It is very difficult to believe that these titles were added at some later date after they were spread around the known world. The easiest of these, and I think sufficient to prove the point, is that the current titles of the Gospels are the only ones that we know of.

In Jesus and the Eyewitnesses Bauckham gives three arguments to defend the fact that the Gospel authors were known in the the Christian community from the beginning. Although it is true that the authors of the Gospels do not name themselves in the text, the idea that the Gospel authors were unknown is not historically defensible. Scholars often make the mistake of assuming the written accounts were far removed from the eyewitnesses, but, according to Bauckham, this was not the case.Īnother common claim made by followers of form criticism is that the Gospels were anonymous. Much current scholarly discussion ignores the fact that the eyewitnesses were still around and people sought out their witness over second hand accounts. Richard Bauckham, in Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, counters this belief by showing that the Gospels are actually trustworthy eyewitness accounts written down during the lifetime of the eyewitnesses. This belief caused many to think that the stories and teaching of Jesus in the New Testament are unreliable and the true 'historical Jesus' was hidden behind the fables and distortions that developed over this period of aural transmission. The principles of form criticism convinced many that the Gospel accounts experienced a long period of aural transmission during which time the original accounts became significantly altered. So, with that in mind, here are some of what I thought were the key concepts taught in this book.Ī lot has been written about the 'historical Jesus' in contrast to the Jesus found in the Gospels. I will do my best to summarize some of the main points of this excellent book, but I cannot get close to covering all of the topics of a 700 page book in even a long blog post. Specifically, this book defends the position that the Gospels are eyewitness accounts written down by the eyewitnesses or by someone who talked to an eyewitness. This book is both a Biblical studies book and an apologetics book - which means it is written to defend the Christian faith and strengthen your faith in God and His Word. One warning: this is a 700 page scholarly book, so you will need to keep your brain engaged as you read it.

If you want to purchase the book, I encourage you to do it through Amazon Smile () and select Worship Arts Conservatory as your charity. The full name of the book is Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and encourage you to check it out.

Bauckham jesus and the eyewitnesses