The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel
Week 6: Part One, Chapter 5 — The Scientific Evidence
Read Part One, Chapter 5 of The Case for Christ. Key interview: Dr. John McRay, archaeologist and professor of New Testament and archaeology.
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Archaeology cannot dig up a resurrection, but it can tell us whether the Gospels describe a real world — real places, real rulers, real customs. This week, the trowel becomes a tool for testing the text.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Dr. John McRay has spent his career excavating the ancient world of the New Testament. What is his overall assessment of how archaeology relates to the reliability of the Gospel accounts?
2.Strobel asks McRay about specific cases where critics once claimed the Gospels or Acts contained historical errors — only for archaeology to later vindicate the biblical account. Can you recall one or two examples from the chapter? What do these vindications suggest about how we should treat apparent errors in the text?
3.McRay discusses the Pool of Bethesda (mentioned in John 5), which was once thought to be a fictional detail — until it was excavated exactly as described, with five porticoes. How does this kind of discovery function as evidence for the reliability of John's Gospel specifically?
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