The Gospels: Are They Historical?
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What is the central question about the historicity of the Gospels?
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He turned water into wine. Fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish. Calmed a raging storm. With the sound of his voice. These stories, these miracles of Jesus of Nazareth are famous around the world. But how do we know about them? The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John give us the four most famous accounts of his life. But were they written by eyewitnesses? How much did their authors know about the events they describe, and can we really use the Gospels to reconstruct the life of the historical Jesus? I'm Tristan Hughes, welcome to the Ancients, and today I'm once again joined by friend of the show Professor Helen Bond to ask a question that has shaped Christianity for centuries. Are the Gospels historical?
Let's get into it. Helen, it is great to have you back on the show and great to have you here in our studio.
Thank you. Yeah, it's great to see you again, and I'm loving the studio.
Oh, I know. F our first time doing it in person when it's not been in Edinburgh.
That's true. That's true. We
did Pontius Pilate all those years ago now, didn't we?
That's right. And and
and now we are covering still the New Testament story, uh, but the Gospels themselves, uh the four Gospels, is it fair to say that The question of their historicity, it's one of the most charged parts of well w Christian theology of of the study of early Christianity.
Yeah, I think that's right. I mean it really polarizes people. Everybody has an idea on how historical they think the gospels are. So um yeah, and and and they're very, you know, forthright in their views.
But regardless, they're really interesting sources, even though that there are so many, you know, different opinions out there and uh I guess we should say at the beginning, we'll agree disagreeably or disagree agreeably, right? I guess of all the different theories there are out there.
Yeah, of course. I mean you have to be respectful of people's views. But as an academic and a historian, you know, I I what's what's interesting to me is to put them alongside other ancient texts. That's the thing, that's right. And to look at, you know, how they sort of fare in that in that sort of company.
And can archaeology help us as well, or is it more looking at the uh as you say, the non canonical four gospels on the side?
Yeah, I think it's really a question of sort of comparing them with other similar texts and seeing what what they're doing, you know, what what this kind of text, particularly a biographical kind of text, is is really trying to do.
And so when we mention a gospel, what do we mean by a gospel? What do they talk about?
Well, they're basically a book about Jesus. So gospel is not an ancient genre. It's what we tend nowadays to call um a book about Jesus. In fact it probably c quite early on people started to call the Gospels as we know them, the the four gospels in the New Testament. Um they probably started to call them gospels quite early. So so this is it's not particularly a new genre, it's basically uh a biography.
Is it a biography?
Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Um it's a it's a Jewish version of a biography. But um but yeah, so so they are uh when we talk nowadays about a gospel, we really mean a book about Jesus.
And should we also mention at the start that There are books about Jesus, kind of biographies of Jesus, and we do think I mean there is large scholarly consensus that there was a real figure called Jesus of Nazareth.
Yeah, I mean, you know, you're always hearing people on the internet, the mythicists saying, Oh, there's not much evidence.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the central question about the historicity of the Gospels?
0:00–7:06
2
How do scholars determine when the four canonical Gospels were written?
7:06–13:22
3
What is the Synoptic Problem and why does it matter for understanding the Gospels?
13:22–21:26
4
How do Matthew and Luke use Mark and the hypothesised Q source?
21:26–29:11
5
Did the author of John know the other three Gospels and how?
29:11–37:54
6
What external evidence (Josephus, Paul, etc.) supports the historicity of Jesus?
37:54–45:31
7
How do differences in genre and authorial intent affect the Gospels' reliability as history?
45:31–53:27
8
What are the main take‑aways about using the Gospels as historical sources?
53:27–1:05:29