Did you know? The conclusion Greenleaf drew was that the testimony of the evangelists, meaning the four Gospel writers, would hold up well were it prosecuted in a court of law. In the year 1874, one of America’s greatest lawyers published a very poignant article entitled fully as The Testimony of the Evangelists, Examined by the Rules of Evidence Administered in Courts of Justice, or more commonly searched out today by the shortened title Testimony of the Evangelists. It was written by Simon Greenleaf, a principle founder of the Harvard Law School. What he did in this document was demonstrate by the principles of law and jurisprudence how the testimonies of the four Gospel writers would have held up in the courts of law; mainly, the principles to establish the authenticity of the Gospel accounts themselves, and the principles of cross-examination applied to the Gospels. One observer writes about Greenleaf’s work: He noted that the type of eyewitness accounts given in the four Gospels—accounts which agree, but with each writer choosing to omit or add details different from the others—is typical of reliable, independent sources that would be accepted in a court of law as strong evidence. Had the Gospels contained exactly the same information with the same details written from the same perspective, it would indicate collusion, i.e., of there having been a time when the writers got together beforehand to ‘get their stories straight’ in order to make their writings seem credible. The differences between the Gospels, even the apparent contradictions of details upon first examination, speak to the independent nature of the writings. Thus, the independent nature of the four Gospel accounts, agreeing in their information but differing in perspective, amount of detail, and which events were recorded, indicate that the record that we have of Christ’s life and ministry as presented in the Gospels is factual and reliable.”[1] The conclusion Greenleaf drew was that the testimony of the evangelists, meaning the four Gospel writers, would hold up well were it prosecuted in a court of law. The interesting thing about this exercise was that Greenleaf is reported to have set out on this exercise not to support the claims of the Gospels, but rather to disprove them — especially on the matter of the resurrection of Jesus. What resulted has now become a significant contribution to the field of Christian apologetics. What it shows to us is yet another point of verification as to why four Gospels are included in the NT canon. In the main, however, for people of faith who are committed to biblical integrity and who trust the words of Scripture as inspired by God, the two main points demonstrated in this lecture stand forth loud and clear. There are four Gospels because, taken together, they declare that the witness of Jesus Christ is for every person, every tribe, and every nation. Then, there are four Gospels because, taken together, they provide the complete, fully-delivered testimony of the person of Jesus Christ – Christ is Rabbi, Messiah and King; Christ is the Servant of the Lord; Christ is the Son of man; and Christ is the Son of God. by Henry Vosburgh 1024project/2013/11/08/why-are-there-four-gospels-part-3/
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 12:25:41 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015