The Apostolic Witness - Evidence of Reliability Part 7 of 8

We often forget that the four gospels we find in our New Testament are not the only places where we learn about Jesus. There are twenty three other books that speak of Jesus, written by at least seven authors (Luke, Paul, Peter, James, John, Jude, and the unknown author of Hebrews). These authors testify to the grand truths found in each gospel account. They proclaim Jesus as crucified and raised from the dead. They recognize him as the promised messiah for Israel. They affirm his divinity, authority, and reign over all things. They believe he is the savior of sinners through his death on the cross. Throughout their writings, they seem to assume the larger themes presented in the four gospel accounts.

But there is more. Without directly quoting the sayings of Jesus found in the Gospels, these apostolic authors often allude to, reinforce, or expound upon these sayings. For instance, Paul echoes the life and teaching of Jesus on the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:23-26), the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:1-7), divorce (1 Cor. 7:10-11), supporting pastors (1 Tim. 5:18), non-retaliation (Rom. 12:14), and more. James likewise is echoing the life and voice of Jesus in his epistle. For instance, James 5:12 is a nearly verbatim quote of Jesus from Matthew 5:33-37 where Jesus admonishes us to let our “yes” be yes and our “no” be no. Biblical scholar Douglas Moo notes that James “weaves Jesus’ teaching into the very fabric of his own instruction.” (Moo, The Letter of James, pg. 7)

So how does this count as evidence for the reliability of the gospel accounts? First, each of the seven authors add additional evidence that eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life believed he was the promised divine messiah and testified that he was crucified and raised from the dead. The gospels both implicitly and explicitly claim these same truths. Second, the allusions to and expansion of Jesus’ teaching demonstrate how the apostles were building upon a foundation that existed before them. In fact, the foundation of the gospels is the only thing that seems to make sense of their life and teaching. Just as the Gospels corroborate one another as mentioned above, so too the other New Testament books dovetail with and reinforce the gospels accounts.