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External Evidence Tests: Contemporary Testimony
While New Testament documents were being circulated, there were many eyewitnesses still living and able to evaluate their accuracy. In his book Redating the New Testament, A.T. Robinson (a noted theologian, but not a believer) dates all of the New Testament books as written before 70 AD and some as early as 40-50 AD - only 10 - 20 years after these events occurred. Biblical archeologist William Foxwell Albright supports this finding:
"In my opinion, every book of the New Testament was written by a baptized Jew between the forties and eighties of the first century AD (very probably sometime between about AD 50 and 75)." 1
The significance of this dating is that those reading the testimony of the New Testament writers would have been alive during the events written about. Hence, if the writings were outright fabrications they could have easily been challenged.
In some cases these contemporaries were not believers, such as the Jewish leaders or Pagans. Interestingly, writings from this group only validate the life of Christ and the New Testament. There is an extensive body of evidence to support the existence of Christ and confirm the accuracy of the New Testament. Some of the early writers substantiating the New Testament include Thallus, Suetonius, Phlegon (known only by references of Origen), Pliny the younger, and Origen. Origen, in his document Against Celsus, attempts to explain away the events during the crucifixion and death of Jesus,
"And with regard to the eclipse in the time of Tiberius Caesar, in whose reign Jesus appears to have been crucified, and the great earthquakes which then took place, Phlegon too, I think, has written in the thirteenth or fourteenth book of his Chronicles." 2
Besides some interesting references to an eclipse and earthquakes (Matthew 27:45,51), Origen clearly identifies Jesus as a known man who was crucified during the time of Tiberius Caesar. Another popular reference is that of Josephus, a Jewish historian born just a few years after Jesus died. In his book, The Antiquities of the Jews, finished in 93 AD Josephus writes,
"About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who wrought surprising feats and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Messiah. When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing amongst us, had condemned him to be crucified, those who had in the first place come to love him did not give up their affection for him. On the third day he appeared to them restored to life, for the prophets of God had prophesied these and countless other marvelous things about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared." 3
Later in his writing Josephus also confirms the famine which is documented in Acts 11. Suetonius confirms the declaration of Claudius in Acts 18 to expel the Jews from Rome.
In other cases these contemporaries were followers of Christ. Herein we find a most interesting piece of evidence. It is virtually common knowledge that Christianity was rampant in the Roman Empire in the first century. Additionally, it is well documented that Christians suffered great persecutions, even death, as a result of professing their faith in Jesus Christ. Why? If the very people in a position to know the facts about Jesus - since they witnessed it - found this man to be a fake would they risk their lives to support and defend Him?
Instead of challenging these writings, many of the eyewitnesses became believers and suffered persecution. The apostles, who were closest to the facts, suffered the greatest. Tradition holds that every apostle but John suffered death as a result of their unrelenting faith in Christ, yet they had every reason to tell the truth if the New Testament documents were untrue. Dr. Simon Greenleaf, Royall Professor of Law at Harvard University, said,
"They [the apostles] had every possible motive to review carefully the grounds of their faith, and the evidences of the great facts and truths which they asserted; and these motives were pressed upon their attentions with the most melancholy and terrific frequency. It was therefore impossible that they could have persisted in affirming the truths they have narrated, had not Jesus actually risen from the dead, and had they not known this fact as certainly as they knew any other fact." 4
Would you die for a lie?
| 1 | Pellegrino, Charles, The Return of Sodom and Gomorrah, New York: Random House, 1994. p.324-325 |
| 2 | Origen. Against Celsus 2.33, from Roberts, Alexander, and Donaldson, James, eds. The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdsmans Publishing Co., 1973. |
| 3 | Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Loeb edition, vol. IX, 18.3.3. Translated by Lewis H. Feldman. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965. |
| 4 | Greenleaf, Simon. Testimony of the Evangelists, Examined by the Rules of Evidence Administered in Courts of Justice, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1965 (reprinted from 1847 edition). |