Nov. 18, 2022

179. Bible Questions: Are the Gospel accounts of Jesus credible (or did they turn Jesus into an 'urban legend?')

179. Bible Questions: Are the Gospel accounts of Jesus credible (or did they turn Jesus into an 'urban legend?')

Here are observations about the Gospel accounts that don't fit the pattern of an 'urban legend'

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179. Bible Questions: Are the Gospel accounts of Jesus credible (or did they turn Jesus into an 'urban legend?')

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Show Notes
Transcript

Ten reasons the Gospel accounts don't fit the profile of urban legends. Some of these include...

Matthew and John are eyewitness accounts

Specific names, dates, and places cited

Jewish and Gentile writers claiming the same facts

The short period of time (30-40 years) between the events and the Gospels written down (people could refute what they said)

Gospels say some very strange things about Jesus that are not typical of making him a "legend!"

Gospels say some very negative things about THEMSELVES

Transcript

Are the Gospel accounts of Jesus credible (or did they turn him into an 'urban legend')?

Are the gospel writers, Matthew, mark, Luke, and John, credible. In episode 1 78, I asked the question, did Jesus claim to be God? Matthew, mark, Luke, and John make a very strong case that he did in the statements he made about himself, the titles he used for himself and in his actions. It's hard to come away from a thorough objective reading of Matthew, mark, Luke, and John. Without concluding, Jesus made a very clear statement that he was the promised, anointed one, the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God. Yet as I mentioned in the last Bible question, a majority of people on our planet do not believe that's the case.

1

00:00:46

They don't believe he was God. A great moral teacher, absolutely, but God, not a chance. Some of those who reject the claim have frankly never read the Gospels. Many more reject the claim because they reject the possibility of the supernatural. Believing the universe is a closed system, a box with nothing or no one outside the box. They conclude any narrative suggesting someone acting from outside or against the laws within the box. The laws of nature is clearly a fabrication. Still, others reject the claim because they've concluded the gospel writers have turned him into a legend, or in recent terminology, an urban legend.

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00:01:32

We're a skeptical people and for good reason. So much of what were fed in social media, the regular media and in reports from our friends is just flat out myth. Just this morning when I opened my phone, the headline was, they've found Noah's Ark this time. For sure. In my 60 years growing up, I've seen that headline multiple times. They've found Noah's Ark, I'm skeptical, and you should be too. In 1981, the term urban legend was popularized by a book, the Vanishing Hitchhiker. You've heard that story, haven't you? In its various forms. Someone driving down the road picks up a strange hitchhiker who shortly thereafter simply vanishes.

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00:02:18

Is that what the gospel writers did to Jesus of Nazareth, turned him his claims and his actions into an urban legend. I'm not saying they turned him into a myth. Jesus was a real historical person to not believe that you'd have to embrace what's a kissing cousin to urban legends, conspiracy theories. The Encyclopedia Brittanica uses over 20,000 words to describe the person of Jesus of Nazareth. That's more space than given to Aristotle. Alexander the Great Mohamed or Napoleon, no one would dispute that those people lived in real space and time in our history.

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00:02:58

Further, even non-religious people at the time of Jesus left historical accounts referring to him TAUs, a Roman historian speaking of Christians said, Christos, founder of the name was put to death, Byon Pilot pro procurer of Judea in the rain of Tiberius. Josephs, a Jewish historian, writes Now, there was about this time, Jesus, a wise man, if it's lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher. He was the Christ. And when pilot at the suggestion of principled men among us, had condemned him to the cross, for he appeared to them alive again the third day as the defined prophets had foretold, and the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct to this day, as you might assume, this quote is hotly contested by critics in the Jewish talmid.

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00:03:55

Remember, these are Jesus opponents who put 'em to death reports that Jesus was hanged on the eve of the Passover. They call him the bastard son of an adulterous. Here, Jewish officials don't deny the mighty works of Jesus, but claim he did them through sorcery. So when we ask the question, are the gospel writers, Matthew, mark, Luke, and John, credible or did they turn Jesus into an urban legend? We're not talking about a myth. So what is an urban legend? It's a story told often passed on and embellished that's embraced by many as truth. It's the vanishing hitchhiker or probably a number of things you've read on the internet and have embraced is fact.

