As shown above, scholars have in recent decades increasingly discredited dates that make the New Testament a second-century document. As Albright comments: "We can already say emphatically that there is no longer any solid basis for dating any book of the New Testament after about A.D. 80, two full generations before the date[s] between 130 and 150 given by the more radical New Testament critics of today."^[16] This development makes the time gap between the oldest surviving copies and the first manuscript much smaller for the New Testament than the pagan historical works cited earlier. The gap between its original copy (autograph) and the oldest still-preserved manuscript is 90 years or less, since most of the New Testament was first written before 70 A.D. and first-century fragments of it have been found. One fragment of John, dated to 125 A.D., was in the past cited as the earliest copy known of any part of the New Testament. But in 1972, nine possible fragments of the New Testament were found in a cave by the Dead Sea. Among these pieces, part of Mark was dated to around 50 A.D., Luke 57 A.D., and Acts from 66 A.D. Although this continues to be a source of dispute, there's no question the Dead Sea Scrolls document first century Judaism had ideas like early Christianity's. The earliest major manuscripts‑‑Vaticanus and Sinaiticus‑‑are dated to 325-50 A.D. and 350 A.D. respectively. By contrast, the time gap is much larger for the pagan works mentioned above. For Homer, the gap is 500 years (900 b.c. for the original writing, 400 b.c. for the oldest existing copy), Caesar, it's 900-1000 years (c. 100-44 b.c. to 900 A.D.), Herodotus, 1300 years (c. 480-425 b.c. to 900 A.D.) and Thucydides, 1300 years (c. 400 b.c. to 900 A.D.).^[17] Hence, the New Testament can be objectively judged more reliable than these pagan historical works both by having a much smaller time gap between its first writing and the oldest preserved copies, and in the number of ancient handwritten copies. While the earliest manuscripts have a different text type from the bulk of later ones that have been preserved, their witness still powerfully testified for the New Testament's accurate preservation since these variations compose only a relatively small part of its text.

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS AS EVIDENCE FOR

THE OLD TESTAMENT'S ACCURATE PRESERVATION

For the Old Testament, the Dead Sea Scroll discoveries have shrunk the gap for the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) at a stroke by a thousand years, though a gap of 1300 years or more remains. These discoveries still demonstrate faith in its accurate transmission is rational, since few mistakes crept in between about 100 b.c. and c. 900 A.D. for the book of Isaiah. For example, as Geisler and Nix explain, for the 166 words found in Isaiah 53, only 17 letters are in question when comparing the Masoretic (standard Hebrew) text of 916 A.D. and the Dead Sea Scrolls' main copy of Isaiah, copied about 125 b.c. Ten of these letters concern different spellings, so they don't affect meaning. Four more concern small stylistic changes like conjunctions. The last three letters add the word "light" to verse 11, which doesn't affect the verse's meaning much. The Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament) also has this word. Thus, only one word in a chapter of 166 words can be questioned after a thousand years of transmission, of generations of scribes copying the work of previous scribes. Gleason Archer said the Dead Sea Scrolls' copies of Isaiah agree with the standard printed Masoretic Hebrew text "in more than 95 percent of the text. The 5 percent of variation consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pen and variations in spelling." Their discovery further justifies William Green's conclusion written nearly 50 years earlier: "It may safely be said that no other work of antiquity has been so accurately transmitted."^[18] If it was so well preserved for this period of time (c. 100 b.c. to 900 A.D.) that previously wasn't checkable, it's hardly foolhardy to have faith that it was for an earlier period that still can't be checked.

DID MOSES WRITE THE FIRST FIVE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE?

The Wellhausen/"Documentary"/J E P D theory claims Moses did not write the first five books of the Bible (the Pentateuch). Instead, it asserts that multiple authors or “sources” wrote them. (Here we’re putting aside such issues as whether or not Moses used pre-existing sources for Genesis and Joshua’s apparent writing of the postscript in Deut. 34 that describes Moses’ death). Hence, the abbreviation comes from the hypothesis that one writer used “Jehovah” as a name for God, another write used “Elohim,” another one developed the Priestly code, and finally one wrote Deuteronomy. This 19th century higher critic theory, was developed and restated especially in its standard form by the German scholar, Julius Wellhausen, in two books published in 1876 and 1878. The Documentary theory, which is another name by which Wellhausen's theory is known, denies that Moses or any single human author wrote Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy (the five books of the Pentateuch). In the English-speaking academic world where religious liberals predominate in various schools of divinity, seminaries, and religious studies departments, this theory still holds sway by default, as if it were still 1880. The deep irony is that from a liberal theological perspective (i.e., one that denies the Bible was inspired by God) the somewhat newer Form Criticism school (as applied to the Old Testament) has generally blown the Documentary theory to bits! That is, later liberal scholarship basically wiped out earlier liberal scholarship concerning the authorship of the Pentateuch, but the "default setting" for religious liberals in the English-speaking world concerning the Pentateuch's authorship remains the Documentary theory basically as Wellhausen told it.

