New Evidence for the Historical reliability of the Gospels

This is a very interesting lecture given by Dr Peter Williams regarding new evidence to support the Historical reliability and historiocity of the 4 Canonical Gospels found in the New Testament. Dr Williams arguments are lucid and erudite. I was not familiar with some of this 'new' research and so found the study of correlations both inside and outside the Gospels to 1st Century Israeli names very fascinating. This lecture does not seek to completely discredit all skeptical theories about the fabrication of the Gospels, rather put forward a positive and logical argument for their reliabilty and plausibility. Note the lecture is roughly 53 minutes long.

Overview:

1.       The Chinese Whispers analogy to discredit the 4 Gospels is flawed in many ways.

2.       New research over the last 10 years has found a strong correlation between the most common Jewish names in First Century Israel and those found in the 4 Gospels.

3.       The Gnostic Gospels use of the title ‘Christ’ rather than the name Jesus is an indication of later authorship and lack of connection to the events i.e. not eye witness reports but fabrications.

4.       Use of disambiguation (differentiating between people of the same name) in the 4 Gospels supports evidence that the Gospel writers were highly accurate in their narrative.

5.       Jesus’ teachings are very Jewish in nature, which would be audience specific – the early Church, which was more Gentile, did not use parables as a method of teaching. If the 4 Gospels were not based on reliable, eye witness data then they would have contained more Gentile literary and teaching devices to them.

6.       Obscure geographical locations are used in the 4 Gospels that only people with knowledge of the area/region would have known about. Compared to the Gnostic Gospels, which rarely mention any geographical locations (some not at all and others only the capital Jerusalem).

7.       Test of Botany – mention of specific fauna to particular areas supports the plausibility of the 4 Gospels being written based on eye-witness data.