Historical reliability of the Gospels

context: en: In the Christian-Jewish-dialogue, texts from the Jewish Bible are known for being misquoted and altered in Christian scripture. Along the translation process of original Hebrew script into Christian Greek script, alterations, mistranslations, interpretative variants, fabrications and misquotations occurred. A famous example may be the translation of the Hebrew term almah עַלְמָה in Isaiah 7:14, meaning "young woman", as "virgin" in Matthew 1:22-23. Further, the Gospel of Matthew inconsistently claims, the title Nazarene for Jesus was derived from Old Testament prophecy "He will be called a Nazorean" (Matthew 2:22-23), but that prophecy does not exist in the Hebrew Tanach.The Talmud, a series of religious documents redacted by Jewish scholars between 200 and 500 CE, refer to persons named "Jesus" using the term "Yeshu." These references of Jesus in the Talmud probably date back to the 2nd century. One important reference relates the trial and execution of person named Yeshu and his disciples, saying "On the eve of Passover they hung Yeshu and the crier went forth for forty days beforehand declaring that "[Yeshu] is going to be stoned for practicing witchcraft, for enticing and leading Israel astray....But no one had anything exonerating for him and they hung him on the eve of Passover". These early possible references to Jesus have little historical information independent from the gospels, but they can be interpreted to reflect a historical picture of Jesus as a man who had disciples and was brought to death as a criminal during Passover. F. F. Bruce noted that, in attempting to discredit Jesus, the passage sought to explain his miracles rather than claim they never occurred. Around the time these passages were being written, Mara (a Syrian Stoic) was imprisoned by the Romans and wrote a letter to his son. In it he said, "For what benefit did...the Jews by the murder of their Wise King, seeing that from that very time their kingdom was driven away from them?  For with justice did God grant a recompense...and the Jews, brought to desolation and expelled from their kingdom, are driven away into every land." CCEL Some scholars believe this describes the fall of Jerusalem as the gods' punishment for the Jews having killed Jesus. The Dead Sea scrolls are 1st century or older writings that show the language and customs of some Jews of Jesus' time. According to Henry Chadwick, similar uses of languages and viewpoints recorded in the New Testament and the Dead Sea scrolls are valuable in showing that the New Testament portrays the 1st century period that it reports and is not a product of a later period.
qas: question: zh_tw: 提供這一觀點的人的名是什麼？
answers: en: text: Henry

context: en: New Testament scholar, James D.G. Dunn believes that "the earliest tradents within the Christian churches [were] preservers more than innovators...seeking to transmit, retell, explain, interpret, elaborate, but not create de novo...Through the main body of the Synoptic tradition, I believe, we have in most cases direct access to the teaching and ministry of Jesus as it was remembered from the beginning of the transmission process (which often predates Easter) and so fairly direct access to the ministry and teaching of Jesus through the eyes and ears of those who went about with him." Nevertheless, David Jenkins, a former Anglican Bishop of Durham and university professor, has stated that "Certainly not! There is absolutely no certainty in the New Testament about anything of importance."Critical scholars have developed a number of criteria to evaluate the probability, or historical authenticity, of an attested event or saying represented in the gospels.  These criteria are applied to the gospels in order to help scholars in reconstructions of the Historical Jesus. The criterion of dissimilarity argues that if a saying or action is dissimilar to, or contrary to, the views of Judaism in the context of Jesus or the views of the early church, then it can more confidently be regarded as an authentic saying or action of Jesus. One commonly cited example of this is Jesus' controversial reinterpretation of the Mosaic law in his Sermon on the Mount, or Peter's decision to allow uncircumcised gentiles into what was, at the time, a sect of Judaism. The criterion of embarrassment holds that the authors of the gospels had no reason to invent embarrassing incidents such as the denial of Jesus by Peter, or the fleeing of Jesus' followers after his arrest, and therefore such details would likely not have been included unless they were true. Bart Ehrman, using the criterion of dissimilarity to judge the historical reliability of the claim Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, notes that "it is hard to imagine a Christian inventing the story of Jesus' baptism since this could be taken to mean that he was John's subordinate."The criterion of multiple attestation says that when two or more independent sources present similar or consistent accounts, it is more likely that the accounts are accurate reports of events or that they are reporting a tradition which pre-dates the sources themselves. This is often used to note that the four gospels attest to most of the same events, but that Paul's epistles often attest to these events as well, as do the writings of the early church, and to a limited degree non-Christian ancient writings. The criterion of cultural and historical congruency says that a source is less credible if the account contradicts known historical facts, or if it conflicts with cultural practices common in the period in question. It is, therefore, more credible if it agrees with those known facts. For example, this is often used when assessing the reliability of claims in Luke-Acts, such as the official title of Pontius Pilate. Through linguistic criteria a number of conclusions can be drawn. The criterion of "Aramaisms" as it is often referred holds that if a saying of Jesus has Aramaic roots, reflecting Jesus' Palestinian context, the saying is more likely to be authentic.
qas: question: zh_tw: 有多少福音書見證了大量相同的事件？
answers: en: text: four

context: en: Of the four, Josephus' writings, which document John the Baptist, James the Just, and Jesus, are of the most interest to scholars dealing with the historicity of Jesus. Tacitus, in his Annals written c. 115, mentions Christus, without many historical details (see also: Tacitus on Jesus). There is an obscure reference to a Jewish leader called "Chrestus" in Suetonius. According to Suetonius, chapter 25, there were some in Rome, during the reign of emperor Claudius (c. AD 50), who were "continually making disturbances at the instigation of one Chrestus."
qas: question: zh_tw: 蘇埃託尼烏斯的作品中晦澀地提到了一位叫什麼名字的猶太人領袖？
answers: en: text: Chrestus

context: en: Textual criticism deals with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts. Ancient scribes made errors or alterations (such as including non-authentic additions). In attempting to determine the original text of the New Testament books, some modern textual critics have identified sections as additions of material, centuries after the gospel was written. These are called interpolations. In modern translations of the Bible, the results of textual criticism have led to certain verses, words and phrases being left out or marked as not original.
qas: question: zh_tw: 是什麼導致某些經文在聖經的現代翻譯中被排除出來？
answers: en: text: textual criticism

context: en: The gospel, however, appears to rely on several underlying sources, which vary in form and in theology, and which tell against the story that the gospel was based on Peter's preaching.Most scholars believe that Mark was written by a second-generation Christian, around or shortly after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple in year 70.Richard Bauckham has noted that the geography in Mark is accurate when looked at from the perspective of fisherman from Capernaum, which is consistent with Mark relaying the gospel from Peter, who indeed was a fisherman. Many scholars use modern maps to gauge Mark, which often results in errors in judging Mark's geography. A fisherman would not have had a modern map in mind, but instead a mental map based on his experiential world.According to some, Mark's geography was not always accurate, for example Mark 7:31, describing Jesus going from Tyre to the Sea of Galilee by way of Sidon (20 miles farther north and on the Mediterranean coast). The author of Mark did not seem to know that one would not go through Sidon to go from Tyre to the Sea of Galilee, and there was no road from Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the 1st century, only one from Tyre. Catholic scholars have interpreted this passage as non-problematic since Jesus would have traveled in a wide circle, first north, then east and south.
qas: question: zh_tw: 為什麼馬可測量的地理位置經常導致錯誤？
answers: en: text: scholars use modern maps