Week 10: Chapter 9 — Do We Have Early Eyewitness Testimony About Jesus?

1.Geisler and Turek argue that we should evaluate the New Testament documents by the same historical standards applied to any other ancient document — not by a special skepticism reserved for religious texts. Do you think most people actually apply this standard? Why or why not?

2.The authors introduce three tests historians use to evaluate ancient documents: the bibliographic test (manuscript evidence), the internal evidence test (what the documents claim about themselves), and the external evidence test (what outside sources say). Walk through each test as applied to the New Testament. Which do you find most persuasive?

3.Geisler and Turek point out that the New Testament is by far the best-attested document of antiquity — with thousands more manuscripts than any classical work. Did this fact surprise you? How should it affect the way we talk about 'reliability' of the biblical text?