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00:04:39

These often start out as I had this friend who had a friend and this happened to him. So to summarize, these are oral stories that soon take on reality skeptical about Matthew, mark, Luke, and John's claims about Jesus. Good, you should be. They put some startling claims in the mouth of Jesus and report some startling actions. I wanna give you some things to think about that would suggest Matthew, mark, Luke, and John were quite credible and their gospel accounts really don't fit the pattern of legends, urban or not. Let's sort through a few. Let's talk first about Matthew, mark, and John.

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00:05:22

They were Jewish men, monotheists mono one, theist God, one God, from the time they were little, it's almost certain the Shama was crammed into their head. Shama means here, here in obey, and it comes from Deuteronomy. Here is Israel. The Lord is God. The Lord is one. In episode 38, we looked at Moses getting God's laws. The 10 family rules. You might know them as commandments, right outta the box it says, you shall have no other gods in claiming Jesus claimed to be God. They would not be going with the flow of their Jewish upbringing.

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00:06:05

They very much would be going against the grain, the grain of everything they'd been trained from the time they were little. The shamah, God is one that leaves Luke and he's the second reason I want us to consider. Luke was not a Jew. He was a Gentile. In modern jargon, Luke didn't really have a dog in this Messiah fight. While you could argue Matthew, mark and John had a vested interest in this Jew from Nazareth, this rabbi they followed and turning him into something more than he claimed to be, Luke wouldn't have had that motivation. Now you have both Jews and a Gentile making the same statements, creating overlapping and consistent accounts of what Jesus said about himself.

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00:06:53

Titles he used and actions he did. Let's continue with Luke, and that's my number three. Luke was not just a physician, a highly trained physician. He was also an historian. Such a strong historian, even secular people today, give him kudos. Luke names, names on a simian Zayas, Mary of Magdala, Simon of Cyrene names and places. He also names, dates and times, pins down events to historical events and historical leaders that vanishing hitchhiker story.

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00:07:32

Wouldn't it be different if you heard it with the place that happened, the name of the person in the car and where the car was traveling when the hitchhiker was picked up? Now you have a trained historian reporting these events. Number four, I mentioned urban legends usually starred as a story, passed on to others orally or in our culture, emailed, texted, or posted online at the time of Christ. Jesus sayings in actions were also passed on orally. Most who study literature pin, Matthew, mark, Luke, and John's writing down between 50 and 65 ad that's 30 to 40 years from the time Jesus said and did these things as reported in their gospels.

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00:08:18

You could look at that and say, that gives an awfully long time for urban legend to creep in. But on the other side of that, you must consider this. They wrote these things down in print while eyewitnesses were still alive. Who could refute them? Think about that for a moment. Take a historical figure from 30 years ago. Say Muhammad Ali, make up an urban legend about him. Perhaps he lost his last five fights and died penniless. That narrative wouldn't last a day before being completely refuted by folks who were still alive, perhaps even some of his last opponents or his banker, to those who might object, Matthew, mark, Luke and John May have written them down accurately, but they weren't preserved.

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00:09:05

They were corrupted by copious over 1500 years until the printing press. I'd urge you to go back to episode three to listen to how the old and New Testament texts were preserved. The sixth factor to consider is that John and Matthew were eyewitnesses. These are firsthand accounts. This isn't something a friend of a friend of mine told me. Seven, it's almost certain Luke and Matthew had a copy of Mark when they wrote their gospels on the Jesus story. They compared notes. So to conclude, they made Jesus an urban legend. You'd have to conclude they also colluded to do it.

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00:09:47

Number eight, I mentioned in the last Bible questions, church history reports Matthew, mark, and Luke died sticking to their story, the narrative in Catholic and Eastern orthodoxy report, Matthew died as a martyr, church, father's state. Mark was dragged through the streets of Alexandria in 68 AD with a rope around his neck and that Luke was hanged from an olive tree in thieves in 93 ad. As also mentioned in the last episode, the Romans tried to kill John, but failed and banished him to the island of Patmos. Would Matthew, mark and Luke collude together and then Matthew, mark, Luke, and John die for something they knew was a fabrication?

