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Chapter III

The Authenticity of the New Testament

Importance of Historicity

As pointed out in the preceding chapter, an important aspect of the uniqueness of Christianity is the fact that it is founded on historical events rather than merely on ethical teachings. It is not surprising, therefore, that non-Christians and skeptics in general have consistently sought to attack and refute the true historicity of these events. If the events surrounding the life of Jesus Christ — His virgin birth, the miracles, the resurrection — did not actually happen, then the whole structure of Christianity collapses. "If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins" (1 Cor. 15:17).

The same is true concerning the history of the Early Church and the initial establishment and spread of Christianity as recorded in the Book of Acts and the Epistles. Critics have tried to persuade people that the books of the New Testament were written long after the period of the Apostles and that they, therefore, contain much that is legendary and non-historical, especially those parts which describe miracles. A great deal of this destructive criticism has been so successful that it has been adopted in considerable degree by most of the major seminaries, and has been tremendously influential in subverting the faith of multitudes of nominal Christians.

On the other hand, if it can be shown that the New Testament documents are authentic, written by the traditional authors, then the evidence for the truth of Christianity is overwhelming. This is because the writings, when examined carefully, give indisputable evidence of sincerity and accuracy of such high degree that there can remain no reasonable doubt that all the deeds and words of Christ and the Apostles, as recorded therein, really and truly happened.

This inference is not dependent upon the question of whether or not the documents are divinely inspired and verbally infallible. Although we do believe in the fact and importance of plenary verbal inspiration, the genuineness of the person and work of Christ can be established entirely apart from that assumption, provided only that the New Testament documents are accepted as valid and authentic historical writings, of the same sort as other historical documents.

Therefore, it is important to establish, first of all, the general historicity and reliability of the New Testament writings. Once this is done, then the genuineness of the portrait of Christ found in these writings can be established. When He is acknowledged as true God and only Savior, then He himself becomes sufficient authority and proof of all other doctrines.

Authenticity of the Documents

The witness of almost two thousand years of the Christian era, with its tremendous impact upon the history of the world, is itself proof that something of unique power and importance took place to get it started. Effects must have adequate causes.

Whatever men think of the New Testament, there is no doubt at all that this remarkable history of Christianity is intricately related to it. The ultimate explanation of Christian origins can only be understood when the origins of the New Testament are likewise understood. No one now living, of course, nor anyone living in many generations, has actually seen Christ or the Apostles, so that our knowledge of them now must come entirely or largely from the written records of their activities. The same, of course, is true with respect to any other men or events in ancient history.

It is at this point that the tremendous strength of the evidences for Christianity begins to be realized. The written records of Christian origins are in this respect available in far greater variety and antiquity than are those of any other personages or happenings in the whole history of the world prior to the invention of printing! No one, for example, ever doubts for an instant that a man named Julius Caesar once ruled as emperor of Rome. But the manuscript evidence for the New Testament events is incomparably superior to that for the existence of Caesar.

Before the invention of the printing press, books had to be copied by hand. Those that were in much use wore out quickly and required frequent re-copying. The manuscript copies of the New Testament or portions thereof that have actually been preserved to the present day are amazingly numerous. Some of these are on papyrus fragments that were copied before the middle of the second century. Altogether there are probably available today over 5,000 handwritten manuscript copies of portions of the New Testament in Greek and at least 15,000 more in other languages. Nothing remotely comparable to this abundance exists for any other ancient writing.

One of the greatest New Testament scholars of our generation was Sir Frederic G. Kenyon, director of the British Museum. Though not himself a believer in the infallibility of the inspiration and transmission of the Scriptures, Kenyon said after an extensive review of the manuscript evidence:

It is reassuring at the end to find that the general result of all these discoveries and all this study is to strengthen the proof of the authenticity of the Scriptures, and our conviction that we have in our hands, in substantial integrity, the veritable Word of God.[1]

Although there are many individual differences found in the New Testament text as preserved in these 20,000 manuscripts, the very number of them provides a powerful means of checking and tracing the origin of the variant readings and thus of ascertaining the original text. Furthermore, the discrepancies, whether caused by careless copying or by deliberate alterations, are in almost all cases quite trivial,[2] affecting no important fact or doctrine. In particular, the person and work of Jesus Christ as represented are not changed in any respect by the variant readings. Not only do we have such a tremendous accumulation of manuscripts of the New Testament itself, but also we have several times as many manuscripts of writings from early Christian writers containing quotations from the New Testament Scriptures. Certain of these men, known as the Apostolic Fathers, wrote originally during the period A.D. 90 to 160 and exhibited a remarkable grasp of the New Testament. Scholars agree that if all manuscripts of the New Testament had been lost, it would have been possible to reconstruct it altogether from quotations in the writings of these and other early Christians.

