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