Street Theologian
1 min readApr 19, 2022

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Sure.

Historical criteria: dissimilarity, embarrassment, multiple attestation

Dissimiliarity? What does this mean? Something different to your presuppositions, views at the time. eg. No resurrection until end of time expected by Jews, Messiah would have had military power to overtake Rome.

Embarrassment? Something embarrassing to the original authors unlikely to be included in fiction. Female evangelists, (Luke 24:10-11) Joseph of Arimathea tomb (Luke 23:50), Thomas struggled to believe (John 20:25), Son doesn’t “know” the day of His return (Matt. 24:36), Peter denies Christ (Matt. 26:69-75), get behind me Satan addressed to Peter (Matthew 16:23), Jesus’ family thought He was out of His mind (Mark 3:21), Jesus’ brother did not believe Him (John 7:5), centurions believing (Mark 15:39, .

Multiple independent attestation: Paul (1 Cor 15 etc), Matthew 27:57-28:10, Mark 15:42-16:8, Luke 23:50-24:12, John 19:38-20:10

Historical coherence: links to places and customs in history. eg parable of wicked tenants Luke 20:9-19

These aren't use to show the gospels are perfect but rather they contain some historic facts used by historians.

Furthermore, we have 42 sources referring to Jesus within 150 years. These include Celsus, Tacitus, Josephus, Lucian, Mara Bar Serapion, Suetonius, Thallus, Pliny the Younger, Phlegon. Which is what you refer to. We can however also go one step further by applying the historic criteria above.

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Street Theologian
Street Theologian

Written by Street Theologian

Theology and apologetics for those who want to get their hands dirty

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