0:00:17.990,0:00:20.029 Well its really great to be here. What we're 0:00:20.029,0:00:27.249 going to be looking at tonight is the question whether the Gospels are based on eye-witness testimony 0:00:27.249,0:00:31.567 and I want to be presenting some old and some new evidence 0:00:31.567,0:00:35.745 that the Gospels are indeed based on eye-witness testimony 0:00:35.745,0:00:39.388 But I want to begin 0:00:39.388,0:00:42.798 with a fellow Brit: CS Lewis, the author of the Chrinicles of Narnia 0:00:42.798,0:00:45.839 Who made and argument about the person of Jesus. 0:00:45.839,0:00:51.829 And he said that when we look at the sort of claims Jesus makes 0:00:51.829,0:00:56.910 about who he is, we either have to say that he is the Lord, 0:00:56.910,0:01:00.018 that he is Liar or that he is a lunetic. 0:01:00.018,0:01:08.748 Because his words can't just be written of as the words of a very 0:01:08.748,0:01:14.598 great person. Because a very great person doesn't make such claims. 0:01:14.598,0:01:16.703 doesn't attribute so much to himself. But what 0:01:16.703,0:01:21.891 we found is that in recent years, people have added to those three possibilities 0:01:21.891,0:01:24.331 another one: that Jesus is in fact Legend 0:01:24.331,0:01:27.707 So we want to ask the question whether the Gospels are in fact reliable. 0:01:27.707,0:01:29.077 I want to go to a sceptic 0:01:29.077,0:01:31.283 source: Bart Erhmann, one of the most famous, prominante 0:01:31.283,0:01:34.665 sceptics within the US at the moment 0:01:34.665,0:01:35.734 very accomplished biblical scolar, 0:01:35.734,0:01:39.244 says this about the Gospels: 0:01:39.244,0:01:43.656 What do you suppose happend to the stories about Jesus over the years 0:01:43.656,0:01:48.236 as the were told and retold, not as disinteresdd news 0:01:48.236,0:01:52.410 stories reported by eyewitnesses but as propaganda 0:01:52.410,0:01:57.000 meant to convert people to faith, 0:01:57.000,9:59:59.000 told by people who had themselves heard them fifth or sixth- or nineteenth-hand? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Did you or you rkids ever play the tlephone game at a party? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 well the telephone game 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in britain, we call: Chinese wispers 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you're probably not allowed to call it that over here 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but thats what we call it over there and no one minds! 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now you know the way the telephone game works. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Its a game specially set up to corrupt the message 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 so you know that you can laugh. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So there are various rules, for instance you have to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 wisper, that ensures that the message gets curropted 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Your only allowed to say it once, so that ensures that the message gets corrupted 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You're only allowed to hear it from one person… 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Why should I use that as an analogy for how Christiany spread early one? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I prefer the analogy of Karate. Now have 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you ever heard that Karate must be becoming corrupted because 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's being taught from one person to another? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 No! Because you know that Karate is full of discipline 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and when people teach things, they teach it carefully 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 there are checks and balances to make sure things get passed on 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I think that is a far better analogy. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But we're going to come back to this later, whether Christianity 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 could have begun through something like the Telephone game. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But the first thing we're going to do is look at 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 where the Gospels were written. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now the Gospels, according to earliest Christ tradition there are about 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 where they were written say generally that they weren't written in the land of origin. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Which is Israel, Palestin. I'm not making a political 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 point when I'm using either of those words. OK? I'm just talking 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 about a location, ok?