Jesus: The Reliability Of The New Testament

For as long as it has existed, historians, philosphers, scientists, and everyone in between have questioned the credibility of the New Testament's account of the life of Jesus Christ. Athiests, agnostics, and Christians alike all doubt the feasability of the events depicted in the New Testament. 2In a world where science rules, it is unsurprising the events depicted in the Bible would be scoffed at by many, shrugged off as absurd. Others question how a book can last centuries in human hands without the story it tells being altered. 3Undoubtably, there is immense doubt as to the reliability of the Gospels, whether or not Jesus was in fact the son of God, and how it could be possibly for Jesus to have risen from the dead.
Many doubt the reliability …show more content…
Jesus claimed the ability to forgive sins. 4During a time when it was accepted that if one sought to preach, they did so under another's authority, Jesus spoke of God under his own authority. The writings in the New Testament explain this as a result of Jesus having a closer relationship with God than the preachers of His time. As Jesus was sent to tell people of God's will, he had no need for another to tell him what God's will entailed. The New Testament tells of forty-seven miracles performed by Jesus during His ministry. Much doubt is cast upon each of them, due to their miraculous nature. Ruled by science and facts, people in modern times are, understandably, slow to accept miracles as being just that. Most are more inclined to attribute miracles as being mere coincidence or deception. This skeptecism is warranted, as there are always individuals who seek to take advantage of others. However, while other 'magicians' and miracle workers of the time used complex spells and potions to create a placebo affect, Jesus had no need for such things, simply allowing the miracle to speak for itself. Yet another distinction between Jesus and the magicians of His time lies in the way he spoke of God. 5While the magicians sought to bargain with or coerce various gods and goddesses to do their bidding, Jesus merely performed miracles to demonstrate the power of God. Yet another conciderable piece of evidence …show more content…
It is firmly believed by many to be scientific fact that people do not ever rise from the dead. Regardless of spiritual affiliation, it is a common notion that death marks the end of one's time in this world. Whether or not they believe people continue on to another world depends on the person, but that general belief remains true. However, there is quite a bit of evidence which proves contrary to this belief. Firstly, Jesus' body was never found after His foretold resurrection. Whether or not the tomb was truly empty is questioned by many, however, the Jewish leaders at the time publicly claimed the body to have been stolen. In addition to this, if Christians had merely fabricated the story of the empty tomb, they would have claimed men had discovered the empty tomb. Women were notoriously looked down upon at that time in history, and believed to be unreliable sources of information. If early Christians had purposely fabricated the story to make it convincing to the masses, it would be nonsensical for Mary Magdelane to be responsible for the discovery of the empty tomb. Not only was she a woman, but a woman of dubious background. While many argue that perhaps Jesus was never truly dead, and merely fled after the guards left, this is historically inaccurate. In Ancient Rome, the law stated that if a guard let a common criminal escape execution, the guard forfeited their own