The Old Testament scholar, Gleason Archer, observes that the Documentary Theory is guilty of circular reasoning, in which it assumes what it is going to prove. (Circular reasoning, or "begging the question," is one of the hardest logical fallacies to spot). It assumes God didn’t inspire the Bible ahead of experience (a priori), and then finds all sorts of ways to "explain" it based on that assumption. They dismissed the evidence for inspiration based on fulfilled prophecy, such as concerning Isaiah's prediction of Babylon's destruction and abandonment, or Daniel's concerning the career of Alexander the Great. Regardless of contrary textual or other evidence, they'll assume prophecy here is masquerading as history. Here they rule out in advance, before investigation, any possibility that the Bible had a supernatural origin based on philosophical assumptions, instead of open-mindedly following the evidence wherever it goes, whether it leads to a materialistic or supernatural explanation. Hence, since it's assumed that Moses didn't write the first five books of the Bible, the J E D P theorists have instead devised a clever theory of multiple uninspired sources mashed together by unknown editors ("redactors") in order to explain this piece of literature's origin. (Notice this theory is mostly about the purported origin of the text; it doesn't have as much to say about its meaning).

Supposedly also the Wellhausen theory is based on analyzing the data in the texts themselves, and then discerning that different authors wrote different parts of the same books based on stylistic variations in vocabulary, etc. However, whenever some textual data appears that doesn't fit the generalizations of J E D P theory, then suddenly the J E D P theorist calls upon unknown editors and commentators to "explain" (away) this (suddenly revealed) problem. For example, the Documentarians claimed the later historical books of the Bible never cited P (the Priestly legislative code) or a written Mosaic law until after the Jews were taken into exile by Babylon (586 b.c.) After various citations from the later historical books of the Bible were produced that proved they cited "P's" legal provisions and the Mosaic law, the advocates of J E D P theory replied (as Archer puts it), "Oh well, all those references were later insertions made by priestly scribes who reworked these books after the exile." Archer explains well the procedure by which the Documentary theorists ignore the text that they are trying whose origins they are supposedly trying to explain: "This means that the same body of evidence which is relied upon to prove the theory is rejected when it conflicts with the theory. Or to put it another way, whenever the theory is opposed by the very data is it supposed to explain, the troubleshooting team of Redactor and Interpolator, Inc., is called to the rescue. Elusive tactics like these hardly beget justifiable confidence in the soundness of the result."[19] Another way this assumption is shown to be shaky comes up when various scholars want to condense or add to these four purported sources in J E D P theory based upon their analysis of stylistic variations. For example, in 1924, the scholar Max Lohr very carefully examined the purported "P" material, and concluded this source couldn't be a source independent of "J" and "E."

A crucial assumption of the Documentary theory is that authors can't hardly vary their writing style (such as in their general choice of words), regardless of their subject matter or literary genre. Hence, they can't use more than one name for God, they can't use more than one style of writing, they can't restate the same ideas using synonyms, etc. If this "critical" technique was applied to modern pieces of literature, multiple "sources" could easily be purportedly "discovered" also. For example, in Ayn Rand's novel, "Atlas Shrugged" (1957) she has her lead character, John Galt, state in a long speech her basic philosophy, in eloquent, polemical language, without using a scholarly style. But earlier in the same novel, many of the same ideas are stated by another character, a certain bum who nearly got kicked off a train, in another, shorter speech. In this case, she uses a "blue collar" vocabulary, in which simpler, shorter words are used more casually in shorter sentences. Here she was almost writing in a kind of dialect by comparison with most of the rest of her novel, or perhaps somewhat like the novelist Sinclair Lewis, who was very skilled at capturing the crudities of average people’s conversations. Now someone applying a technique like J E D P theory on "Atlas Shrugged" would easily "discover" that this novel had at least two authors because the vocabulary and sentence structure varied between these two sections. But this is patently absurd.

Archer uses another example to make the same point, which are the writing variations in the great English author John Milton: He wrote happy poems like "L'Allegro," serious, epic poetry like "Paradise Lost," and lively straightforward essays like "Areopagitica." If the 17th century Puritan Milton’s works were treated like Moses' writings are by the Documentarians, they'd conclude no one man could write all these different ways based on their assumptions. As Archer wittily puts it: "If he had been an ancient Hebrew, at least, he would have been speedily carved up into the ABC multiple-source hypothesis!"[20] Read over this section dealing with the Documentary theory: I vary in what I call the scholarly theory I'm rebutting here ever so briefly. Sometimes I call it Wellhausen's theory, the J E D P Theory, or the Documentary Theory. According to this theory’s simple-minded analytical assumptions, that say the same writer can't vary his vocabulary choice between "Yahweh" and "Elohim," this essay section couldn't have been written by the same author either! Maybe it has then "multiple sources": When a sentence has "J E D P" theory in it, it has a different author than in sentence when it's called the "Documentary theory"! Ultimately, despite all the intimidating scholarly authority deployed that assumes the truth of Wellhausen's theory, it's patently absurd to assume the same author can't sometimes call God "Yahweh" and other times "Elohim." (Or, for that matter, "Adonai," which means "Lord," or any of God’s other names).

