Shadowing Practice: 1/ 1 The Case for Christ Chapter Eyewitness Evidence does it reach a reasonable level of certainty - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Chapter 1 The Eyewitness Evidence Can the Biographies of Jesus Be Trusted?
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When I first met shy and soft-spoken Leo Carter, he was a 17-year-old veteran of Chicago's grittiest neighborhood.
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His testimony had put three killers in prison, and he was still carrying a .38 caliber slug in his skull.
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A grisly reminder of a horrific saga that began when he witnessed Elijah Baptist gun down a local grocer.
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Leo and a friend, Leslie Scott, were playing basketball when they saw Elijah, then a 16-year-old delinquent with 30 arrests on his rap sheet,
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slay Sam Blue outside his grocery store.
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Leo had known the grocer since childhood.
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When we didn't have any food, he'd give us some, Leo explained to me in a quiet voice.
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So when I went to the hospital and they said he was dead, I knew I'd have to testify about what I saw.
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Eyewitness testimony is powerful.
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One of the most dramatic moments in a trial is
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when a witness describes in detail the crime that he or she saw, and then points confidently toward the defendant as being the perpetrator.
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Elijah Baptist knew that the only way to avoid prison
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would be to somehow prevent Leo Carter and Leslie Scott from doing just that.
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So Elijah and two of his pals went hunting.
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Soon they tracked down Leo and Leslie, who were walking down the street with Leo's brother Henry, and they dragged all three at gunpoint to a darkened loading dock nearby.
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I like you, Elijah's cousin said to Leo, but I've got to do this.
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With that, he pressed a pistol to the bridge of Leo's nose and yanked the trigger.
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The gun roared.
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The bullet penetrated at a slight angle, blinding Leo in his right eye and embedding in his head.
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When he crumbled to the ground, another shot was fired, this bullet lodging two inches from his spine.
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As Leo watched from his sprawled position,
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pretending he was dead, He saw his sobbing brother and friend ruthlessly executed at close range.
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When Elijah and his gang fled, Leo crawled to safety.
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Somehow, against all odds, Leo Carter lived.
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The bullet, too precarious to be removed, remained in his skull.
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Despite searing headaches that strong medication couldn't dull,
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he became the sole eyewitness against Elijah Baptist at his trial for killing grocer Sam Blue.
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The jurors believed Leo, and Elijah was sentenced to 80 years in prison.
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And again, Leo was the only eyewitness to testify against Elijah
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and his two companions in the slayings of his brother and his friend.
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And once more, his word was good enough to land the trio in prison for the rest of their lives.
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Leo Carter is one of my heroes.
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He made sure justice was served, even though he paid a monumental price for it.
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When I think of eyewitness testimony, even to this day, all these years later, his face still appears in my mind.
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Yes, eyewitness testimony can be compelling and convincing.
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When a witness has had ample opportunity to observe a crime, when there's no bias or ulterior motives, when the witness is truthful and fair,
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the climactic act of pointing out a defendant in a courtroom can be enough to doom that person to prison or worse.
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an eyewitness testimony is just as crucial in investigating historical matters
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even the issue of whether jesus christ is the unique son of god
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but what eyewitness accounts do we possess do we have the
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testimony of anyone who personally interacted with jesus who listened to
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his teachings who saw his miracles who witnessed his death and who perhaps even encountered him after his alleged resurrection.
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Do we have any records from first-century journalists who interviewed eyewitnesses,
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asked tough questions, and faithfully recorded what they scrupulously determined to be true?
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Equally important, how well would these accounts withstand the scrutiny of skeptics?
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I knew that just as Leo Carter's testimony clinched the convictions of three brutal murderers,
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eyewitness accounts from the mists of distant time could help resolve the most important spiritual issue of all.
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To get solid answers, I arranged to interview the nationally renowned scholar who literally wrote the book on the topic,
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Dr. Craig Blomberg, author of The Historical Reliability of the Gospels.
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I knew Blomberg was smart.
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In fact, even his appearance fit the stereotype.
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Tall at six foot two and lanky with short wavy brown hair unceremoniously combed forward,
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a fuzzy beard and thick rimless glasses.
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He looked like the type who would have been valedictorian of his high school.
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He was.
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A national merit scholar.
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He was.
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And a magna cum laude graduate of a prestigious seminary.
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He was from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
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But I wanted someone who was more than just intelligent and educated.
