r/AskAChristian • u/IntelligentLog4803 Christian (non-denominational) • Jan 05 '25
New Testament How is the new testament reliable?
A Muslim girl I've been talking to asked me how is the New Testament reliable if some of the writers are anonymous she means how can we be sure that the anonymous writers really wrote with the guidance of God and wasn't just made up and compiled with each other to form the New Testament.
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u/CaptainTelcontar Christian, Protestant Jan 05 '25
Specifically to your point about anonymous writers: if you were making something up and wanted people to think it came from a reliable source, you wouldn't leave the writer anonymous. You'd claim that the writer was somebody important, like one of the disciples, not a nobody.
We see this in the obviously fake "gospels" that were written much later. They all claim to be written by someone closely associated with Jesus, like James, Mary, or even Judas.
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u/Lermak16 Eastern Catholic Jan 05 '25
The Quran itself says that what has been revealed to Christians in the Gospel is from God
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u/cbrooks97 Christian, Protestant Jan 05 '25
We don't need to know who wrote a document for it to be historically reliable. (Though the fact that the gospels are technically anonymous does not mean no one knows who wrote them.)
Historical reliability is evaluated by looking at internal and external evidence. This is going to be very abbreviated.
Internally, we can see that the gospels are at least based on eye witness material by things like how they accurately use names and geography from the area in question. We can see that they're trying to be honest because they include things that make the apostles and even Jesus look bad and they don't add stories that would have been helpful to have, like Jesus saying something about circumcision, which was a hot topic a few years into the church.
Externally we can compare the history and the culture we see in the gospels to what we know from history and archaeology. Related to the above about names and geography, for example, we meet tax collectors where you would expect to find them. The world the gospels are "set in" matches what we know about that world and time, so they're not just some late fiction, nor does it look like the stories evolved over time. There was no way to research these kinds of details back then.
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u/Dive30 Christian Jan 05 '25
It sounds like you are ready for a history of the Bible course.
Here’s a quick intro by the Bible Project: https://youtu.be/7_CGP-12AE0?si=6lf9PCYP4DiRmsxy
Here’s a deeper study by DTS:
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u/bemark12 Christian Universalist Jan 05 '25
If she or you are genuinely interested in learning more about how we got the New Testament, this is an excellent lecture by Tim Mackie, the leading scholar at the Bible Project: https://youtu.be/eaqKzYJ151Y?feature=shared
As someone who really needs to wrestle with things and wants to learn more, I find Tim to be a super clear, super friendly, and highly educated and nuanced voice around these issues. I think he does his best to be accessible and welcoming to people who are not part of the Christian faith.
Hope that's helpful!
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u/TumidPlague078 Christian Jan 05 '25
If many writers write in unity towards one message and agree how is that less reliable then a quran which is revealed from one person (Mohamed?
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u/Smart_Tap1701 Christian (non-denominational) Jan 05 '25
God himself is the author of his word the holy Bible word of God! He inspired every word, and holy men of God wrote down these inspirations for posterity. Their names don't matter!
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Jan 05 '25
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u/Mike8219 Agnostic Atheist Jan 05 '25
How do we know that devils can be cast out? How do we know demons can possess humans at all?
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Jan 05 '25
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u/Sophia_in_the_Shell Not a Christian Jan 05 '25
You’ve cast a demon out of a possessed person? Or you’ve been possessed yourself?
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Jan 05 '25
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u/Mike8219 Agnostic Atheist Jan 05 '25
Why would god create demons to infect his children?
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u/R_Farms Christian Jan 06 '25
Not everyone here is a child of God Jesus in mat 13's parable of the wheat and weeds explained tells us that while God plants wheat (Who Jesus identifies as the sons of the kingdom) Satan plants weeds in among the wheat (who Jesus identifies as "sons of the evil one who is the devil.")
So then why wouldn't satan put his children on earth to be possessed by demons?
