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