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00:10:32

I can't imagine. Number nine, is this for trying to create a legend? These gospel writers sure put some strange things in the narrative about their hero. Jesus reporting. He was rejected by his own family saying they thought he had a screw loose, mocked by his brothers for his claims healing a blind man in two stages as if he failed on the first attempt asking who in a crowd touched him because he sensed power flowing out of him like the Energizer bunny telling his disciples he couldn't tell them the time of his return because he didn't know. And how about washing the feet of the disciples, sobbing at a funeral and being brutalized by both Romans and Jews as he stood silent and defenseless at his trial and execution?

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00:11:24

That's just so outta sync, not the thing legends are made out of. And number 10, would the gospel writers put such weird things in these documents about themselves? Matthew and John paint themselves over and over again as the the disciples thick-headed, clueless and shallow arguing about which of them will be the greatest when Jesus has just given them a teaching on being a servant and washed their feet, bailing out on Jesus at his arrest and continuing to doubt that Jesus was who he said he was, even after the resurrection and three or four appearances to them by Jesus.

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00:12:06

You can read about that in Matthew 28. Some still doubted that the gospel writers turn Jesus into an urban legend. The gospel accounts, they just don't sound like the hitchhiker. And since I'm on the subject, did you know there is a vanishing hitchhiker in the New Testament? No kidding. Literally, you can read it in Luke's companion volume to his gospel. The Book of Acts chapter eight, verses 26 through 40. It's the vanishing hitchhiker, and you can add to this what Hebrews 13, two says, be hospitable to strangers for by this, some have entertained angels without knowing it, maybe some of those vanishing hitchhiker stories are true.

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00:12:53

Why is this important? If the gospel writers, Matthew, mark, Luke, and John wrote credible accounts in their gospels of who Jesus said he was and what he did, we're faced with a trilemma of sorts. A is like a dilemma, you know, between a rock and a hard place. You have to choose between two very difficult alternatives in a trilemma. You have to choose between three Cs. Lewis made this famous in his book Mere Christianity. Here's the trilemma. As we looked at in the last Bible, questions. According to the gospel, writers, Matthew, mark, Luke, and John, Jesus claimed to be God.

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00:13:35

Now follow me. That claim was either true or false. If that claim of the gospel writers was true, Jesus is who he said he was. The seed of the woman, the descendant of Abraham who'd bless all nations, the one flowing from the line of David who would rule forever in righteousness and justice, the suffering servant of Isaiah who had lay down his life for the sins of his people, the Lord. If that statement was false, there's two other alternatives. Jesus either knew it was false or he did not. If Jesus knew it was false, that makes him a hypocrite because he told his followers to be honest, no matter what the cost and that he was the truth, he may also have been a demonn for.

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00:14:24

He told others to trust in him for their eternal destinies, when in fact he knew he couldn't pull that off and he was a fool because it was this lie of his claiming to be God that got him crucified. Have you ever known a liar, a habitual liar, read the gospels? Do you get this sense about Jesus when you read the Gospels looking, his teaching his character, his grace? A third option is Jesus was a lunatic. He was sincere in his claims, but they were wrong. Lots of people have been sincere and wrong. Maybe Jesus' elevator stopped a few floors short at the top, or as carpenters say, he was a bit off bubble.

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00:15:08

But read the gospels. If this guy is wrong, he's not just a little off bubble, he's certifiably insane and a megalomaniac. He's not just a little off bubble, he's dangerous. Yet, when you look at Matthew, mark, Luke, and John's narrative of his life, his simple, profound teaching, his clear cut sense of mission, the wonderful way he related to people of all ages and cultures, his steady constant personality, it just does not sound like a lunatic. If Matthew, mark, Luke, and John give credible reports, we can't call him a great moral teacher.

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00:15:49

Still think the gospel writers made him into a legend. Can I give you a challenge? Read John's gospel in a modern translation. It'll take you a couple of hours at the end of his gospel. Chapter 20 verses 30 and 31, John claims with confidence. If you read it with a discerning mind and an open heart, John thinks there's enough information there that you too will conclude. Jesus claimed to be God and Jesus claimed that because he wanted all of us to do something with that information.

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