Today is Day 4 of The God Question’s Easter Special — a 20-day journey examining the Resurrection of Jesus using reason, history, and evidence-based inquiry. Each post applies The God Question’s Core Philosophy: open-minded skepticism, critical thinking, and truth over tradition.
👁️ Can We Trust the Gospel Witnesses?
The New Testament Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—are often treated by believers as eyewitness accounts of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection. But can these texts be trusted as historical documentation?
Christians assert that these books offer reliable, firsthand testimony from people who saw Jesus alive, watched him die, and later encountered him resurrected. The implication: the Gospels are ancient biographies based on direct observation.
But is that really the case?
📜 Who Wrote the Gospels?
Despite traditional attributions, most scholars agree that none of the four Gospels were written by the people whose names they bear.
- The texts themselves are anonymous—the names “Matthew,” “Mark,” “Luke,” and “John” were added decades later.
- These books were written 35 to 65 years after the events they describe, in Greek, not Aramaic (Jesus’s spoken language), and by people far removed from the original events.
Furthermore, there’s no internal claim of being eyewitnesses. Even Luke openly admits he’s compiling secondhand information (Luke 1:1–4).
👀 Eyewitness Reliability — A Psychological Reality Check
Even if we had actual firsthand witnesses, how reliable would they be?
Psychological research on memory shows:
- Memory is reconstructive, not reproductive.
- Eyewitnesses often misremember details, especially under stress.
- Accounts are shaped by bias, group pressure, emotion, and time.
Let’s apply that here:
- The Gospels were written decades later, in an age without recording technology, in a culture that valued oral storytelling and theological symbolism over journalistic accuracy.
- Inconsistencies between the Gospels—who saw Jesus first, where he appeared, what he said—strongly suggest that memory (or theology) shaped the stories more than factual recall.
🕵️♂️ Were These Even “Witnesses”?
The Gospels aren’t memoirs. They’re faith documents, written by communities of believers to convince others of Jesus’s divine nature. That’s not inherently wrong—but it does mean their agenda was evangelism, not objectivity.
They don’t read like courtroom testimony. Instead, they contain:
- Miracles and supernatural events no one else documented.
- Contradictory details across parallel stories.
- Later theological developments that reflect church growth, not eyewitness experience.
🔍 The God Question’s Core Philosophy Applied
Let’s ask the hard questions:
1. Does the claim rely on empirical evidence or faith?
It relies on faith in tradition, not verified eyewitness documentation.
2. Are alternative explanations considered?
No. Memory distortion, myth-building, and oral evolution are never addressed in church circles.
3. Is there independent corroboration?
No. Outside of the Gospels and early Christian writings, there is no independent evidence verifying the events they describe.
4. Are the claims falsifiable?
No. When contradiction or implausibility arises, it’s often explained away as “mystery” or “divine truth,” placing it outside the bounds of critical inquiry.
5. Does the explanation raise more questions?
Absolutely. Why would God rely on flawed human memory and anonymous authorship to share the most important story in human history?
📺 For Further Exploration
🎥 Who Wrote the Gospels? (by Bart Ehrman – 19 min) Dr. Ehrman discusses the authorship and dating of the New Testament Gospels, providing insights into their origins.
🧠 Final Thought
If the Gospels were submitted as evidence in a courtroom, they would be disqualified for lack of credibility, author transparency, and corroboration. While they may offer spiritual insights, their status as historical documentation is deeply compromised.
Faith may not require evidence. But truth-seeking does.
📅 Note: After we wrap up our 20-Day Easter Special on April 20, we’ll return to our regular schedule of posting three times a week:
- Tuesdays & Fridays – our structured explorations through all 11 blog categories
- Sundays – our Sunday Special Feature, where we critically respond to real-world religious claims in real time.
God or Delusion? 