4. The Reliability of the New Testament (Authorship & Dating)

It is now time to look at the evidence for the authorship of the Gospels and good reasons we can date them within the lifetime of the Apostles.

Sources:

Fabricating Jesus - Craig Evans

Jesus of Nazareth - Maurice Casey

The Relationship Among the Gospels - Albert Lord

Trusting the New Testament - JP Holding

Against Marcion - Tertullian

Against Heresies - St. Irenaeus

Adumbrationes in Epistolas - Clement of Alexandria

The Muratorian Fragment

Ecclesiastical History - Eusebius

The Earliest Gospel - John S. Kloppenborg

The Text of the New Testament - Bruce Metzger & Bart Ehrman

The Historical Figure - E.P. Sanders

Redating Matthew, Mark, & Luke - John Wenham

Jesus and Eyewitness - Richard Bauckmann

The Gospels - Gerd Theissen

Music Credits:
Adventure Western Music - The Wild West

Epic and Exciting Music - Treasure Hunter

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[Invictus]

I am continually impressed by your ability to condense such vast and useful information into single sittings that are laymen friendly.  Your use of diagrams and visuals, and your citations of primary sources, always makes it extremely easy for anyone to understand what the historical case for Christianity is fundamentally based on.  Most importantly of all *you always stick to standardized methods of historically investigating the New Testament and other early sources*-- which is, in the end, what lends the New Testament (and people like you) credibility.

Keep up the outstanding work IP!  In an age of popular non-serious one-liners and militant atheists, your works consistently stand out as a breath of fresh air to seekers who sincerely want to understand exactly what the evidence is.

[johnnybrave]

Your evidence is more convincing than Bart Ehrman.

[needtoknow]

There's so much evidence for Jesus that you have to be completely ignorant not to believe!!

[godcodes]

Thank you for taking the time to make this. It really helps.

[sageseraph]

It always amazes me how much evidence we have for the truth of Christianity.

[joeseiling]

This video is OUTSTANDING!!! I was impressed at all the research based information given as proof of the New Testament being valid and the possible timelines for the writing of the gospels. Thank you so much!!!

[RoyalGiraffe]

I like how you change the liberal "C.E" to "A.D" when you read out the text.

[thomasdownard]

You have a gift brother, thank you for your work. All praises to the most high Yah.

[UnratedAwesomeness]

Also, I watched a Vsauce video that pointed out that life expectancy at those times was dramatically lowered by high infant mortality. If you survived infancy, you could expect to live 60-70 years. This, in combination with the fact that adults were considered such at 14 or so, I am lead to believe that the apostles could have very well lived on for many more years after Jesus' death in 33AD. Really, all John had to do was live 40 more years and considering he could've been 15-20 years old at that time, it would have been no problem.

[ultramarinechaplain]

It is highly likely that if one lets the evidence lead them, one would date the gospels anywhere from 45ad - 80ad(john). I find the skeptics reasoning why they must be dated after 70ad absolutely unreasonable

[ProjectGoOD]

Im stunned, amazed by this video.. So much knowledge, so well spoken en so well edited.. Amazing..

Big thanks 2 the maker of this vid..

[SugoiEnglish]

Great point: The early Church made up authors fails when they didn't do the same with the book of Hebrews, but left it anonymous except for Syriac copies that had the title "Paul's letter to the Hebrews."

[AnonNorwegianPartiot]

I'm looking forward to when you come to the evidence for the resurrection :)

[TheLastAbacus]

Statistically speaking, you could make one of these videos every week for the next 50 years and there would still be atheists. The issue isn't reliability as much as personal preference, as you have thoroughly and painstakingly demonstrated. Christians win the battle of logic.

[abelcainsbrother]

This is a really good video and teaching IP.Keep up the good work.

[nikti]

All I can say brother is thankyou, thankyou and thankyou for your videos! Such a blessing!

[JLCProductions]

While at a family reunion last month I was looking through the family Bible, which was dated around 1870, and it lists Matthew as being written in the 30s and Luke as being written in the 50s. I just found that interesting and thought I'd pass it along.

[brandonp]

Thank you for building our faith @IP. God bless

[Nameless-ptoj]

For those of you who struggle with the Epistles of the Bible, Bart Ehrman says this:

“Virtually all of the problems with what I've been calling forgeries can be solved if secretaries were heavily involved in the composition of the early Christian writings.”

I remember watching a Simpsons episode where Homer becomes a food critic and he is asked to write reviews for the food he eats, but he tries twice to write a review by himself but both attempts fail. Lisa volunteers to write and proof read for him (because most of the stuff that comes out of Homer’s mouth is nonsense) and he dictates his opinion to her, which she notes down and even edits because as I said, he would talk nonsense.

Hope that helps!

[thomasbunn]

I love the dedication to your videos. I would like to see a video defending your stance of billions of years, how it would be interpreted biblically, and why you aren't swayed by young earth arguments. I hope to see the same level of professionalism in future videos. Wonderful work!