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I was searching for an expert who wouldn't gloss over nuances or blithely dismiss challenges to the records of Christianity.
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I wanted someone with integrity, someone who has grappled with the most potent critiques of the faith and who speaks authoritatively,
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but without the kind of sweeping statements that conceal rather than deal with critical issues.
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I was told Blomberg was exactly what I was looking for, and I flew to Denver wondering if he could measure up.
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Admittedly, I had a few doubts, especially when my research yielded one profoundly disturbing fact that he would probably have preferred had remained hidden.
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Blomberg still holds out hope that his beloved childhood heroes, the Chicago Cubs, will win the World Series in his lifetime.
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frankly that was enough to make me a bit suspicious of his discernment
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the first interview craig l blomberg phd craig blomberg is widely
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considered to be one of the country's foremost authorities on the biographies of jesus
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which are called the four gospels he received his doctorate in
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new testament from aberdeen university in scotland later serving as a senior research fellow at Tyndale House at Cambridge University in England,
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where he was part of an elite group of international scholars that produced a series of acclaimed works on Jesus.
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For the last dozen years, he has been a professor of New Testament at the highly respected Denver Seminary.
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In addition to the historical reliability of the Gospels, Blomberg's books include The Historical Reliability of John's Gospel,
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Jesus and the Gospels, Interpreting the Parables, Can We Still Believe the Bible?, and Commentaries on the Gospel of Matthew and 1 Corinthians.
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He also helped edit Volume 6 of Gospel Perspectives, which deals at length with the miracles of Jesus.
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And he co-authored Introduction to Biblical Interpretation and a handbook of New Testament exegesis.
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He contributed chapters on the historicity of the Gospels to the award-winning book, Jesus Under Fire.
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His memberships include the Society for the Study of the New Testament, Society of Biblical Literature, and the Institute for Biblical Research.
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As I expected, his office had more than its share of scholarly volumes stacked on the shelves.
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He was even wearing a tie emblazoned with drawings of books.
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However, I quickly noted that his office walls were dominated not by dusty tomes from ancient historians, but by artwork from his young daughters.
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Their whimsical and colorful depictions of llamas, houses, and flowers weren't haphazardly pinned up as a casual afterthought.
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They had obviously been treated as prizes, painstakingly matted, carefully framed, and personally autographed by Elizabeth and Rachel themselves.
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Clearly, I thought to myself, this man has a heart as well as a brain.
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Blomberg speaks with the precision of a mathematician.
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Yes, he taught mathematics too earlier in his career,
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carefully measuring each word out of an apparent reluctance to tread even one nuance beyond where the evidence warrants.
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Exactly what I was looking for.
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As he settled into a high-backed chair, cup of coffee in hand, I too sipped some coffee to ward off the Colorado chill.
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Since I sensed Blomberg was a get-to-the-point kind of guy, I decided to start my interview by cutting to the core of the issue.
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Tell me this, I said with an edge of challenge in my voice.
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is it really possible to be an intelligent, critically thinking person and still believe that the four Gospels were written by the people whose names have been attached to them?
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Blomberg set his cup of coffee on the edge of his desk and looked intently at me.
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The answer is yes, he said with conviction.
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He sat back and continued.
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It's important to acknowledge that, strictly speaking, the Gospels are anonymous.
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But the uniform testimony of the early church was that Matthew, also known as Levi, the tax collector and one of the twelve disciples,
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was the author of the first gospel in the New Testament.
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That John Mark, a companion of Peter, was the author of the gospel we call Mark.
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And that Luke, known as Paul's beloved physician, wrote both the gospel of Luke and the acts of the apostles.
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How uniform was the belief that they were the authors?
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I asked.
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There are no known competitors for these three Gospels, he said.
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Apparently, it was just not in dispute.
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Even so, I wanted to test the issue further.
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Excuse my skepticism, I said, but would anyone have had a motivation to lie by claiming these people wrote these Gospels when they really didn't?
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Blomberg shook his head.
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probably not remember these were unlikely characters he said a grin breaking on his face
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mark and luke weren't even among the 12 disciples matthew was
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but as a former hated tax collector he would have been
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the most infamous character next to judas iscariot who betrayed jesus
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contrast this with what happened when the fanciful apocryphal gospels were written much later
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people chose the names of well-known and exemplary figures to be their fictitious authors
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philip peter mary james those names carried a lot more weight than the names of matthew mark and luke
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so to answer your question there would not have been any
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reason to attribute authorship to these three less respected people
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if it weren't true now that sounded logical but it was obvious
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that he was conveniently leaving out one of the gospel writers.
