Lecture - Dr Peter Williams - New Evidences the Gospels were Based on Eyewitness Accounts

This is from The Lanier Library Lecture Series titled New Evidences the Gospels were Based on Eyewitness Accounts by Dr Peter Williams given March 5, 2011

The authorship of the first four books of the New Testament has fascinated scholars for centuries. If the authors were eyewitnesses, one could assume greater reliability. If not, then questions are naturally raised about the historicity of details in the writings. Because the first three Gospels are so similar, many theories have been proposed and argued to explain the sources of verbatim sections, as well as the unique material. Did Mark rely on Peter for eyewitness details? Luke admits his use of other sources, but did he use Mark or Matthew or both? What about Matthew and John? New evidence in the discussion of these questions and more will be the focus of this lecture.

Dr. Peter Williams. is a biblical scholar and also the Director of Tyndale House, Cambridge.

The Lanier Theological Library is an exciting new resource for all students and scholars of the Bible. The LTL is a research library and is open to everyone who will use it responsibly. Within the library, you will find a comprehensive collection of books, periodicals, historical documents and artifacts with topics ranging from Church History and Biblical Studies to Egyptology and Linguistics. The LTL regularly hosts events with noted authors, guest lecturers, and researchers who will challenge you both academically and spiritually. Come to the Lanier Theological Library and find serious tools for serious study.

For more info on this: http://www.laniertheologicallibrary.org/

For those interested in Dr Peter Williams and the translation work he is involved in here is a YouTube clip from those proceedings here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=Mx06mtApu8k#!

This summer the Translation Oversight Committee of the English Standard Version (ESV) met at Tyndale House in Cambridge, England to consider improvements in certain specific English word choices. For example, should the Hebrew word 'ebed and the Greek word doulos be translated "slave," "bondservant" or "servant"? The question involved lexicography, biblical theology, and both ancient and modern culture.

During deliberations, the BBC stopped by and filmed a segment, which they reduced to a four-minute clip--reflecting hours of discussion based on hundreds of hours of scholarly research. Speaking in the video are C. John Collins (Covenant Theological Seminary), Peter Williams (Senior Warden of Tyndale House, Cambridge, and a past and future presenter in the Lanier Theological Library Lecture Series), Gordon Wenham (Trinity College, Bristol; son of the late John Wenham of Oxford, who contributed the Foreword to the second edition of The Fire That Consumes), Paul House (Beeson Divinity School), Wayne Grudem (Phoenix Seminary), and Lane Dennis (Crossway Books & Bibles).

Well its really great to be here. What we're

going to be looking at tonight is the question whether the Gospels are based on eye-witness testimony

and I want to be presenting some old and some new evidence

that the Gospels are indeed based on eye-witness testimony

But I want to begin

with a fellow Brit: CS Lewis, the author of the Chrinicles of Narnia

Who made and argument about the person of Jesus.

And he said that when we look at the sort of claims Jesus makes

about who he is, we either have to say that he is the Lord,

that he is Liar or that he is a lunetic.

Because his words can't just be written of as the words of a very

great person. Because a very great person doesn't make such claims.

doesn't attribute so much to himself. But what

we found is that in recent years, people have added to those three possibilities

another one: that Jesus is in fact Legend

So we want to ask the question whether the Gospels are in fact reliable.

I want to go to a sceptic

source: Bart Erhmann, one of the most famous, prominante

sceptics within the US at the moment

very accomplished biblical scolar,

says this about the Gospels:

What do you suppose happend to the stories about Jesus over the years

as the were told and retold, not as disinteresdd news

stories reported by eyewitnesses but as propaganda

meant to convert people to faith,

told by people who had themselves heard them fifth or sixth- or nineteenth-hand?

Did you or you rkids ever play the tlephone game at a party?

well the telephone game

in britain, we call: Chinese wispers

you're probably not allowed to call it that over here

but thats what we call it over there and no one minds!

Now you know the way the telephone game works.

Its a game specially set up to corrupt the message

so you know that you can laugh.

So there are various rules, for instance you have to

wisper, that ensures that the message gets curropted

Your only allowed to say it once, so that ensures that the message gets corrupted

You're only allowed to hear it from one person…

Why should I use that as an analogy for how Christiany spread early one?

I prefer the analogy of Karate. Now have

you ever heard that Karate must be becoming corrupted because

it's being taught from one person to another?

No! Because you know that Karate is full of discipline

and when people teach things, they teach it carefully

there are checks and balances to make sure things get passed on

I think that is a far better analogy.

But we're going to come back to this later, whether Christianity

could have begun through something like the Telephone game.

But the first thing we're going to do is look at

where the Gospels were written.

Now the Gospels, according to earliest Christ tradition there are about

where they were written say generally that they weren't written in the land of origin.

Which is Israel, Palestin. I'm not making a political

point when I'm using either of those words. OK? I'm just talking

about a location, ok?