The Next Book I Am Going to Get…
is Richard Bauckham’s 2006 book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony. I read chapter 9 and why Papias was right to say that the primary source of the Gospel according to Mark is the apostle Peter. It was really good and the arguments are very persuasive. Based upon that chapter alone, I really recommend this book to defend the historical reliability of the four Gospels (not necessarily inerrancy).
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I’d be interested to hear your review of this book. As a person how thinks the gospel accounts are based on the oral tradition surrounding Jesus and is ok with the base historicity of them (oral accounts + HS + faith = miracles really happened, he really did rise from the dead….), I am interested in his arguments. I have heard this book mentioned in some circles and it has not been received favorably - but in those circles there was no way a book that suggests what you say he suggests would be received favorably.
From the little I’ve read, Bauckham uses narrative criticism and other critical disciplines to demonstrate that, for example, Mark is based upon the eyewitness testimony of Peter. Thus Mark is a trustworthy account because it is recounting Peter’s testimony of Jesus Christ, the God-Man, who died and was resurrected as he promised. Thus the Gospel according to Mark is historically reliable. One would have to find holes in the testimony of Peter to shoot down the narrative of Jesus that Peter tells.
As for the circles that have reviewed the book, Tim Keller (author of Reason For God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism) at U.C. Berkley’s Veritas Forum (the lecture was good and you can watch it at YouTube.com) said that this book would destroy much of the research that seeks to discredit the canonical gospels and thus it wouldn’t be reviewed much, and it would also get some bad reviews.
Book comes tomorrow so I can’t wait.