Apologetics: Is New Testament Reliable? Corroborative Evidences

We are now back to where we left while examining whether NT books are reliable. In this process we went through documentary evidences, the number of manuscripts available, the date of these manuscripts from crucifixion, dates when the NT books were written, errors in copy writing and so on. Thereafter we moved on to the eyewitness accounts and the chain of custody. Now we will see whether any corroborative writings are available from other sources, including the secular ones.

What is corroborative evidence? It is the evidence produced or information presented that goes to support a statement. It is something that will back up, confirm, endorse, validate or authenticate what one is saying. Do we have such corroborative evidence to support what we are saying that is the NT is reliable? The Gospel narratives are Christian narratives written by Christians, but is there any writing from non-Christian sources, from contemporary times that support or confirm the narratives of the NT? To this we will turn in this blog.

Early Jewish Writings:

First we will turn to early, contemporary Jewish writings. The Jewish historian, Josephus, a Jew born in 37 AD, had written “The History of the Jewish War,’ and “Antiquities.” He mentions that Ananias the high priest of Jews, got James, the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, killed. Here is someone a non-Christian, a Jewish writer of repute referring to an incidence that is written in   and also mentions that Jesus was called the Christ.[1] Here Josephus is corroborating to the fact that James is the brother of Jesus, as written in Galatians 1:19, and that Jesus was called the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One.’

Josephus also writes that Jesus was a wise man, wrought many miracles, a teacher and was condemned to be crucified by Pilate, as he led many people away. He also mentions that Jesus rose on the third day and appeared to his followers who were called Christians.[2] That this corroboration comes from a Jewish historian is not a small matter.

Josephus also mentions many figures that are written about in the Gospels and the Epistles: Herod; Roman Emperors Augustus, Tiberius, Nero; Quirinius, the governor of Syria; Pilate, Felix, Festus; high priestly family of Annas, Caiaphas, Ananias; Pharisees and Sadducees; Gamaliel, etc.[3] He writes that John the Baptist was killed by Herod;[4] he mentions the sudden death of Herod Agrippa I, narrated by Luke in Acts 12:19-23. This establishes that the gospel writers like Luke were giving historical accounts of historical persons who lived during that time, when Jesus and his disciples lived.

Early Jewish writings known as Talmud of 400-700 AD also refer to Jesus, of course understandably as a transgressor, who practiced magic, led people away and that he was hanged on Passover eve. 

Gentile Writers:

Now we will turn to Gentile writers and see what they have to say about Jesus narrative which corroborates the NT accounts.

Thallus, a historian in 52 AD wrote about the history of eastern Mediterranean world since the days of Trojan War. He referred to the darkness that came over the land at the time of crucifixion of Jesus, written in Matthew 27:45, but explains is as due to an eclipse.[5] Nonetheless, it is a non-biblical attestation of the phenomenon that happened at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion.

Mara Bar Serapion, a Syrian writes in 73 AD from prison to his son, that Jesus was a wise king, comparable to Socrates, Plato and Pythagoras. His letter is preserved in British Museum. He writes, “What advantage did the Jews gain from executing their wise King? It was just after that their kingdom was abolished … He lived on in the teachings which He had given.” Here is someone outside the pale of Christianity referring to Jesus as a wise King of Jews, comparable to Greek Philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Pythagoras, goading his son to follow the examples of such great men.

Cornelius Tacitus, a Roman historian of repute, born in 52 AD, wrote about the reign of the Emperor Nero and describes the great fire that devastated Rome in 64 AD, and how Nero made the Christians the scapegoats and punished them cruelly. He mentions ‘Christus, from whom they got their name, had been executed by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilate when Tiberius was emperor;’[6] Tacitus got the name wrong, Christus for Christ, but he authenticates that Christ was executed under orders of Pontius Pilate, when Tiberius was the Emperor, attesting what is written in Luke 3:1.

