The Gospels: An Intertwining Of History

The Gospels are an intertwining of history because they trace the life of Jesus, his miracles, ventures and ultimately his death and resurrection as well occurrences in Israel across numerous historical accounts (Strauss, 2011, p. 1035). “The Gospels begins with accounts of “the life of the historical Jesus” (Strauss, 2011, p. 1035). It is important to remember “the Gospels are historical in that they are set in a specific historical context” (Strauss, 2011, p. 1022). History displays that “it is beyond dispute that Jesus of Nazareth was a historical figure who lived in Palestine during the period of Roman domination and was crucified by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate sometime around AD 30 – 33” (Strauss, 2011, p. 2132). The Gospels are …show more content…
Without this historical evidence the Gospels could be accepted as a collection of fairytale stories (Strauss, 2011, p. 2132). It is an inappropriate belief to think that the Gospel accounts never happened yet still considers yourself a Christian. The belief in the truths of Bible speaks to one’s belief in Jesus and His Words. Is he such a man that he could lie? These biblical accounts were written as historical biographies to prove the trustworthiness of the apostles’ words and their accounts of Jesus. Together each Gospel gives an accurate account of the historic life of Jesus, while individually “bearing witness to the same Jesus (unity) but viewing him from unique perspectives (diversity)” providing “special insight into who he is and what he accomplished” (Strauss, 2011, p. 2132). By providing the reader with four different yet strikingly similar accounts of the life of Jesus, the author proves his unbiased nature and reaffirms his stance of truth (Strauss, 2011, p. 584). Thus, the role of history provides evidence for the certain truth the Bible holds and proves the “Gospels are historical in that they are meant to convey accurate historical information” (Strauss, 2011, p. 584). The role of 1st century history in the Bible is to portray “historical veracity and worldwide significance” rather than the 21st century’s obsession with precision and “chronological order” (Strauss, 2011, p. 584). All of …show more content…
584). These stories were then transcribed into the written word (Strauss, 2011, p. 584). The authors of the Gospels gathered these verbal and written sources and produced their books based upon these historic accounts (Strauss, 2011, p. 584). Luke specifically displays “a strong interest in historiography”, by dating his work with references to “Roman history, identifying key rulers and religious leaders (cf. 1: 5; 2: 1 – 3; 3: 1 – 2)” proving “the historical veracity and worldwide significance of these events” (Strauss, 2011, p. 5874). We understand the role of history in the Gospels as a key component because without historical accounts to provide evidential support the Bible would just be a composition of traditional stories (Strauss, 2011, p. 1033). History provides us with the “four main stages in the development of the Gospels” (Strauss, 2011, p. 1033). Stage one is the historical events of “the life, death and resurrection” of Jesus (Strauss, 2011, p. 1033). Stage two is the historic era of the oral transmission of Jesus’ words and stories (Strauss, 2011, p. 1033). Stage three is the period of collecting sayings and accounts into a written format, while stage four is the period in which the authors actually wrote their Gospels based