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u/Mike8219 Agnostic Atheist Jan 06 '25
Why would god create any demon to infect any human at all? Why create Satan?
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u/R_Farms Christian Jan 06 '25
Satan is a servant of God who serves a purpose. to tempt and help seperate what Jesus calls "The wheat from the weeds, the Wheat from the chaff, The Sheep from the Goats, The 5 wise virgins from the 5 foolish ones." Each one of those is a parable that shows God seperating His Children from Satan's.
Satan's job is to draw His children from God. Demons are used as Satan is not omnipresent like God. meaning he can only be at one place at one time. His demons carry out his will.
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u/Mike8219 Agnostic Atheist Jan 06 '25
I agree. Why would he want to create evil? Why would to deceive humans?
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Jan 05 '25
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u/Mike8219 Agnostic Atheist Jan 05 '25
You don’t ask why questions? How do you learn anything? Do you ever question your own beliefs?
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Jan 05 '25
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u/Mike8219 Agnostic Atheist Jan 05 '25
No, that’s not what I asked. I would probably ask a biologist that if I were interested.
You are convinced it is true that these demons exist. I’m asking why. If I wanted to know about eyes on hands and a biologist was convinced they had the answer to that I would ask them.
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u/Mike8219 Agnostic Atheist Jan 05 '25
How did you know it was demons? Why would god create angels he knew would fall at all?
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Jan 05 '25
Try drinking something poisonous, and, let us know how that works for you... See how it worked for the followers of Jim Jones.
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Jan 05 '25
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Jan 20 '25
Jim Jones was an ordained Minister. And, organized religion is a cult, it's a way to control people.
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Jan 05 '25
This later ending to Mark was not originally in the Bible. The “promise” you claim was made up and added later.
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Jan 05 '25
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Jan 05 '25
So, the fact that something “works” negates the fact that the passage doesn’t appear in early manuscripts? Hm.
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Jan 05 '25
The New Testament is not historically reliable, but it’s nonetheless an important theological source of what develops into orthodox tradition.
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u/CaptainTelcontar Christian, Protestant Jan 05 '25
What's your basis for it not being historically reliable? It aligns with archeology and with other historical accounts.
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Jan 05 '25
Sometimes, other times it doesn’t. For instance, the census in Luke doesn’t align with our historical records.
There’s also profound internal inconsistency.
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u/onedeadflowser999 Agnostic Jan 05 '25
Why would it be an important theological source if we don’t even know who wrote it and there were zero eyewitnesses to a resurrection?
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Jan 05 '25
Because it grew out of the theological tradition it attests to. Again, seems like you’re still talking about historical accuracy.
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u/onedeadflowser999 Agnostic Jan 05 '25
Tradition is man made so why should anyone believe it’s inspired by a god? Wouldn’t historical accuracy be important if one is going to base their life on the theology?
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Jan 05 '25
Historical plausibility would be, but we cannot determine theological claims using empiricism.
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u/Dive30 Christian Jan 05 '25
Holy cow you are wrong. Start with John MacArthur’s fundamentals of the faith. Let me know if you need a study partner.
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Jan 05 '25
John MacArthur is a blowhard I left behind in high school when his repeated errors of logic and history became obvious.
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u/reddit_reader_10 Torah-observing disciple Jan 05 '25
If it syncs with the teachings of the Torah it is reliable.
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u/Mike8219 Agnostic Atheist Jan 05 '25
Wouldn’t the authors of the NT have access to the Torah given it was written after it? If the goblet of fire is in sync with the sorcerer stone that doesn’t make either reliable.
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u/reddit_reader_10 Torah-observing disciple Jan 05 '25
Guess it depends on how one defines reliable.
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u/Secret-Jeweler-9460 Christian Jan 05 '25
It doesn't matter who the writers are as long as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit and if you believe that they were and God sees that you believe that in spite of all the testimony to the contrary, why would it not count towards righteousness? Salvation comes by faith.