Suetonius, wrote around 120 AD about the lives of the first 12 Caesars, starting with Julius Caesar, mentions the Great Fire of Rome for which punishment was inflicted upon Christians, but calls their sect as a ‘superstition.’ In the life of Claudius, he writes that Jews were expelled from Rome around 49 AD because they were creating ‘constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus,’ again misnaming Christ as Chrestus.[7] It is no wonder that a pagan writer in those early decades after the crucifixion of Christ was not sure about the right pronunciation of the name. Christ and Christianity were not very popular or well known then. It was still the religion of fishermen and slaves to mention the least.

Pliny the Younger, also known as Plinius Secundus while he was the governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor, writes to Emperor Trajan in 122 AD asking him advice as how to deal with the troublesome sect known as Christians in his province. He mentions that they assemble on a fixed day and sing ‘an anthem to Christ as God, and bound themselves by a solemn oath not to commit any wicked deed, but to abstain from all fraud, theft and adultery.’[8] The only problem was they will not worship any other god! For that the authorities were contemplating action!

So you see folks, there are quite a lot of corroborative accounts to establish that Jesus lived and died under Pontius Pilate, his followers Christians claimed that he had appeared alive after death, and that Christians worshipped Him as God. All major figures including Pilate, Tiberius, Annas and Caiaphas, James the brother of Jesus, are all mentioned by the secular writers, who were not Christians at all. The accounts and names given by Luke and Paul and other NT writers are all amply corroborated.

Glory be to God alone and praise be to Him and to the Lord Jesus Christ and His Spirit who inspired the NT writers to pen these reliable accounts of the life and teachings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, which we can boldly proclaim even today, after some 2000 and more years.

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[1] Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ, OM Books, Secunderabad, India, Indian ed. 2001, reprint 2006, p. 78

[2][2] Ibid, p.79-80; Bruce, The New Testament Documents, are they reliable? OM Books, Indian ed. 2004, reprint 2006, p.128

[3] See Luke 3:1-3

[4] See Matthew 14:10

[5] Bruce, p. 133

[6] Ibid, p.138, written in Annals 15, 44, dated 116 AD.

[7] Bruce, pp.139-140

[8] Ibid, p.140

What if the Eye-witness were false? Also Chain of Custody

Continuing the effectiveness of eye-witness accounts of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, we saw in the last blog that almost all books in NT were written by either the direct disciples of Jesus (the Apostles) or those who were very close associates of the Apostles. In this blog we will round up this by bringing in the factor of “Chain of Custody.” Before that, there is just one or two more matters to be dealt with while considering the eye-witness accounts.

Even if we have established that the books of NT have been written by eyewitnesses and hence reliable, can we pass these eye-witnesses through some tests to confirm they were telling the truth and nothing but the truth? What would be the reasons for them to record a lie or give a false account of Jesus’ ministry? Could anyone have bribed them to write that way? Offered them incentives to write a false account? Why would they do it?

A person in this world will lie or falsify accounts for one of these three or four reasons; either to get fame, name, money or woman. Does this apply in the case of eye-witness apostles? What did they get proclaiming that Jesus was the Son of God and that He rose again from the dead and that He will come back one day to establish His kingdom on earth? Did they get money, fame or position of authority in the world or some long lost lovely Cleopatra as a partner? Each one of the Disciples of Christ died penniless, martyred, beaten and bruised,[1] with no family life even and still they stood up to those in power holding on to what they had said and written about Jesus Christ. They wouldn’t budge. Was it madness or were they standing for the truth of their convictions? I am afraid they were convinced what they said was the truth and they gave their lives to uphold it. They were genuine witnesses.

Again, some people point out that there are so many differences in the narration of biography of Jesus in the four Gospels. Such differences are bound to happen because different people were writing these and each wrote with his own style and his own emphasis and from his own point of view. He had to consider his audience too. Peter preached the Jews and Mark reflects that. Luke was a Gentile believer, writing to the Gentiles hearers and so his gospel takes a distinctive flavor. Matthew wrote for the Jews wanting to show that many of OT prophecies have been fulfilled in the birth, life and death of Jesus Christ. Each one’s approach was different.