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What about John, I asked?
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He was extremely prominent.
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In fact, he wasn't just one of the twelve disciples, but one of Jesus' inner three, along with James and Peter.
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Yes, he's the one exception, Blomberg conceded with a nod.
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And interestingly, John is the only gospel about which there is some question about authorship.
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What exactly is in dispute?
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The name of the author isn't in doubt.
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It's certainly John, Blomberg replied.
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The question is whether it was John the Apostle or a different John.
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You see, the testimony of a Christian named Papias, dated about A.D.
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125, refers to John the Apostle and John the Elder.
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And it's not clear from the context whether he's talking about one person from two perspectives or two different people.
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But granted that exception, the rest of the early testimony is unanimous that it was John the Apostle, the son of Zebedee, who wrote the gospel.
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And, I said, in an effort to pin him down further, you're convinced that he did?
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Yes, I believe the substantial majority of the material goes back to the apostle, he replied.
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However, if you read the gospel closely, you can see some indication that its concluding verses may have been finalized by an editor.
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Personally, I have no problem believing that somebody closely associated with John may have functioned in that role,
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putting the last verses into shape and potentially creating the stylistic uniformity of the entire document.
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But in any event, he stressed, the gospel is obviously based on eyewitness material, as are the other three gospels.
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While I appreciated Blomberg's comments so far, I wasn't ready to move on yet.
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The issue of who wrote the gospels is tremendously important, and I wanted specific details, names, dates, quotations.
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I finished off my coffee and put the cup on his desk.
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Pen poised, I prepared to dig deeper.
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Let's go back to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, I said.
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What specific evidence do you have that they are the authors of the Gospels?
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Blomberg leaned forward.
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Again, the oldest and probably most significant testimony comes from Papias, who in about A.D.
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125 specifically affirmed that Mark had carefully and accurately recorded Peter's eyewitness observations.
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In fact, he said Mark made no mistake and did not include any false statement.
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And Papias said Matthew had preserved the teachings of Jesus as well.
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Then Irenaeus, writing about AD 180, confirmed the traditional authorship.
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In fact, here, he said, reaching for a book, he flipped it open and read Irenaeus' words.
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Matthew published his own gospel among the Hebrews in their own tongue, when Peter and Paul were preaching the gospel in Rome and founding the church there.
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After their departure, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, himself handed down to us in writing the substance of Peter's preaching.
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Luke, the follower of Paul, sat down in a book the gospel preached by his teacher.
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Then John, the disciple of the Lord, who also leaned on his breast, himself produced his gospel while he was living at Ephesus in Asia.
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I looked up from the notes I was taking.
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Okay, let me clarify this, I said.
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If we can have confidence that the gospels were written by the disciples Matthew and John, by Mark, the companion of the disciple Peter,
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and by Luke, the historian, companion of Paul, and sort of a first century journalist,
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we can be assured that the events they recorded are based on either direct or indirect eyewitness testimony.
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As I was speaking, Blomberg was mentally sifting my words.
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When I finished, he nodded.
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Exactly, he said crisply.
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There were still some troubling aspects of the Gospels that I needed to clarify.
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In particular, I wanted to better understand the kind of literary genre they represented.
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When I go to the bookstore and look in the biography section, I don't see the same kind of writing that I see in the Gospels, I said.
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When somebody writes a biography these days, they thoroughly delve into the person's life.
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But look at Mark.
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He doesn't talk about the birth of Jesus or really anything through Jesus' early adult years.
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Instead, he focuses on a three-year period
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and spends half his gospel on the events leading up to and culminating in Jesus' last week.
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How do you explain that?
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Blomberg held up a couple of fingers.
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There are two reasons, he replied.
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One is literary and the other is theological.
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The literary reason is that basically, this is how people wrote biographies in the ancient world.
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They did not have the sense, as we do today, that it was important to give equal proportion to all periods of an individual's life,
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or that it was necessary to tell the story in strictly chronological order, or even to quote people verbatim, as long as the essence of what they said was preserved.
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Ancient Greek and Hebrew didn't even have a symbol for quotation marks.
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The only purpose for which they thought history was worth recording was
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because there were some lessons to be learned from the characters described.
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Therefore, the biographer wanted to dwell at length on those portions of the person's life that were exemplary, that were illustrative, that could help other people,
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that gave meaning to a period of history.