Most troubling for J E D P theory, the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint (often abbreviated LXX), varies in a number of places concerning what the name of God is from the Hebrew original for the same verses. Since the LXX was often used by scholars to help determine the text of the autograph (original first written document based on textual criticism) of the Old Testament, this undermines any attempt to use the appearance of "Yahweh" or "Elohim" as a means of source division (authorship) within the Pentateuch. If "Kyrios" ("Lord" in Greek, the normal translation for the tetragammaton YHWH, "Yahweh") appears in the Greek, but "Elohim" ("God") happens to be in the Hebrew, or vice versa, how do we know the "Yahwist" wrote it instead of the "Elohist"? The J E D P theory ironically assumes the infallibility of the Hebrew text which religious liberals would otherwise totally deny. Instead, Archer sensibly observes that these two names for God are used in different contexts based on what characteristics of God the (human) author wished to emphasize. "Elohim" is the name of God used when emphasizing God is the Creator of the universe and the Lord over nature and mankind. By contrast, "Yahweh" (or "Jehovah" or "Lord" when translated from the YHWH) emphasizes God's covenant (or contractual) relationship with human beings.[21] "Yahweh" as a name emphasizes that the God of the Bible is an intervening God, who visits His people, who actively rewards virtue and/or punishes sin.

Another assumption of J E D P theory includes the view that Hebrew religion was originally polytheistic (believing in multiple gods, like the ancient Greeks and Romans), but evolved over time to become monotheistic (believing in just one God). Since it's assumed that there is no God, and/or that God had nothing to do with writing the Bible, then the Documentarians read into various texts their views that Hebrew religion used to be polytheistic, but that this got rewritten or covered up by later writers (such as D or P). The Old Testament's own text itself lends no evidence for this view; these scholars just read their own evolutionary assumptions into its text. (Their assumed 19th century anthropology is now known to be questionable: There's plenty of evidence now available that polytheistic religions may have degenerated from originally monotheistic religions in primeval times. The motif of the high god who is generally acknowledged as being in charge, but few worship him actively because he is said to not be actively concerned for his creation, is evidence for this position, such as from the stories told by the Aborigines of Australia).

The Documentary theory also assumes that whenever the Old Testament makes a historical statement, it shouldn't be believed or relied upon unless confirmed by a pagan historical source, such as one written by Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, etc. In point of fact, as shown by the well-known archeologist W.F. Albright, the Bible's historical record time and time again has been confirmed by archeological discoveries. Furthermore, the historical records kept by other civilizations had plenty of biases themselves far greater than anything attributable to the Old Testament, such as glorifying this or that king's reign and/or covering up his failures. By contrast, the Old Testament is extremely critical of the chosen people themselves who wrote it. For example, the moral failings of Abraham, Jacob, Samson, David, and Solomon are put on full display, which a typical non-objective historical book by ancient scribes of the same nation would downplay or omit entirely. So it's absurd to assume pagan historical sources are automatically more reliable than the Hebrew Bible a priori (ahead of experience) even on secular, objective criteria alone.

Archer also observes that ancient Semitic literature by other nations also has multiple cases of duplications and repetition by the same authors when writing narratives. So why is it assumed that the Hebrew Bible couldn't be written the same way? Fundamentally, the Documentary theory mistakenly reads modern day Western literary techniques into the ancient past. When they aren't used by the writers of the Hebrew Bible, it mistakenly concludes there are multiple authors for the same books, etc. While making this point, the scholar Johannes Pedersen totally dumped Wellhausen's theory altogether in his book "The Concept of the Old Testament" (1931). Archer summarized Pedersen's relevant argument this way: "It must be said that in general, J and E cannot be maintained as separate narratives without artificially imposing an Occidental [Western, non-Semitic] viewpoint upon the ancient Semitic narrative techniques and doing violence to Israelite psychology."[22] So repetition is simply one way to emphasize a point, for example.

Let's now turn specifically but briefly to the Documentary theory's analysis of Genesis 1 and 2. The standard claim of J E D P theorists is that these chapters were originally two separate stories of creation written by two authors based (in part) on the fact they generally use different words for God, "Elohim" in Genesis 1 and "Yahweh" in Genesis 2. Of course, in the first five verses of Genesis 3 "Elohim" appears again, so does that mean (very implausibly even if one is a disbelieving skeptic) that the author of Genesis 2 and 3:1-5 are different? Instead, the foundational error in the "two creation accounts" theory is a ignorance of the literary patterns of ancient Semitic literature, which often engaged in recapitulation like what's found in these two chapters. As Archer explains the narrative technique used in these two chapters: "The author would first introduce his account with a short statement summarizing the whole transaction, and then he would follow it up with a more detailed and circumstantial account when dealing with matters of special importance. To the author of Genesis 1-2, the human race was obviously the crowning, or climactic, product of creation, and it was only to be expected that he would devote a more extensive treatment to Adam after he had placed him in his historical setting (the sixth creative day)."[23] Genesis 2 supplies many more details about mankind's creation than Genesis 1 does, which merely mentions it in passing as part of a series of events during the first week of creation. So J E D P theory makes a number of assumptions in order to dispose of Moses as the author of the Pentateuch. When these assumptions are analyzed carefully and dismissed, the traditional single author theory (granted the kinds of exceptions mentioned at the beginning of this section) becomes much more sensible than unverifiable attempts to figure out multiple anonymous authors based on purported stylistic variations.