It is only if all the four gospels were identical to each other, one would suspect that the authors had conspired among themselves to coordinate their stories in advance. There is no such identical reporting of facts and narrations as to suspect such a conspiracy and there are substantial agreements to show that they were all independently narrating the events happened during their life time.[2]   

  

Chain of Custody:

Amazingly there has been continuity from the direct disciples of Jesus up to the point when the full book of NT as we know today was available as Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, both dated 350 AD and as mentioned earlier presently available in British Library and Vatican respectively. The Council of Laodicea held in 364 AD confirmed 26 books as we know it today to be included in the NT Canon and treated as Scripture, excepting Revelation. These gospels and epistles containing the teachings of Christ have been safely passed on from one generation to another through the disciples of disciples.

For example, John was the disciple of Jesus and left behind a Gospel, three letters and an Apocalypse, Revelation. Traditionally it was believed that he lived up to old age and died in his 90s or even beyond, say around 95 AD. His disciple Polycarp (69-155 AD) was an Ante-Nicene Father of the church and became the bishop of Smyrna, who left behind many writings, including a letter to Philippians. He referred to 16 books of NT. Irenaeus, (120-202 AD) was born in Smyrna and later became the bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, was Polycarp’s close associate and wrote in defense of Christianity “against Heresies.” He identified 24 or the NT books, as early as beginnings of the second century, as scripture in his writings.

Irenaeus taught Hippolytus (170-236 AD), who wrote a 10 volume treatise, called “Refutation of All Heresies,” and identified 24 books of the NT. He was persecuted for his anti-establishment views and was exiled to mines in Sardinia, where he died, not before passing on his teachings to the next person. Origen of Alexandria (184-253 AD) was influenced by his teachings and became a reputed Church Father himself. He defended Christianity before pagan philosophies and religion of his time and left major writings.

Origen influenced Athanasius (293-373 AD) and he in turn the three Cappadocian Fathers and so on. Thus there is continuity in which disciples of repute passed on the gospels and the epistles and left massive writings of their own by way of defending their faith, starting from the times of Jesus’ ministry on earth to 350 AD, when the books consolidated into a codex are available. This type of chain of custody can be traced for each of the Gospel writers and also Paul. Thus we are able to trace the continuity of Gospel accounts from 33 AD to 363 AD. Isn’t that amazing?

I will stop with this and start on the next evidence, evidence of corroborative writings from Jewish and Gentile writers of 1^st and second centuries in the next blog. I really do not want to start it now and leave it in the middle for want of space. Hope my readers will pardon me for it and await the next blog for more information on the reliability of the NT.  

Good bye for now, God bless you and keep you.

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[1] Paul gives an account of the persecutions he went through in 2 Corinthians 11:23-33

[2] Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ, OM Books, India, 1998, Indian ed. 2001, reprint, 2006, p.46

Is Eye-witness Testimony Reliable before a Judge or a Jury?

Welcome to my blog; we are still continuing to deal with the topic, Is NT reliable? In the last blog we saw the documentary evidence to show that NT is reliable given the early date in which the NT books had been written and the large number of manuscripts or copies of the originals available from an early date. Before passing on to the next evidence, the evidence of the eye-witnesses, I want to just dwell on another important matter concerning documentary evidence.

The Errors in the MSS:

Given the large number of MSS available, to the tune of 24,000, there is bound to be a lot of errors that crept up in the course of copy-writing. Imagine the scribes bending forward and meticulously copying down the documents! Also remember that eye-glasses were invented only in 1373 in Venice! Printing press was invented only in the 15^th century at Gutenberg, Germany! No wonder there are some 2,00,000 variants among the MSS,[1] but most of these concern spelling mistakes, wrong order of sequence, etc., and nothing big enough to affect the doctrines of the church.

To give a few examples of such mistakes, verses 1 John 7-8 are found only in 7 or 8 MSS, that too from 15^th or 16^th century onward. These two verses speak about three witnesses in heaven to Christ, the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit; and three witnesses on earth to Christ, the Spirit, the water and the blood. This basically refers to the doctrine of Trinity and seems to be the work of an over-imaginative scribe, who thought of including these parallels, though excellent, not found in the originals. Even if we remove these two verses there are many other references to Trinity in the NT, like Matthew 28:19-20, 2 Corinthians 13:14, and thus this error will not affect the doctrine of the church in respect of Trinity. Later versions like New International Version (NIV) acknowledge the error by indicated in the foot-note that these verses were not found in any Greek manuscript before the 16^th century.

