Daily Help

Monday, December 29, 2025
Bible Reading

• Plan One: New Testament Only
• Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
• Plan Three: New Testament + History
• Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3

Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.

Extras

Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute

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(Book Installment)

The Duty of a Man:
Keeping a Family in Jesus Christ and the Bible

Chapter 6: The Primary Historical Sources

Keep in mind that in this chapter, the previous one, and the next, we’re still just talking about history – not theology or philosophy. Neither, for the time being, are we treating the apostolic texts as the word of God – only as the word of men about a man.

The 8 authors

• APOSTLES: These men were appointed personally by Jesus to represent Him. He appointed 12 of them at the beginning of his ministry, and others as time went on.
  • Peter, a commercial fisherman, was one of the original 12 apostles and wrote two of the letters.
  • John, a commercial fisherman, was one of the original 12 apostles; he wrote one of the four Gospels, and four of the letters (including Revelation).
  • Matthew, a tax collector, was one of the original 12 apostles and wrote one of the Gospels.
  • Paul was not one of the original 12 apostles, but he made up for lost time. Known also as Saul of Tarsus, he was a tent-maker by trade, and a Pharisee fiercely-opposed to Jesus and his followers. Through a dramatic conversion experience, Paul began following the man he had hated. He wrote 14 letters.
• APOSTOLIC ASSISTANTS: These men worked under the direct supervision of an apostle.
  • Mark wrote one of the Gospels. He worked alternately under Paul and Peter.
  • Luke, a physician, wrote one of the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. Luke worked under Paul.
• JESUS’ BROTHERS: Jesus’ siblings were initially skeptical of his ministry, but, like Paul, were converted into believers…and treated as apostles.
  • James was the eldest of Mary’s and Joseph’s other sons. He wrote one letter.
  • Jude was a younger brother of James, and also wrote one letter.

Did These Men Get the Facts about Jesus Right?

Clearly, not all of Jesus’ apostles wrote – only a subset of them. We needn’t think the eight men all wrote alone. In fact, in some cases we know they had help – even scribes to do the actual writing. But each text is traced to one man – either as the solo or primary author.

All eight men, with the possible exceptions of Paul and Luke, were Jews based in Israel – just like Jesus. Each of the eight is mentioned, however briefly, in at least two texts that he himself did not write. Clearly, these men were contemporaries of Jesus, were in a position to know the things they wrote about, and were all writing in the 1st century.

These eight men were not writing for us, nor were they seeking to bear witness to each other – but their writings do speak to us, and by their references to each other they do buttress each other’s testimony. They gave their own eyewitness testimony and they reported the eyewitness testimony of others. They were writing to congregations of people who had believed what had been preached to them about Jesus.

These eight men did not always agree about everything. Some of them were initially skeptical – even hostile – to Jesus. But the uniform theme of their 27 writings was that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah promised by God in Jewish Scriptures – what we call the Old Testament – and that this was confirmed, most notably, by his resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven.

Common Objections to the Primary Historical Sources

• “Miracles don’t happen!” – If there’s no God, then it’s probably okay to say there are no miracles. But if God is, don’t miracles, by definition, become possible?
• “The authors are lying!” – All eight of them? And what about the people who received their writings as truthful – do you think every ancient believer was a gullible doofus?
• “The authors were deluded!” – This statement concedes that the authors weren’t intentionally lying, but were hallucinating or otherwise under some sort of delusion. The only way you can honestly and reasonably believe this about the New Testament is if you avoid reading it.
• “Historians don’t take the New Testament seriously – they’re not even sure if Jesus lived!” – This objection is mindless, but in the age of the internet, lots of mindless ideas gain traction. Professional historians of ancient history – regardless of their perspective on religion – unite around the fact that Jesus of Nazareth lived, was a Jewish teacher popular with Jewish crowds but unpopular with Jewish rulers, and was crucified by Roman authorities in the early 30’s AD.

Factual or a Pack of Lies?

These eight men suffered great persecution – to the point of imprisonment, torture, and death. What motive did they have to lie? And since they were spread all over the Roman Empire when they wrote, what means or opportunity did they have to coordinate their stories and pull off what would have been a conspiracy for the ages? And how were legends or any other falsehoods inserted in their writings since all the copies we have are consistent with each other? The simplest explanation for the testimony of the eight men is that they were sensible and sincere. Therefore, the only question left to ask is, “Were these eyewitnesses too dumb to know the difference between a dead man and a living one?”

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