SOME PROBLEMS WITH NEW

TESTAMENT FORM CRITICISM

Turning now to the New Testament, Form Critics maintain the early church had little or no biographical interest in recording the details of Jesus' life, but was interested mainly in his sayings for the purposes of preaching. First, in reply, these critics evidently use a limited definition of "biography." Analyses by Stanton and Gundry show the Gospels were similar enough to Hellenistic (the ancient Greek world's) biographies so they can be included under that category. The sermons of the early church recorded in Acts routinely and integrally include biographical information about Jesus. C.H. Dodd has even argued that these sermons when describing Jesus' ministry use the same chronological order found in the Gospel of Mark. The manner in which Mark, for example, recorded the names of many individuals and specific geographical locations shows he wasn't creating a legend, myth, or literary piece, but (Barnes) "drew from a living tradition." Mark didn't note that Pilate was the Procurator of Judea, which was a particular matter of historical knowledge. Instead, he emphasized Pilate's belief that Jesus was innocent while on trial before him‑‑a point of biographical interest, not general historical interest. As W.E. Barnes explains:

The Christian tradition which St. Mark followed had a vivid biographical memory. It told that Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, had borne the cross of Jesus, and it recorded the names of three of the women who saw Jesus die‑‑Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the less, and Salome.

Those denying the Gospels are biographical implicitly assume that because they promote a certain (moral) message, they can't be historically accurate. In fact, moral analysis and the historical facts can be on the same side. Even in secular history, points about values can be made without corrupting or ignoring the facts: "The Holocaust shows why people shouldn't let anti-Semitism or racism go unchallenged publicly." Furthermore, why did the Church after the first generation supposedly suddenly develop such an interest in biographical details about Jesus' life, but lacked this earlier? After all, if they had the typical pagan mentality in their religious beliefs, maintaining myths were fine and actual historical events were unimportant, why did this abruptly change later? As Manson notes:

[1].Floyd E. Hamilton, The Basis of the Christian Faith (New York: George H. Doran Co., 1927), p. 310, as cited in Josh McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict (San Bernardino, CA: Here's Life Publishers, 1979), vol. 1, pp. 296-309; John A. Bloom, "Truth Via Prophecy," in John Warwick Montgomery, ed., Evidence for Faith: Deciding the God Question (Dallas: Probe Books, 1991), pp. 184-86; Orley Berg, Treasures in the Sand (Boise, ID: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1993), p. 203.

[2].Herman L. Hoeh, "A New Look at Ezekiel's Prophecy on Tyre," The Authority of the Bible (Pasadena, CA: Worldwide Church of God, 1980), pp. 8-10; McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, pp. 272-80; Bloom, "Truth Via Prophecy," Montgomery, ed., Evidence for Faith, pp. 181-83; Aid to Bible Understanding (New York: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., 1971), p. 1622.

[3].McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, pp. 280-81; Bloom, "Truth Via Prophecy," Montgomery, ed., Evidence for Faith, p. 183; Geoffrey W. Bromiley, gen. ed., International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBN) (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1988), vol. 4, p. 501.

[4].Aid to Bible Understanding, p. 1307; McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, pp. 283-85; Bloom, "Truth Via Prophecy," Montgomery, ed., Evidence for Faith, pp. 183-84.

[5].Bloom, "Truth Via Prophecy," Montgomery, ed., Evidence for Faith, pp. 179-81; McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, pp. 294-96; R.F. Youngblood, "Thebes," Bromiley, ed., ISBN, vol. 4, p. 824; Herbert Lockyer Sr., Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1986), p. 761.

[6].McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, pp. 295-96, 307.

[7].McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, pp. 287-93; Keith N. Schoville, Biblical Archaeology in Focus (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1978), p. 485.

[8].Herbert W. Armstrong, The Middle East in Prophecy (Pasadena, CA: Worldwide Church of God, 1972), pp. 2-3.

[9].Gleason Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1982), p. 283; Berg, Treasures in the Sand, p. 210; McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, pp. 270-72; Lockyer, ed., Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 368; Herodotus, The Histories, trans. Aubrey de Selincourt (London: Penguin Books, 1954), pp. 488-89; Bloom, "Truth Via Prophecy," Montgomery, ed., Evidence for Faith, pp. 176-77; The Bible: God's Word or Man's? (New York: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., 1989), pp. 40-41.

[10].McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, p. 308.

[11].Josh McDowell, More than a Carpenter (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1986), pp. 47-59; McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, pp. 39-43; F.F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?, fifth ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1960), pp. 19-20.

[12].This may be implicitly building upon average people's skepticism of ancient texts, ignoring the reality that textual criticism has its scientific aspects. Textual criticism is also used in analyzing documents that aren't sacred in origin. See C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics, ed., Walter Hooper (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1970), p. 95.

