes this so credible...

another criterion the criterion of differences

parables,,, small differences… they mustve made it up… but jesus was moving around all the time… and he would have told the story over and over again.... and he would have had small differences as he told them… the truth is, Jesus probably didnt tell these parables 2 times he probably told them 200 times and there were probably variations each time

friend dog story

But the core of the story

Conversion story of Paul.... three times it was told in act, but the core is the same… and the same can be said about a number of gospel stories… the stilling of the storm.... the healing of hte boy… the last supper… and it isn’t that it just didnt happen… its that there are small nuances… and not only that but it would have been careful to get the point together...

easter morning… lets get it all together… at the tomb there is two angels,,, but in the other there is one angel… or where the disciples ran into Jesus near the tomb

There is a bit of descrepancies.... the fact they can’t agree doesnt mean they didn’t happen… actually the opposite is true… it probably did happen.. if they were going to sustain a fiction they would make sure they didn’t get it all together....

External evidence… the gospel writers go out of their way to root themselves in external history… if you read the beginning of Luke’s Gospel.... In the 15th year

Luke 3:1 ESV

1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,

He wants to tie it all into leaders…and he is naming them,,, and all of this can be proven via history,,, and all throughout his book Luke lists 7 rulers that can be found around Jesus… and he is allowing this to be confirmed by ancient writers especially Josephus HE actually names 32 countries 54 cities and 9 islands without error… its legit..

One writer at yale “Archeological work has unquestionably strengthened confidence in the reliability of the scripture record.”

WHat about the dating of it?

Another claim… it was written too long to be able to understand and be accurate....

Most written in early 60’s AD.... 25-30 years… and could be tested to see if they are accurate… most other ancient writings that people trust are written 100’s of years after the events

Old people… nazi’s didnt exist… whatever let me tell yu.... thats why this being written so early was great.... it was allowed to be checked… the dating of the gospels take away the time for other people to add or subtract...

Most people have reasons that keep you other than the facts… most people can have the facts and still deny… most people don’t WANT christianity to be true....

John 5:39–40 ESV

39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

THis is some haunting words… we are all seeking eternal life… everybody… not just quantity but quality of life… abundant life as Jesus calls it… we want a more meaningful and important life… it drives our decisions… and we cant find it outside of Jesus…

in john 5 the scholars addressing Jesus are looking for meaning in the Bible and fulfillment… the problem is they are gaining knowledge about god but not of God… you can read and study the bible and not find God or satisfaction… you can settle for print instead of person… but we must meet the word behind the word....

WHy do we trade the real answers for what we find in the world to fulfill us… he tells us in this story...

John 5:44 ESV

44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

WE reject the truth of the scriptures because we care more about what people think that what God thinks… pride opens us up to so much hurt… what will my girlfriend say if I go… what will my husband say…