Many scholars have wondered if sources other than the Gospels recorded information about Jesus, His life and His ministry. This curiosity lead them to finding three main outside sources, Pagan sources, Jewish sources, and second- and third-century sources, that scholars have scrutinized to see if they contain information about Jesus that is not portrayed in the Gospels. Unfortunately, none of these outside sources provide much detail about Jesus and his ministry, however, some of them do mention Jesus. For example, one Pagan source does not even mention Jesus until the early second century. Pliny, a Roman governor, wrote about a religious cult called “Christians.” He also mentions that these “Christians” worshiped a guy named Jesus. Even though
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However, after reading about the nine different reasons why the Gospel can be considered authentic, made me feel much better about the contents in the Gospels. The most compelling reason why we have to believe that the Gospels are authentic is because the apostles in this time, “behave[d] like the scribes of Judaism, whose teaching was devoted to the recitation of Judaism’s great traditions” (p. 120). So the function of Jesus’ apostles could have been to write down or remember the specific teachings of Jesus and then share them with others. This lines up quite nicely with what we find in Mark chapter 6. Here, Jesus is giving his apostles the authority to go out and cast out unclean spirits and heal others while sharing Jesus’ ministry. “And he called the twelve and began to send the out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits…So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them” (Mark 6:7, 12-13). In order for the disciples to be able to heal the sick, and lead so many people to repentance, they must have written down or remembered Jesus’ teachings. This idea of memorization can also describe how Jesus’ teachings were kept as authentic as
However, after reading about the nine different reasons why the Gospel can be considered authentic, made me feel much better about the contents in the Gospels. The most compelling reason why we have to believe that the Gospels are authentic is because the apostles in this time, “behave[d] like the scribes of Judaism, whose teaching was devoted to the recitation of Judaism’s great traditions” (p. 120). So the function of Jesus’ apostles could have been to write down or remember the specific teachings of Jesus and then share them with others. This lines up quite nicely with what we find in Mark chapter 6. Here, Jesus is giving his apostles the authority to go out and cast out unclean spirits and heal others while sharing Jesus’ ministry. “And he called the twelve and began to send the out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits…So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them” (Mark 6:7, 12-13). In order for the disciples to be able to heal the sick, and lead so many people to repentance, they must have written down or remembered Jesus’ teachings. This idea of memorization can also describe how Jesus’ teachings were kept as authentic as