Since these church fathers in many cases lived in the years immediately following those of the Apostles themselves, in some cases even overlapping their times and in fact some papyrus fragments of the New Testament itself, notably in the Gospel of John, are dated from about A.D. 150, there can be no doubt whatever that the New Testament as we have it today is essentially identical with that possessed by Christians at the close of the first century.

Kenyon has said in another place: "The interval, then, between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established."[3]

This being so, it hardly seems likely that there could have been any significant change in the writings during the relatively short interval between their original composition by the Apostles and their general distribution among the churches by the close of the first century. Any significant alterations would certainly have been quickly discovered and corrected. Men who had known and heard the Apostles were still living in considerable numbers at that time. In fact, John the Apostle himself lived through the end of the first century.

Even if we were to allow the possibility, for the sake of argument, that considerable changes could have taken place in the written records in the last half of the first century, there is still no way in which such changes could have been of sufficient magnitude to transform the person of Christ himself. The Roman world of the first century was a world of scholarship and skepticism, not of ignorance and gullibility, a world of abundant transportation and communication, not of isolation. The contention of religious "liberals" that the great truths of the character and work of Jesus Christ, as presented in the New Testament, were nothing but the gradual accretion of myths and traditions with no basis in fact is naive at best.

If we can believe anything at all that has been preserved for us from ancient history by the writings of men of those days, we are more than justified in believing that our New Testament was originally written in essentially its present form by the traditional authors. The world's foremost biblical archaeologist, William F. Albright, has said: "In my opinion, every book of the New Testament was written by a baptized Jew between the forties and eighties of the first century A.D."[4]

Indirect Confirmations

The general authenticity of the events reported in the New Testament has been amply verified by close examination of the internal consistencies of the writings and also by external researches in the history and archaeology of the time. The books of the New Testament individually make claims concerning their own authorship and it is absurd for modern skeptics to presume to deny these claims merely on the basis of their own anti-supernaturalistic presuppositions. The Apostle Paul, for instance, always begins his epistles with his own name, clearly claiming authorship, and each epistle contains great numbers of incidental allusions which support such claims. One of the great classic works on Christian evidences (William Paley's Horae Paulinae) consisted of an extensive volume of compilations of such undesigned coincidences which proved Paul to be the author of all the epistles bearing his name.

Similar studies on the internal evidences in each book likewise confirm that Peter was the author of his epistles, John of his, and so on. Events referred to in these epistles frequently tie in with the earlier histories of these men as recorded in the gospels and in Acts. For example, Peter refers to his experience on the Mount of Transfiguration (2 Pet. 1:16-18; Matt. 17:1-5), and Paul to his stoning at Lystra (2 Cor. 11:25; Acts 14:19). Examples of this sort could be added almost without number. Linguistic evidence also is consistent with the traditional authorship. For example, the vocabularies of the Gospel of John, the three epistles of John, and the Revelation are all strikingly similar (note use of "the Word" as a name of Christ — John 1:1; 1 John 1:1; Rev. 19:13).

In addition to these and other internal evidences, archaeological studies have provided still further confirmation of the New Testament writings and their authenticity. The Book of Acts is especially important in this connection. Dealing as it does with the spread of the gospel in the first 30 years after Christ, it incorporates a large number of references to places, times, customs, and events of the Roman, Greek, and Jewish worlds of that time. If the book were an accumulation of uncertain traditions compiled long after the events, or if its writer, Luke, were merely a careless reporter, there would exist an abundance of opportunity for factual mistakes in the book.

So far is such from being the case, however, that the greatest of all New Testament archaeologists, Sir William Ramsay, who made the most extensive studies anyone has ever undertaken on the authenticity of these data recorded in Acts, finally said (even though he began his studies as a skeptic), "Luke is a historian of the first rank; not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy; he is possessed of the true historic sense…. In short this author should be placed along with the very greatest of historians."[5]

It might be noted in passing that this same very careful and accurate historian, Luke, was also the author of the gospel that carries the fullest account of Christ's virgin birth and resurrection.