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And what's the theological reason, I asked?
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It flows out of the point I just made.
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Christians believe that as wonderful as Jesus' life and teachings and miracles were, they were meaningless if it were not historically factual that Christ died
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and was raised from the dead and that this provided atonement or forgiveness of the sins of humanity.
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So Mark, in particular, as the writer of probably the earliest gospel, devotes roughly half of his narrative to the events leading up to,
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including one week's period of time and culminating in Christ's death and resurrection.
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Given the significance of the crucifixion, he concluded, this makes perfect sense in ancient literature.
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In addition to the four Gospels, scholars often refer to what they call Q, which stands for the German word Quell or Source.
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Because of similarities in language and content,
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it has traditionally been assumed that Matthew and Luke drew upon Mark's earlier gospel in writing their own.
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In addition, scholars have said that Matthew and Luke also incorporated some material from this mysterious Q, material that is absent from Mark.
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What exactly is Q?
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I asked Blomberg.
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It's nothing more than a hypothesis, he replied, again, leaning back comfortably in his chair.
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With few exceptions, it's just sayings or teachings of Jesus, which once may have formed an independent, separate document.
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You see, it was a common literary genre to collect the sayings of respected teachers,
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sort of as we compile the top music of a singer and put it into a best of album.
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Q may have been something like that.
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At least that's the theory.
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But if Q existed before Matthew and Luke, it would constitute early material about Jesus.
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Perhaps, I thought, it can shed some fresh light on what Jesus was really like.
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Let me ask this, I said.
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If you isolate just the material from Q, what kind of picture of Jesus do you get?
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Blomberg stroked his beard and stared at the ceiling for a moment as he pondered the question.
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Well, you have to keep in mind that Q was a collection of sayings,
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and therefore it didn't have the narrative material that would have given us a more fully orbed picture of Jesus,
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he replied, speaking slowly as he chose each word with care.
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Even so, you find Jesus making some very strong claims.
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For instance, that he was wisdom personified, that he was the one by whom God will judge all humanity, whether they confess him or disavow him.
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A significant scholarly book has argued recently that if you isolate all the Q sayings, one actually gets the same kind of picture of Jesus,
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of someone who made audacious claims about himself, as you find in the Gospels more generally.
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I wanted to push him further on this point.
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Would he be seen as a miracle worker?
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I inquired.
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Again, he replied, you have to remember that you wouldn't get many miracle stories per se, because they're normally found in the narrative, and Q is primarily a
Exploring Eyewitness Testimony and English Learning
The video shares a powerful story of Leo Carter, an eyewitness who bravely testified against criminals despite great personal risk. It then shifts to discussing how eyewitness accounts matter in historical and spiritual contexts, like understanding Jesus. This mix of real-life drama and deep questions makes it a rich resource for english speaking practice—you’ll hear natural storytelling, emotional language, and complex ideas, all perfect for building fluency.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- "a grisly reminder" – Use to describe something that vividly brings back a bad memory (e.g., "The old house is a grisly reminder of the fire").
- "against all odds" – For when something happens despite unlikely chances (e.g., "She finished the race against all odds").
- "ulterior motives" – Refers to hidden reasons for doing something (e.g., "I think he has ulterior motives for helping us").
- "scrupulously determined" – Means carefully and thoroughly decided (e.g., "The report was scrupulously determined to be accurate").
- "climactic act" – The most exciting or important part of a series of events (e.g., "The final goal was the climactic act of the game").
Step-by-Step Shadowing Guide for This Video
This video has varied pacing—slow, emotional moments and faster, explanatory parts—so it’s great for practicing shadow speech. Here’s how to use it:
- Listen first: Watch the video without pausing to get the overall story. Notice the tone shifts (soft when Leo speaks, serious when discussing history).
- Break it down: Use a shadowing app or shadowing site to split the video into 10-15 second clips. Focus on phrases like "despite searing headaches"—copy the stress on "searing" and the pause before "headaches."
- Imitate emotion: When Leo says, "I knew I'd have to testify," his voice is quiet but firm. Try to match that intensity to practice natural expression.
- Repeat and compare: Record yourself shadowing, then play it back next to the video. Check if your rhythm and intonation match—this helps with fluency.
Learning English with videos like this isn’t just about words—it’s about understanding context and emotion. Keep practicing, and you’ll soon speak with more confidence and clarity!
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.