Gospels' History

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diligo

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I am in the process of talking to a friend about religion and have reached the topic of the bible. I was wondering if anyone had any sources that might make convincing arguments for the historical validity of the gospels.
Specifically I would be interested in the authors and historical evidence in support of the gospel account.

From a gospel basis I think I can use the Apostolic nature of the church to make a reasonably convincing argument for Catholicism.
Prayers for my friend appreciated too!
 
Here are the three sources that have helped me most on this. Warning: they aren’t Catholic:
  • The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable, by FF Bruce
  • He Walked Among Us, by Josh McDowell (I find this to be more scholarly than McDowell’s other works; this book is about historical evidence for Jesus in general, but talks about the subject of the New Testament record a lot)
  • Revealing the New Age Jesus, by Douglas Groothuis (this book is about challenges to Christianity like asserting that Jesus was involved in East Indian religious practices, or that Gnostic accounts of Jesus’ life and teaching are reliable; it touches on the reliability of the New Testament record, although that is not its main focus, but what it had to say on the subject was very good)
 
I found the book by Mr. Dennis Barton, called “The Authors of the Gospels” to be a very informative overview of the issues regarding the historical reliability of the Gospels. It is available online.

There are also to short documents available on Mr. Barton’s website. One is a summary of the conclusions reached in his book, Why, How and When the Gospels? . The other is a summary of the arguments which are presented in detail in the book, The Gospels are Historical.

I hope these are useful to you.

Pax Christi tecum.

John Hiner
 
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