Another example is Romans 16:24, which is not found in the earliest MSS, so the NIV omits even to print this verse. Other versions print it, but indicate that it was not there in the originals. The verse reads, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” We do not know who inserted this and why for Paul in the very next verse goes on to give elaborate blessings to the Roman church. By omitting this verse, nothing much is really lost.

One more example is the section John 7:53-8:11, which narrates the story of the woman caught in adultery brought before Jesus for a verdict. NIV prints this episode, but indicates that ‘the earliest and most reliable MSS and other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:58-8:11.’ It is a beautiful story, may be included later on from an oral tradition, but its absence in the NT will not diminish in anyway the importance and value of Jesus” teachings.

All these have led scholars to conclude that NT is 99.5% pure as seen from the available MSS.[2] Hence we can be rest assured that the errors that have crept in the NT books are largely insignificant.

Eye-witnesses Account:

Coming to the next evidence for the reliability of the NT, we come across eye-witness’s account. In any murder case, the case is clinched and the culprit grabbed, by two main types of evidences, one eye-witness’ evidence and the other circumstantial evidence. Of these the former are the most important ones, because the witness had seen the crime happening and is giving an account of it. In the absence of such an eye-witness, the jury or the judge has to rely on circumstantial evidences that corroborate the overall testimony to finally arrive at a decision.

In the NT, almost all the books or letters have been written by direct eye-witnesses. Of the four Gospels, Matthew was written by Levi, the direct disciple, who is also called Levi.[3] The Gospel of John was written by another direct disciple of Jesus, John, the son of Zebedee, also known as the beloved disciple, who writes that he is the one who is testifying these things and wrote these down and attests that his testimony is true.[4] He further writes that he has written these things so that the readers might believe that Jesus is the Christ, Son of God and believing thus might have life in His name.[5] John has also written 1 John, 2 John and 3 John and also Revelation, four more books of the NT.[6] Thus both the Gospels of Matthew and John were written by the direct disciples who had spend almost three and a half years with Jesus during his earthly ministry and very valuable as testimonies.

The other two Gospels, Mark and Luke were written not by direct disciples but by those who were very close to the Apostles, who can be called the disciples of the Apostles. Mark was the close associate of the Apostle Peter, who calls Mark ‘my son,’[7] and Church Fathers of repute like Papias (130 AD) and Irenaeus (180 AD) have left in their writings that Mark who was the interpreter of Peter wrote down Peter’s preaching on public demand in Rome. Thus Mark writes from the vantage point of the preaching and teachings of Jesus’ direct disciple and Apostle Peter.

Luke makes it very clear that he set to write a narrative of the happenings around Jesus, gleaning it from the direct disciples who were the eye-witnesses to all these events and who were still living, so that he could write an orderly account. He also wrote a sequel to his Gospel, the Acts describing the early spread of Christianity and the ministry of Paul with which he was intimately connected. Luke was an associate of Paul, accompanying him on his missionary journeys, thus had an intimate knowledge about the teachings of Christ, through Paul and other eye-witnesses who were living then, including Peter.

The next thirteen letters or epistles were written by Paul, who was not the direct disciple of Jesus during his earthly ministry, but was converted, on the road to Damascus when the resurrected Christ appeared to him in a vision and gave him the mission to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. This he did diligently and wrote these letters to the churches he himself helped to establish and to the others.

The book of James is written by James the half-brother of Jesus who was not a disciple during the earthly ministry of Jesus, but became a believer after the resurrection of Jesus and went on to become one of the three pillars of the Jerusalem church along with Peter and John.[8] Jude calls himself as the brother of James, that would mean he was the half-brother of Jesus, has also written a book in the NT.[9] He also had believed only after the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The only book that is anonymous in the NT is the book of Hebrews, but many scholars, assessing from the style of writing and the words used, believe that it was written by Apostle Paul.

Lo and behold, thus it is seen that all the books of the NT were written either by the direct disciples of Jesus, called Apostles or by those who were closely associated with them. Paul also can be categorised as a direct disciple of Jesus Christ and an Apostle. Their eye-witness accounts of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ with whom they spent three years and more, is much more valuable than all the other evidences put together. Who can refute their testimony? Anyone with intellectual honesty and integrity would stand by their testimony and acclaim their testimony as the truth.

