The Historical Reliability of the Gospels

by Craig Blomberg

Publishers:

IVP Academic; Apollos

, 2007

Overview

For over twenty years, Craig Blomberg’s The Historical Reliability of the Gospels has provided a useful antidote to many of the toxic effects of skeptical criticism of the Gospels. Offering a calm, balanced overview of the history of Gospel criticism, especially that of the late twentieth century, Blomberg introduces readers to the methods employed by New Testament scholars and shows both the values and limits of those methods. He then delves more deeply into the question of miracles, Synoptic discrepancies and the differences between the Synoptics and John. After an assessment of noncanonical Jesus tradition, he addresses issues of historical method directly. This new edition has been thoroughly updated in light of new developments with numerous additions to the footnotes and two added appendixes. Readers will find that over the past twenty years, the case for the historical trustworthiness of the Gospels has grown vastly stronger.

Contents

Top Highlights

“What is presupposed, however, is that whoever wrote Matthew and Luke had access to early traditions about Jesus in addition to Mark and Q.” (Pages 45–46)

“the question of what belongs in the canon of Scripture is purely a historical, and not an ecclesiastical, one” (Page 31)

“Matthew has Jesus enjoin his followers to be ‘perfect’ as their heavenly Father is, while the Lucan parallel employs the word ‘merciful’ (Matt. 5:48; Luke 6:36). It is possible that the Aramaic word Jesus could have used (šělim) implied both concepts in its original context.” (Page 160)

“Baur’s views have been largely rejected by twentieth-century scholarship,²⁸ but his general principle that contradictory theologies best account for the divergences of the Gospels is a regular presupposition of current research.” (Page 33)

“because by definition much if not all of Q has been preserved—embedded in the finished forms of Matthew and Luke” (Page 40)

Product Details

• Title: The Historical Reliability of the Gospels
• Author: Craig Blomberg
• Edition: Second Edition
• Publishers: IVP Academic, Apollos
• Print Publication Date: 2007
• Logos Release Date: 2020
• Pages: 416
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Jesus Christ › Historicity; Bible. N.T. Gospels › Criticism, interpretation, etc; Bible. N.T. Gospels › Evidences, authority, etc
• ISBNs: 9781844741977, 9780830828074, 9780877849926, 1844741974, 0830828079, 0877849927
• Resource ID: LLS:HSTRCLRLBLGSPLS
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T00:38:47Z

About Craig Blomberg

Craig Blomberg is distinguished professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary, where he has been teaching since 1986. Blomberg earned degrees from Augustana College, Trinity Divinity School, and Aberdeen University in Scotland. He previously taught at Palm Beach Atlantic College and spent one year in Cambridge as a research fellow with Tyndale House. He has been on translation committees for the New Living Translation, English Standard Version, and the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

Blomberg is the author, coauthor, or co-editor of numerous books and more than 80 articles in journals or multi-author works. A recurring topic of interest in his writings is the historical reliability of the Scriptures, and he has also covered such diverse issues as wealth and poverty, hermeneutics, and women in ministry. His books include Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction and Survey, 2nd ed., Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: James, A Handbook of New Testament Exegesis, Making Sense of the New Testament, Preaching the Parables, and The NIV Application Commentary: 1 Corinthians.