[13].William Foxwell Albright, Christianity Today, Jan. 18, 1963; William Foxwell Albright, From the Stone Age to Christianity (Baltimore: John Hopkins Press, 1946), p. 23; John A. Robinson, Redating the New Testament (London: SCM Press, 1976), all as cited in McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, pp. 62-63; R.T. France, The Evidence for Jesus (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1986), pp. 119-20; Simon Kistemaker, The Gospels in Current Study (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1972), pp. 48 and/or 49, as cited by Josh McDowell, More Evidence that Demands a Verdict (San Bernardino, CA: Here's Life Publishers, 1981), p. 210.

[14].J.P. Moreland, Scaling the Secular City: A Defense of Christianity (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1987), pp. 152-54.

[15].Laurence J. McGinley, Form Criticism of the Synoptic Healing Narratives (Woodstock, MD: Woodstock College Press, 1944), p. 25; James Martin, The Reliability of the Gospels (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1959), p. 103-104; John Warwick Montgomery, History and Christianity (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1964, p. 37, all as cited by McDowell, More Evidence, pp. 211-13; Moreland, Scaling the Secular City, pp. 142-44, 156; Norman Anderson, Jesus Christ: The Witness of History (Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1985), p. 31.

[16].William F. Albright, Recent Discoveries in Bible Lands (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1955), p. 136, as cited by McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, pp. 62-63.

[17].See Robert A. Morey, The New Atheism and the Erosion of Freedom (Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1986), p. 112. He cites in turn David Estrada and William White Jr., The First New Testament (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1978). James C. VanderKam sounds a skeptical note in The Dead Sea Scrolls After Forty Years (Washington, DC: Biblical Archeology Society, 1991), p. 35; McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, pp. 42-43.

[18].Gleason Archer, A Survey of Old Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1964), p. 19; William Henry Green, General Introduction to the Old Testament‑‑The Text (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1899), p. 181; Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible (Chicago: Moody Press, 1968), p. 263, all as cited in McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, pp. 56, 58.

[19] Gleason Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction (Chicago: Moody Press, 1994), p. 114. This book is heavily depended upon throughout this section analyzing the J E D P theory.

[20] Ibid.

[21] Ibid., p. 129.

[22] Ibid., pp. 105, 115.

[23] Ibid., p. 135.

[24].G.N. Stanton in "Ancient Biographical Writing," Jesus of Nazareth in New Testament Preaching‑‑see E.C. Blackman, "Jesus Christ Yesterday: The Historical Basis of the Christian Faith," Canadian Journal of Theology (April 1961), vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 118-27; Stanley N. Gundry, "A Critique of the Fundamental Assumption of Form Criticism, Part I," Bibliotheca Sacra (April 1966), no. 489, pp. 32-39; see also J.P. Moreland's Th.M. Thesis, 1979, Dallas Theological Seminary, p. 87; my emphasis, W.E. Barnes, Gospel Criticism and Form Criticism (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1936), from pp. 11-16; T.W. Manson, "The Quest of the Historical Jesus‑‑Continues," Studies in the Gospels and Epistles, ed. Matthew Black (Manchester, England: Manchester University Press, 1962), all as cited in McDowell, More Evidence, pp. 266-68; Moreland, Scaling the Secular City, p. 140.

[25].Moreland, Scaling the Secular City, p. 141; Barnes, Gospel Criticism, pp. 15 and/or 16; E.L. Abel, "Psychology of Memory and Rumor Transmission and Their Bearing on Theories of Oral Transmission in Early Christianity," Journal of Religion (Oct. 1971), vol. 51, pp. 375-76, the last two as in McDowell, More Evidence, pp. 266, 272. This goes against form criticism because it normally maintains the original story was the more simple, not the more complex and detailed, saying later generations of Christians added more details. In point of fact, the more detailed the (historical) account, the more likely it was the original one, based on research by Abel and others on how humans remember things.

[26].Moreland, Scaling the Secular City, pp. 136-38.

[27].Moreland, Scaling the Secular City, pp. 141, 145-47.

[28].Even they comment that "the same basic story in contained both in the majority text and in the other texts, and that no crucial doctrine of the Christian faith rests upon the 10% that is in dispute." Josh McDowell and Don Stewart, Reasons Skeptics Should Consider Christianity (San Bernardino, CA: Here's Life Publishers, 1981), p. 48. To gain a feel for the differences involved, you should consult the second apparatus (second set of footnotes) that compares the Received text with the Critical text in the following edition of the Greek New Testament: Zane C. Hodges and Arthur L. Farstad, eds., The Greek New Testament According to the Majority Text, 2d ed., (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1985). A casual look at the second apparatus indicates much of this "10%" is composed of switches in order, the substitution of one word for another often similar in form, or the addition or omission of articles and prepositions. By using a Greek/English interlinear in comparison with this Greek New Testament, you could see what the practical differences are between the two. Using simultaneously two interlinears, one containing the Critical text, such as the Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures (Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., 1985), and another having the Received text, such as Jay P. Green's The Interlinear Bible Hebrew-Greek-English (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1986), would aid in this process for those seriously inclined to pursue it, but who can't read Greek. Benjamin Wilson's Emphatic Dialgott (New York: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1942), with its hybrid text and its notes comparing its Greek text with Vaticanus, may interest those wishing to do some amateur textual criticism.