Oops, again exceeded my limit! Well, good bye then, till next week, when I will round up the eye-witness account and turn to some more evidences to prove that NT is reliable.   

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[1] Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ, 2001, p.64

[2] Strobel, p. 65

[3] In Mark 2:14, Jesus calls Levi, the tax collector as his disciple; in Matthew 10:3 gives the tax collector’s name as Matthew. 

[4] John 21:29, 24

[5] John 20:31

[6] I John 1:1-3

[7] 1 Peter 5:13

[8] Galatians 2:9

[9] Jude 1

Is New Testament Reliable? Documentary Evidences

This is a million dollar question on which the faith of many people hangs. How do we know that the Gospels are true narratives of Jesus’ birth, life, teachings, death and resurrection? Who wrote these accounts? Are they based on facts or just cooked up stories based on traditions? When were they written? These are some of the questions that daunt the believers as well as the non-believers. We will try and analyse these questions and try to answer them.

For one thing Bible has been the most critically examined book in the world. Unlike Q'uran which is believed to be the direct revelation of the word of Allah and hence cannot be criticized at all, let alone be translated into other languages other than Arabic, Bible, though equally believed to be the Word of God, has gone through many scholars searching it under magnifying glass, as it were and also has been translated into many languages. Different versions are available as well. It is an open book that can stand such a scrutiny and still be the cornerstone of our faith in Christ and God, whom He called His and our Father.

The New Testament (NT) contains 27 books, first four being Gospels dealing with the life and teachings of Christ, followed by Acts, a historical account of the spread of Christianity from Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria and to the whole of the then known world under Roman Empire. Next come 13 letters of Epistles written by Paul addressed to the various churches most of which he himself had planted; Then come the other letters, Hebrews, James, Peter, John, Jude and finally the Apocalyptic Revelation. All of NT was written in Greek in the first century AD, Greek being the lingua franca of the Roman Empire that ruled over Palestine and the areas and countries around Mediterranean. 

We will now start examining the many evidences to show that NT is historically reliable. First we will examine the Documentary Evidences.

I.                  Documentary Evidences

1). Number of Manuscripts available:

Any ancient book or treatise is evaluated on the number of manuscripts available and the dates from which these become available. Like the ancient Greek epics, Iliad and Odyssey written by Homer or Republic written by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, the disciple of Socrates, the NT books are also available in the form of their manuscripts (MSS) only. The originals of all these have been lost and these works survive only as MSS, meticulously copied by the scribes and others.

The number of copies available becomes crucial to determine whether or not these books are genuine and authentic. For example, Homer’s epics were written around 8^th century BC and some 650 MSS of these are available. Plato’s Republic comes a cropper with only 7 MSS. In contrast the NT books, all written within the first century AD, have around some 24,000 MSS as follows:[1]

1.     Greek MSS                         -  5664

2.     Latin Vulgate MSS             -  8000 to 10,000

3.     Ethiopic, Slavic, Armenian – 8000

These MSS are from the first century AD onward to later times, written mostly in papyrus scrolls and parchments. These are sometimes only fragments containing a few verses, may be a few pages of an Epistle or a full book or the Epistle itself. All these MSS are preserved in the various museums around the world today.

The complete collection of the 27 books of the NT as we have now is found in the form of two codices, collection of books, the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus.[2] These date around 350 AD. The former is kept safely in the British Museum and the latter in Vatican City, Italy and can be seen even today. This is amazing to say the least. You don’t see this happening in any other ancient book or treatise.

2). Dates of the manuscripts:

Again to compare with some of the ancient writings, Caesar’s writing Gallic War was composed between 58 and 50 BC, of which only 9 or 10 good copies are available today and these are dated 850 AD, some 900 years after the original writing of Caesar![3] To give another example the book History written by Thucydides in 460-400 BC, is available in the form of MSS of which only eight have survived and these are from 900 AD![4] Compared to these the first fragments of the NT MSS are available from 130 AD onward.[5]

You will be surprised to know that the biography of Alexander the Great, the Macedonian Emperor who conquered the world and came even up to the shores of Indus River in India was written some 400 years after his death, which took place in Babylon in 323 BC. The later a book it written after the events it is narrating, the less reliable it will be, because in the intervening years, distortions and fables and traditions could creep in and crowd out the real facts of the narrative.

