A Christmas Story

It amazes me how often I hear that Jesus never existed or that scripture is just fiction.

So here are a few rather recently published books for the skeptic who claims to have never seen any evidence that scripture is not fiction or that Jesus ever existed.

Why Are There Differences in the Gospels

Biographies and Jesus

The Historical Reliability of the New Testament

Merry Christmas

Showing both the strained harmonizations and the hasty dismissals of the Gospels as reliable accounts to be misguided, Licona invites readers to approach them in light of their biographical genre and in that way to gain a clearer understanding of why they differ.

  • Why Are There Differences in the Gospels?

This work is a careful and critical study of the biographical information about Jesus of Nazareth. The results of this work must be taken into account in future research into the gospels’ use of sources and historical reliability. Through careful comparative study of the relevant ancient sources, with which many contemporary interpreters are not adequately acquainted, this book shows that the gospels were competently and reliably written.

  • Biographies and Jesus

Questions about the reliability of the New Testament are commonly raised today both by biblical scholars and popular media. Drawing on decades of research, Craig Blomberg addresses all of the major objections to the historicity of the New Testament in one comprehensive volume. Topics addressed include the formation of the Gospels, the transmission of the text, the formation of the canon, alleged contradictions, the relationship between Jesus and Paul, supposed Pauline forgeries, other gospels, miracles, and many more. Historical corroborations of details from all parts of the New Testament are also presented throughout. The Historical Reliability of the New Testament marshals the latest scholarship in responding to New Testament objections, while remaining accessible to non-specialists.

  • The Historical Reliability of the New Testament

Study up Patrick. Argument from Ignorance is frowned upon here at “The Skeptical Zone.”

57 thoughts on “A Christmas Story

  1. That’s silly atheist reasoning then. Even if there is no God it could still be the case that Jesus actually existed. The denial of one does not entail the denial of the other.

  2. What is the problem. You can believe that Jesus actually existed as an historical person and still be an atheist. The need to deny that Jesus even existed is irrational. And atheists are supposed to be rational, if nothing else.

  3. Mung:
    That’s silly atheist reasoning then. Even if there is no God it could still be the case that Jesus actually existed. The denial of one does not entail the denial of the other.

    ??? You just said what I said, AFTER saying it was silly. Yes, indeed, Jesus could have been a real human person, and for that matter Paul Bunyan might well have been a real person as well. Denial that Jesus was any sort of god is quite different from denying that someone lived once who was the original model for the tales, anymore than saying that the stories of Paul Bunyan are fabulations, and therefore there never were any lumberjacks.

    People like Ehrman, who thinks a human person is buried in all the tall tales, has been trying to find some human person by extracting him out of all the embellishment, magic, references to old scripture, myths from other cultures, etc. Others (like Price, Lataster, Carrier, and others) are convinced that the Jesus of the gospels is no more historical than Sherlock Holmes. Hence the debate. Please note that neither side of this debate thinks there was ever a Christ, in the sense of an actual supernatural god.

  4. Mung:
    What is the problem. You can believe that Jesus actually existed as an historical person and still be an atheist. The need to deny that Jesus even existed is irrational. And atheists are supposed to be rational, if nothing else.

    It’s not a need at all. It’s a very careful and thorough historical investigation into a part of history poorly represented by preserved documents. Outside of the gospels, there is flat NO evidence such a person ever lived, and even Christian historians agree the gospels weren’t written as history and cannot be read as history.

  5. Flint: …and even Christian historians agree the gospels weren’t written as history and cannot be read as history.

    You need to go back and read the OP.

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