Dr. Shermer v. Dr. Witherington The New Testament is basically a series of mythic stories crafted well after the life of Jesus The stories were designed to prove the prophecies of the Old Testament to make sure that Jesus “fit” with the O.T. predictions about a Messiah Dr. Witherington It would have been impossible for the N.T. writers to “make up” the stories about Jesus because the time span between the event, and the recording of the event was way too narrow – eyewitnesses would have discredited the story!
Dr. Shermer v. Dr. Witherington What about “extra” – biblical sources? These are texts outside of the Bible Those texts only make reference to a “Christos” – which means Messiah…we can’t know that this was Jesus of Nazareth, as the Bible states “Christos” could mean anyone Dr. Witherington The sources are Roman historians Tacitus, Josephus and Seutonius They use the word “Christos” as a name, not a title – a synonym for the name, Jesus And there was only one person with that name, in the 1st century, who was said to have been crucified by Pontius Pilate – Jesus of Nazareth – and all 3 historians state this!
Dr. Shermer v. Dr. Witherington The timeline (30+ years) of the writing of the gospels from the events they describe would still mean that there were errors The bible is a work of mythic fiction (it’s just a story) Dr. Witherington The gospels were written in a style consistent with the Jewish tradition – and they took accuracy and precision very, very seriously The audience, who would have known the story (as eyewitnesses) would not have tolerated exaggeration or hyperbole or outright lying by the gospel writers
Dr. Shermer v. Dr. Witherington OT prophecy says Messiah was supposed to be born in Bethlehem, yet when you read the gospels, it says he was from Nazareth – this is another example of biblical contradiction Dr. Witherington There is no contradiction - none of the gospels say Jesus was born in Nazareth – two say he was born Bethlehem, but was raised in Nazareth (this is does not contradict OT prophecy)