Since fragments of MSS on the NT are available from 130 AD onward[6] and full books are available in 350 AD, it can be said without any hesitation that the NT of today reflects factual and reliable information as it was written in the first century AD.

3). Dates of writing of the Books in NT:

We will try and fix the dates of the NT books from the date when Christ was crucified. The clue to Jesus’ crucifixion comes from Luke the author of the Gospel of Luke. Luke records, “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar … the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.”[7] This refers to John the Baptist, who came as a forerunner to the Messiah, Jesus Christ.[8] From secular Roman records we know that Tiberius became the Emperor (Caesar) in 14 AD. So the 15^th year of Tiberius would be 29-30 AD. This is the time when John the Baptist was preaching repentance and Jesus himself comes and gets baptized by John.[9] Jesus must have been around 30 years that time as mentioned by Luke.[10]

It is also recorded that the earthly ministry of Jesus was for three years and a half. John indicates three Passovers that Jesus attended at Jerusalem,[11] which means he was in active ministry for three years and odd. So around the age of 33 or so Jesus was crucified, the year being 30 AD. Luke our historian gives the names of people in authority, Tiberius Caesar was the Roman Emperor, Pilate was the Roman Governor of Judea, Herod Antipas was the tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Trachonitis and Lysanias Tetrarch of Abilene; Annas and Caiaphas were the Jewish high priests.[12] All these names are historically verified from secular records and found to be true.

Taking this date 30 AD, the year of Jesus’ crucifixion as the bench mark, we see that within 18 years the first Epistle of Paul to Galatians has been written! Paul must have been converted within 3-5 years after the crucifixion. By 48-49 AD, he has written the letter to the Galatians.[13] Within such a short time there is no time even to insert any traditions or fables or stories in these books or epistles. Paul’s letter to the Romans was written around 57 AD, he was imprisoned and sent to Rome in 62 AD and was martyred in 64-65 AD, when Emperor Nero let loose persecution of the Christians.[14] With such historical details available there is no ground to doubt the authenticity of these NT books.

Similarly the dates for the Gospels have also been worked out. Mark is seen as the earliest Gospel written between 55 and 65 AD,[15] which is within 25-35 years of the crucifixion and Matthew between 60 and 65[16] AD and Luke written around 64-68 AD and John around 85-90 AD.[17] Within such a short span of time there is absolutely no scope for fudging the facts and figures reported in these books.

Oh, my goodness, I have overshot my self-imposed limit of 4 pages per blog! I think it is time for me to stop and let you digest all these facts and come back for more the next week. Good bye, and God bless you all.

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[1] Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ, Zondervan Publishing House: USA, 1998, OM Books, Secunderabad: India, Indian ed. 2001, Reprint 2006, p.63.

[2] Strobel, p.62

[3] F.F. Bruce, New Testament Documents: Are they Reliable? Intervarsity Press, 1960, OM Books, Secunderabad: India, Indian ed., 2004, reprint, 2006, p. 21

[4] Ibid

[5] Ibid, p. 22

[6] Bruce, p. 22

[7] Luke, 3:1-3

[8] Luke 3:4

[9] Luke 3:21-22

[10] Luke 3:23

[11] John 2:13; 6:4, 7:14,37; 11:55, 12:1

[12] Luke 3:1-2

[13] Application Study Bible, NIV, Tyndale House Publications and Zondervan Publishing House: USA, 1991, p.2112

[14] F.F. Bruce, The Epistle of Paul to the Romans: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale NT Commentaries, 1963, Martino Publishing: USA, 2011, p.14; Douglas Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Company: USA, 1996, pp.4-5; Dodd, The Epistle of Paul to the Romans, Fontana Books, London, 1959, p.19

[15] Application Study Bible, p. 1722

[16] Ibid, p.1636

[17] Ibid, p. 1866