[29].David Otis Fuller, ed., Which Bible? (Grand Rapids, MI: Grand Rapids International Publications, 1975), pp. 168, 169. For anyone seeking a solid defense of the Received text, this book is a good place to start.

[30].C.F. Sitterly and J.H. Greenlee, "Text and MSS of the NT," Bromiley, gen. ed., ISBN, vol. 4, p. 818; Abbott cited in Benjamin B. Warfield, Introduction to Textual Criticism of the New Testament, 7th ed. (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1907), p. 14; Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible (Chicago: Moody Press, 1968), p. 365; Philip Schaff, Companion to the Greek Testament and the English Version (New York: Macmillan Co., 1952), p. 177, the last three as cited in McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, pp. 43-44; as found in Otis, Which Bible?, p. 119.

[31].For the two lists of words, evidence that Jesus could have spoken Greek, and general evidence for the overall Jewishness of the Gospel accounts, see Josh McDowell and Bill Wilson, He Walked Among Us: Evidence for the Historical Jesus (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1993), pp. 233-61; William G. Most, Catholic Apologetics Today: Answers to Modern Critics Does It Make Sense to Believe? (Rockford, IL: Tan Books and Publishers, 1986), pp. 44-47; my emphasis, Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, book 20, chapter 11, section 2; Hellenism (Bentwich, 1919), p. 115, as cited in Aid to Bible Understanding, p. 693; see also Moreland, Scaling the Secular City, p. 147.

[32].Robin Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1989), p. 305. Please note that Fox is not a Christian.

[33].Aid to Bible Understanding, pp. 693-94. Similarly, Price maintains the weight of the evidence favors seeing Matthew as a Jewish Christian for these reasons: (1) His respect for Jewish law [as reflected in the words of Jesus] (Matt. 5:17-20; 24:20; 23:23). (2) His recording that the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat (Matt. 23:2-3). (3) "His use of rabbinical modes of argumentation from scripture‑‑all of these things, combined with his sharp hostility toward scribes and Pharisees who oppose Jesus (23:13, 29-33), make credible the view that the First Evangelist was formerly a scribe of the sect of the Pharisees [This is admittedly speculative‑‑EVS]. . . . Matthew's universal outlook and undoubted support of the Gentile mission does not obscure his concern to affirm, not reject, his own and others' Jewish past." James L. Price, The New Testament: Its History and Theology (Macmillan Publishing Co., 1987), p. 158.

[33].

[34].F.F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), p. 277. This book should be consulted by all those with particular concerns on this issue, as well Bruce Metzger's The Canon of the New Testament (Oxford, 1987). M.R. James, The Apocryphal New Testament, p. xii; G. Milligan, The New Testament Documents, p. 228; Kurt Aland, The Problem of the New Testament Canon (1962), p. 24, all three as cited in "All Scripture Is Inspired of God and Beneficial" (New York: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., 1963), p. 303; Ned B. Stonehouse, "The Authority of the New Testament," The Infallible Word (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1946), as cited by McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, p. 36. The real parameters of disputes over the canon in the third century concerned a relatively small part of the New Testament, and none of the Gospels. Furthermore, only some Christians doubted this or that book, not huge chunks of the Church. See France, Evidence for Jesus, pp. 123-24. For those interested in briefly surveying the flavor and quality of the apocryphal gospels, see McDowell and Wilson, He Walked Among Us, pp. 90-105.

[35].Jerome as cited by Bruce, Canon of Scripture, pp. 226-27; Aland, The Problem of the New Testament Canon, p. 18, as cited in "All Scripture is Inspired of God and Beneficial", p. 301; Bruce, Canon of Scripture, p. 217; see also McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, p. 37.

[36].See Bruce, New Testament Documents, p. 27. He says it is wrong to think the church's reaction against Marcion's advocacy of a clipped canon (c. 140 A.D.) was the first time the church became serious about formalizing the canon. Instead, the challenge of heresy speeded up the process (p. 26). Bruce's Canon of Scripture, which surveys the Catholic Church Fathers and others on this subject, makes it painfully evident that the canon was not unilaterally decided top-down by a small group of individuals on top of the Catholic Church's hierarchy.

[37].Life‑‑How Did It Get Here? By Evolution or by Creation? (New York: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, 1985), pp. 208-10; McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, p. 68; Schoville, Biblical Archaeology in Focus, p. 130; Berg, Treasures in the Sand, pp. 177-78, 186-87.

[38].Berg, Treasures in the Sand, pp. 36, 55-56; Lockyer, Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 1000.

[39].Yigael Yadkin, Hazor: The Rediscovery of a Great Citadel of the Bible (New York: Random House, 1975), pp. 193, 195; as cited by Berg, Treasures in the Sand, pp. 149-50.

