Basic HTML Version
been privi leged to see the resur–
rected J esus, you would not forget
it this side of the grave. You would
remember in great detail.
J remember the exact moment an
associate informed me of the death
of U.S. President John F. Kennedy
on November 22, 1963. J remember
exactly where 1 was, exactly what J
was doing, who was there, what was
said- all the tiny details of that
shocking few moments in time. Yet
t:
other happenings of that very same
~
day have passed into the deepest
!
recesses of the mind-not to be
~
recalled again.
na ll y in Aramaic but soon in
Greek as well; and this preaching
of oral tradition lies behind our
synoptic gospels [Matthew, Mark
and Luke] and their documentary
sources"
(The New Testament
Documents,
page 32).
You will notice that the gospel
accounts are written in a very sim–
ple, but effective literary s tyle.
There are no frills. They do not
sound flowery. The three synoptic
gospels are very simi lar when you
line up their parallel passages in
three columns. Substance, style and
language are striki ngly
Jesus was no stunt man. He never
performed miraeles as
a circos act. He never did a miracle
just for the miracle's sake.
Impression is the first rule of
memory. We remember earth–
shaking events very well indeed.
Stereotyped Oral Evidence
First-century oral evidence was
much more reliable than it general–
ly is today. Moderns commit few
things to memory because of the
wide availabil ity of many reference
works.
But communi ties then, includ–
ing the early church, committed
events to memory- and they did
it in easy- to-remember stereo–
typed form. New Testament
scholar, F. F. Bruce: " In the days
of the apostles there was a Iargely
stereotyped preaching o f the
deeds and words of J esus, orig i-
8
similar. This facil itated easy re–
membrance when in oraJ form.
The four gospels are aJI first-cen–
tury documents. Recent New Testa–
ment scholarship is moving the pro–
posed composition dates closer to the
time of the crucifixion. John A.T.
Robinson's book
Redating the New
Testament
is a prime example of this
trend. Although the late bishop was
an acknowledged liberal scholar, he
was astonished at the lack of hard
evidence for late dating of many
New Testament books. He wrote:
" I t is sobering too to d iscover how
little basis there is for many of the
dates confidently assigned by mod–
ern experts to the New Testament
documents" (page 341 ).
Speaking of the early c hurch,
Bishop Robinson positively adds:
" But the really creative period of
the primitive church, its 'Eiiza–
bethan era' from the point of liter–
ary output, was undoubtedly the
50s [A.D.]" (page 353). Most of
the eyewitnesses were still alive. lf
J esus' miracles were not true, the
chorus of objection would have
invalidated the documents.
Besides that, the written docu–
ments we now possess carne par–
tiall y from previous ly written
material rather than exclusive oral
evidence (see Luke 1: 1-4). Writes
F.F. Bruce: "The evidence indi–
cates that written sources of our
synoptic gospels are not later than
c. A.D. 60; sorne of them may
even be traced back to notes taken
of our Lord's teaching while his
words were actually being ut–
tered"
(New T estament Docu–
ments,
page 45).
It
follows that it
is also possible that eyewitnesses
may have recorded his miracles at
a very early date.
The Miracles Themselves
The New Testament affirms that
J esus was the Christ (Messiah or
Anointed One). H e carne to pro–
c laim the comi ng kingdom of
God- a new age to come on this
earth. He preached about the won–
derful world tomorrow. His whole
life was given in service to human–
kind.
Given exactly who he was and
why he came- the miracles he did
appear natural and reasonable.
They were "powers of the age to
come" (Heb. 6:5). They were all in
character. Every one was done to
help human beings acbieve their
true purpose in life.
J esus did no odd miracles. He
fed people. He healed people. He
stifled life-threatening storms. He
even provided an excellent vintage
wine for a negligent wedding host.
None of these deeds ever hurt any–
one. Contrariwise they all helped
mostly distraught human beings.
Whether or not you believe a
miracle largely depends on tbe con–
fidence you have in the doer. Once
you really grasp who Jesus Christ
was and is- and wby he carne to
this ear th- your troubles in believ–
ing his miracles will be behind
you.
(Continued on page 38)
The
PLAIN TRUTH