The Gospels are the most reliable historical documents about the historical Jesus of Nazareth

There are two things to look at that show that the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are the most reliable historical documents we have about Jesus: seven anti-Christian Roman historians who wrote about Jesus and the early followers, and when the Gospels were written. First, let's look at what these anti-Christian Roman historians had to say about Jesus. Flavius Josephus, a Jew who became a Roman citizen later in his life, was a historian from the first century whose works covered Jewish history. Josephus mentions Jesus in Antiquities of The Jews- Book XVIII, Chapter 3, paragraph 3, but because of its kind assessment of Jesus in the Greek version, many believe that the Christians who preserved Josephus' work altered his original text in order to make it appear less insulting than Josephus usually was in his writings. Robert Eisler, an Austrian Jewish art historian and Bible scholar who lived from 1882 to 1949, reconstructed the passage, basing it on a less complimentary approach that lined up more with Josephus' writing style. The reconstructed passage confirmed that Jesus had divine powers (which Josephus, like the Jewish religious leaders who opposed Jesus during his ministry, attributed to sorcery), Jews and Gentiles alike became his followers, Jesus was regarded as the Messiah while he was alive, Pontius Pilate sentenced Jesus to death on the cross, it was reported that Jesus had risen from the dead after three days, the followers of Christ claimed that Jesus fulfilled all the ancient prophecies about the Messiah, and the followers of Christ were still around at the time of Josephus's writing. Celsus, a second-century Greek philosopher famous for his attacks on early Christianity, confirms in Contra Celsum 1:28 that Jesus was born in Bethlehem (which is a village in Judea), and that Jesus' father was a carpenter. Celsus then acknowledged that Jesus claimed to be God in human form, and performed miracles in support of that claim. Mara Bar Serapion, a stoic philosopher who lived in the Roman province of Syria, wrote the Epistle of Mara, which most scholars agree was composed as early as 73 AD. In it, he confirmed that Jesus was called The King of The Jews, Jesus was a very wise person, Jerusalem and the temples were completely destroyed prior to the composition of his letter (a reference to what the Romans under Titus did in 70 AD), and the Jews were now without a country of their own. Pliny the Younger was a Roman Lawyer who lived from 61-112 AD. During the reign of Emperor Trajan (98-117 AD), Pliny wrote a letter to Trajan concerning his prosecution of early Christians. Pliny confirms that the early Christians had gatherings once a week, they worshiped Jesus as God in human form, they took the teachings of Jesus seriously and put them into practice, and they had meals together as part of their fellowship. Lucian was a Greek Satirist who lived from 125 to roughly 180 AD. Lucian wrote a satire called"The Death Of Peregrine,"in which the lead character"takes advantage of the generosity of Christians. Lucian confirms that Jesus Christ was a historical person, and Jesus was crucified for what he taught. Secondly, Lucian confirms that Jesus taught that all the early Christians are siblings in Christ from the moment of conversion. Lucian also confirms that the early Christians refused to worship the Roman gods, worshiped Jesus as God, and took the teachings of Jesus seriously. Seutonius was a Roman historian who lived from 69 to roughly 122 AD. Seutonius makes a reference to Jesus in Life of Claudius 25:4. Seutonius confirms that Jesus was a real historical person, and because of the commotion that the Jews made when they brought Jesus before Pontius Pilate, Claudius kicked the Jews out of Rome (Acts 18:1-2 verifies this). Tacitus was a Roman Historian who lived from 56 to roughly 117 AD. In The Annals: Book XV, AD 62-65, Tacitus confirms that Jesus was a real, historical person, and he was sentenced to execution by Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius Caesar. (To see the quotes of these Roman historians that I got this information from, please read "secular historians on Jesus and the early Christians" from this blog post: http://truththeobjectivereality.blogspot.com...) When were the gospels written? In 1 Timothy 6:13, Paul makes a reference to the conversation Jesus had with Pilate, which is recorded only in the gospel of John. Since 1 Timothy was written between 63-65 AD, John's gospel had to have been written before that. In other words, the gospel of John was written within 30 years of Jesus' lifetime. What about the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke? Virtually all scholars agree that 1 Corinthians, which was Paul's first letter, was written between 53-57 AD. In this letter, Paul writes the following: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26: "For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.' For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord"s death until he comes." Paul appears to be referencing Luke's gospel: Luke 22:19-23: "And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed. But woe to that man who betrays him!' They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this." Since 1 Corinthians was written between 53-57 AD, that means that Luke was written before 1 Corinthians. On page 166 of his book Cold-Case Christianity, famous homicide detective and Christian apologist Jim Warner Wallace had this to say about the gospel of Luke: "...Luke often repeated or quoted entire passages that were offered previously by either Mark (350 verses from Mark appear in Luke's gospel) or Matthew (250 verses from Matthew appear in Luke's account). These passages were inserted into Luke's gospel as though they were simply copied over from other accounts." Since we know that Luke repeated and quoted passages from Mark and Matthew, both Mark and Matthew had to have been written before Luke. In other words, Matthew, Mark, and Luke were written within 20 years of Jesus' life. When we look at the Roman historians who wrote about Jesus and the early Christians, if you take away Josephus and Mara Bar Serapion, five of the seven Roman historians wrote their documents over 80 years after the events took place, some of them closer to 90 years. The four Gospels, on the other hand, were written within 30 years of the life of Jesus, with three of them written within 20 years. Since it take a minimum of 60 years for legendary embellishment to creep into a historical account, this means that there is no possible way that the Gospels are legendary due to the fact that they were written while the eyewitnesses were still alive. The writings of Josephus, Celsus, Serapion, Pliny the Younger, Lucian, Seutonius, and Tacitus show that Jesus was clearly a historical person; in fact, he was so significant that those Roman historians specifically mentioned him by name even though he was a Jew. However, these Romans don't give enough details about Jesus. They say that he was a wise man, but they don't talk about what he taught that made him wise like the Gospels do; they say that he claimed to be God, but they don't tell you how people reacted to that like the Gospels do. They say that he performed miracles in support of his claim to be God, but they don't describe any of the miracles like the Gospels do. They say that he was put to death on a cross by Pontius Pilate, but they don't record the conversation between Pilate and Jesus like the gospel of John did. While the Roman historians' accounts about Jesus and the early Christians are congruent with the New Testament, the facts are that the gospels contain far more information about Jesus than the Roman historians do, and they were written far closer to the events than the works of the Roman historians. Therefore, the Gospels are the most reliable sources of information about Jesus.