[40].Moshe Pearlman, Digging Up the Bible (1980), p. 85; as quoted in Life‑‑How Did It Get Here?, p. 209; K.A. Kitchen, "Shishak," Bromiley, ed., ISBN, vol. 4, p. 489; Berg, Treasures in the Sand, pp. 154-55.

[41].Schoville, Biblical Archaeology in Focus, pp. 142, 485; Berg, Treasures in the Sand, pp. 156-57, 160-61; Life--How Did It Get Here?, pp. 212-13; W.S. LaSor, "Shalmaneser," Bromiley, ed., ISBN, vol. 4, p. 446.

[42].Berg, Treasures in the Sand, pp. 183-85; Life‑‑How Did It Get Here? By Evolution or By Creation?, pp. 209-10.

[43].Raymond Philip Dougherty, Nabonidus and Belshazzar (1929), p. 200 as cited in Life‑‑How Did It Get Here?, p. 211; Berg, Treasures in the Sand, p. 205.

[44].Life‑‑How Did It Get Here?, pp. 210-11; Berg, Treasures in the Sand, pp. 192, 205.

[45].Berg, Treasures in the Sand, pp. 131-33, 142, 157, 181, 195-200, 205-7; Lockyer, ed., Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 992.

[46].The Bible: God's Word or Man's? (New York: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, 1989), pp. 49-53; Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, pp. 191, 195-96; John Garstang, The Foundations of Bible History; Joshua, Judges (London: Constable, 1931), p. 146, the last as noted in McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, p. 69.

[47].Morey, New Atheism, p. 127; William F. Albright, The Archaeology of Palestine, rev. ed (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Pelican Books, 1960), p. 141, as cited in McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, p. 73.

[48].Michael J. Howard, "Unearthing Pontius Pilate," Baltimore Sun, March 24, 1980, pp. B1, B2; as found in Life‑‑How Did It Get Here?, pp. 211-12.

[49].McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, pp. 70-73; D. James Kennedy, Why I Believe (1980), p. 28, as cited by Mario Seiglie, "How to Understand the Bible," Good News, Sept./Oct. 1997, p. E2; see also Morey, New Atheism, p. 128.

[50].C.L. Blomberg, "Quirinius," Bromiley, ed., ISBN, vol. 4, p. 12-13; Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, pp. 365-66; Dictionnaire du Nouveau Testament in Crampon's French Bible (1939), p. 360, as cited by Aid to Bible Understanding, p. 1383; McDowell and Wilson, He Walked Among Us, pp. 200-204; see also McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, p. 71. Sir William Ramsay runs his arguments in favor of certain inscriptions found in and around Antioch as favoring Quirinius serving an earlier term as legate in Syria in The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament, pp, 285, 291, as cited in Insight on the Scriptures, vol. 2 (New York: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York Inc., 1988), p. 767; see also p. 722.

[51].McDowell and Wilson, He Walked Among Us, p. 204. (Their form of citation appears to be nonstandard, but they reference it to his Poetics).

[52].Kingsley Davis, Encyclopedia Britannica, 14th ed., 5:168, as cited by Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, p. 366; Aid to Bible Understanding, p. 1383; John Elder, Prophets, Idols and Diggers (Indianapolis and New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1960), p. 160, as cited by McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, p. 71; Harold W. Hoehner, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1977), p. 15; Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, trans. R.M. Strachen, 4th ed. (New York: Doran, 1927), pp. 270-71, the last two as cited by McDowell and Wilson, He Walked Among Us, pp. 201-2; Lockyer, ed., Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 214.

[53].Annals, Loeb edition, 15, 44; as cited in McDowell and Wilson, He Walked Among Us, p. 49. They make a detailed defense of the authenticity of this statement, including a reasonable argument that Tacitus based his statement on public records, not just hearsay from Christians in Rome. Both Justin Martyr and Tertullian challenged readers to look up such records about certain details of Jesus' life. (See pp. 48-51).

[54].Lucian, The Passing Peregrinus; Suetonius, Life of Claudius, 25, 4; Pliny the Younger, Epistles, X, 96, all as cited in McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, pp. 82-85.

[55].See Antiquities, book 18, chapter 5, section 2, cited in McDowell and Wilson, He Walked Among Us, pp. 37-38.

[56].Antiquities, book 20, chapter 9, section 1; as cited in McDowell and Wilson, He Walked Among Us, pp. 38-39. Interestingly, in Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, p. 83, McDowell cites a more skeptical translation of Josephus in this passage: "the brother of Jesus the so-called Christ, whose name was James." The Greek reads "ho legomenos Christos," which Josephus at least once elsewhere uses in a dismissive tone, such as when he refers to Alexandria as Apion's alleged birthplace. Although the New Testament uses it non-skeptically in Matt. 1:16, it's necessary to determine how Josephus uses this term, not how the New Testament does to judge what Josephus meant. By this rendering, it's completely impossible that it was a Christian scribe's fabricated interpolation. Even the less skeptical version is still a very weak affirmation for a Christian scribe bent on perverting Josephus into a supporter of Christianity. See France, Evidence for Jesus, p. 27, 171 (fn. 12).

