A frequent assertion by skeptics is that the New Testament
gospels were written so many years after the events happened that the writers’
accounts of Jesus’s life can’t be trusted.
Or the Gospels originated from oral traditions. With each community modifying
content to address issues pertinent to their unique circumstance. Consequently,
leaders made certain that Jesus was shown supporting the policies and beliefs of
specific communities. The oral traditions passed down over the years, also
incorporated various myths. Long after the actual events, the gospels assumed
written form.
Some of these writings accurately described Jesus as a respected
teacher who lived on spiritually in the hearts of his disciples while others claimed
he was divine and risen from the dead. After
a power struggle, the “divine Jesus” crowd prevailed, suppressed, and destroyed
all the alternative texts describing Jesus as simply a wise teacher. Recently, some
of these suppressed, alternate views of Jesus have been located such as the
“Gnostic” gospels of Thomas and Judas. And these documents demonstrate, it is said, that early Christianity had
many different schools of thought regarding Jesus and his teachings.
This view of the development of the New Testament has been
popularized in the writings of Dan Brown, specifically The Da Vinci Code, and the subsequent movie of the same name. Despite the relatively recent popular success
of The Da Vinci Code, evidence for
this older, skeptical view of the Bible has been crumbling steadily over the
past thirty years.
Do you have a specific question about NT origins? Submit it and I'll do my best to answer it.
No comments:
Post a Comment