The Historical Reliability of the NT

[Cheiron]

I’m sorry that your uncle and his colleagues were liberals. However, the tide has turned, and the overwhelming consensus among scholars today is that the gospels were written by eyewitnesses or those who had access to them.

You’re sorry my dead uncle was a liberal? Classy.

 

[Peter_Plato]

maybe someone can answer this question, lets say if mark, matthew, luke and john did indeed wrote the gospels as the early church fathers say why are the gospels so dependent on each other and copy each other?

Two (Matthew and John) were eyewitnesses to the events. Mark scribed what Peter, another eyewitness, saw with his own eyes. Luke deliberately and assiduously collected accounts from eyewitnesses to write a proper historical account.

Why would we NOT expect some dependencies?

At the same time, because they are the accounts of different eyewitnesses we can expect some discrepancies.

I am not sure why this is a problem.

It isn’t clear that they, strictly speaking, “copied” each other. There are similarities in parts of the Gospels and that has been explained as a function of common sources. Mark, no doubt, talked to Luke and possibly Matthew and John. This was a relatively small community in the first century and paths would have crossed.

A good resource is Jesus and the Eyewitnesses by Richard Bauckham. So are the writings and online materials from people like Brant Pitre (Who Was Jesus?), NT Wright, Gary Habermas, Peter J. Williams and Daniel Wallace, among others. J Warner Wallace has done some solid, but accessible, work, as well.

Try this one as a starting point:

youtu.be/r5Ylt1pBMm8

 

[Randy_Carson]

maybe someone can answer this question, lets say if mark, matthew, luke and john did indeed wrote the gospels as the early church fathers say why are the gospels so dependent on each other and copy each other?

They were writing for different audiences, and it probably never occurred to them that their works would be bound together in what we call the Bible today.

Consequently, they made free use of pre-existing material including some - possibly - that is no longer available to us.