[57].France, Evidence for Jesus, pp. 29-31; McDowell and Wilson, He Walked Among Us, pp. 41-45. An Arabic text of this same passage of Josephus has been found in a tenth century manuscript. This may contain something closer to the original, assuming a Muslim scribe hadn't toned down the doctored up "Christianized" version!

[58].See Moreland, Scaling the Secular City, pp. 137-38.

[59].Fox, Pagans and Christians, pp. 482-83; Joseph Klausner, Jesus of Nazareth (New York: Menorah Publishing Co., 1925), p. 23; Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, 4th ed., trans. R.M. Strachen (New York: Doran, 1927), pp. 73-74; Morris Goldstein, Jesus in Jewish Tradition (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1950), pp. 38, 39, the last three as cited in McDowell and Wilson, He Walked Among Us, pp. 66-67.

[60].A good attempt to deal with the various issues raised by the parallel accounts of the resurrection is found in Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, pp. 345-56.

[61].Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, pp. 337-38; Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 1117-19.

[62].John W. Haley, Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible (Springdale, PA: Whitaker House, n.d.), p. 389; Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, pp. 378-79; Kevin D. Miller, "The War of the Scrolls," Christianity Today (Oct. 6, 1997), p. 43.

[63].Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, pp. 221-22, 401.

[64].Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, p. 316; Haley, Alleged Discrepancies, pp. 325-26; John H. Wheeler, "Letter to Eric V. Snow," July 19, 199[7], p. 6.

[65].Is the Bible Really the Word of God? (Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., 1969), pp. 83-86; Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, pp. 332-33; W.E. Vine, and Merrill F. Unger and William White, eds., An Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1985), p. 296.

[66].C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Collier Books, Macmillan Publishing Co., 1952), p. 56; Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1962 (original publication, 1910), p. 1095, as cited by Josh McDowell, More than a Carpenter (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1977), p. 29.

[67].McDowell develops this line of reasoning at length. See More than a Carpenter, pp. 25-35; Evidence That Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, pp. 103-9.

[68].James Edward Leslie Newbigin, The Finality of Christ (Richmond, VA: John Knox Press, 1969), p. 62, as quoted in Josh McDowell, The Resurrection Factor (San Bernardino, CA: Here's Life Publishers, 1981), p. 15.

[69].Dr. J.N.D. Anderson, "The Resurrection of Jesus Christ," Christianity Today, March 29, 1968, p. 6, as cited by McDowell, Resurrection Factor, p. 81. The evidence for the first century composition of the New Testament was discussed earlier above, a point that administers a death blow to claims that the Gospels were myths or legends. They simply were written much too close in time to the events they describe to fit in with how works in this literary genre develop.

[70].McDowell, More than a Carpenter, pp. 60-77, 89-100; McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, pp. 179-263; McDowell, Resurrection Factor, pp. 13-103; McDowell and Wilson, He Walked Among Us, pp. 278-90.

[71].Michael Green, Man Alive (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1968), p. 36, as cited by McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, p. 218.

[72].See McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, pp. 210-14; McDowell, Resurrection Factor, pp. 54-55.

[73].As summarized by Heinrich Kluerer in Paul H. Hoch, Joseph Zubin, and Grhune Stratton, eds., Psychopathology of Perception (New York: n.p., 1965), p. 18; L.E. Hinsie and J. Shatsky, Psychiatric Dictionary (New York: Oxford University Press, 1948), p. 280, both as cited by McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, pp. 249-50.

[74].George Currie, The Military Discipline of the Romans from the Founding of the City to the Close of the Republic, pp. 41-43, as cited in McDowell, Resurrection Factor, p. 93.

[75].See the Worldwide Church of God reprint article, "Did Christ Die of a Broken Heart?," 1959, 1972, pp. 3-5.

[76].Thomas James Thorburn, The Resurrection Narratives and Modern Criticism (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1910), pp. 183-85, as cited by McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, p. 233; David Friedrich Strauss, The Life of Jesus for the People, 2d ed. (London: William & Norgate, 1879), vol. 1, p. 412, as cited by McDowell, Resurrection Factor, pp. 98-99.

[77].See Dave Hunt and Ed Decker, The God Makers (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 1984), pp. 102-3.

[78].The information above on the Quran is mostly based upon Robert Morey, Islam Unveiled: The True Desert Storm (Shermans Dale, PA: The Scholars Press, 1991), pp. 48-51, 61, 75-76, 116-21, 131-41. The verse numbers as cited above are those of J.M. Rodwell's 1861 translation of the Quran into English, with some reference to Dawood's revised 1974 translation. Morey's book is decidedly imperfect: He is careless sometimes, proofread it poorly, and apparently doesn't know Islamic/Middle Eastern history in-depth. Using a ridiculously out of context citation of the Quran, he falsely accuses Islam of racism (p. 150). Nevertheless, enough remains in his work to destroy any rational faith in Islam, which another publisher reissued as The Islamic Invasion. Background on the Satanic Verses incident also comes from W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman (London: Oxford University Press, 1961), pp. 60-65.

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