The other books of the New Testament do not, of course, lend themselves as readily to archaeological investigation as well as does the Book of Acts. Nevertheless, the description of Jerusalem and other cities and regions of Judea and Samaria, references to customs and political situations, and many other such incidental allusions have frequently been confirmed and illustrated by archaeological and historical studies. On the contrary, no statement in the New Testament has to this date been refuted by an unquestioned find of science or history. This in itself is a unique testimony to the amazing accuracy and authenticity of the New Testament records.

Finally, it is important to note that the New Testament was not written in the classical Greek language as scholars once thought it should have been. Instead, it was written in the common language of that era, the Koine (i.e., "common") Greek, which had been actually forgotten until it was rediscovered by archaeology in modern times.

Implications of Authenticity of Documents

Once we establish the fact that the books of the New Testament are authentic historical documents, written by contemporaries and often eyewitnesses of the events they describe, we are then able to examine the events and personages with genuine confidence that we can determine their real nature and significance. We are not dealing with elusive theological or philosophical questions at all, but with matters of fact, determinable by objective investigation.

Such an investigation is still quite independent of the question whether or not these documents are divinely inspired. Rather, we are concerned at this point whether, as valid historical documents, they describe the person and work of Christ as divine in origin and essence, or rather as truly and only human.

If indeed He is shown forth in the writings as deity, then a number of options may still be considered. Were the various writers involved in a monstrous plot, with the purpose of establishing themselves as leaders in some new religious or political movement? Or, if not, were they merely under some kind of delusion, thinking that Christ was God when really He was not? If they had been deceived in this way, did Jesus intentionally deceive them? Or was He also deceived, either by His own enthusiasm or by the persuasion of others, that He was God? All of these possibilities can be evaluated by a study of the writings themselves, once they are recognized as authentic in date and authorship. Thus, we are in position to decide objectively whether or not Jesus Christ truly is the only Son of God and the only way of salvation, as Christians believe.

On the other hand, it is never really possible to free one's mind from subjective factors on an issue such as this. Even if we can show that all these witnesses agree completely in their testimony to the deity of Christ, a person may still decide on his own initiative not to believe it.

To any argument, an objection or further question can always be devised if the objector is clever enough. Even if he is backed into a corner from which there seems no logical escape, he can always get angry and avoid the issue, insist on delaying a decision until he can think more about it, take refuge in the fact that many others are unbelievers, insist that all such reasoning and logic are unrelated to the central issue of relevance, or else just change the subject. Anyone who is predisposed to accept and believe solid Christian evidence will find it in satisfying abundance along this line of study.

Sincerity of the New Testament Writers

The general authenticity of the New Testament documents as to date and authorship can, in view of the foregoing, be considered as established. Furthermore, the general accuracy of their records has been adequately confirmed by linguistic and archaeological studies, as well as by their own internal consistency.

Certain skeptics, however, have sought to escape the impact of their portrait of Christ and the gospel by charging the writers with fraud. That is, for purposes of their own, perhaps to establish themselves at the head of a new religious or political movement, they conspired to produce the marvelous tale of a supernatural Savior and King, whose representatives they were and whose authority they were to exercise in the world's affairs.

Such an incredible supposition, however, can commend itself only to those who will grasp at straws. Several considerations mentioned below are sufficient to discredit this notion:

1 The "conspiracy" involved a large number of people, of such diversity as to render such collaboration almost completely impossible. There were at least eight different writers involved, not to mention a great number of associated colleagues, and these lived and wrote at widely scattered times and places.

2 Evidences of collusion are notably absent in the writings themselves. Each writer gives his own independent witness, writing from his own perspective. Often, in fact, they appear on the surface to contradict each other, and such contradictions are resolved only by very close and careful examination and cross-examination of their testimonies.

3 Rather than confining their writings to generalities and to private events in their own lives, which would make it, of course, more difficult to detect error or fraud, the records teem with references to public events, places, dates, and other matters of accessible knowledge.

4 A candid reading of the New Testament books surely does not suggest fraud or hypocrisy in even the slightest degree. Not only are such sins scathingly rebuked, but the very atmosphere of the writings is pervaded with the feeling of sincere conviction on the part of the authors. If the writings are actually wicked deceptions, these men were undoubtedly the greatest masters at deception who ever lived.

5 The crowning proof of sincerity is, of course, the fact that the New Testament authors were willing to suffer and die for their convictions. They did indeed "suffer the loss of all things," and all except John died as a martyr because of their testimony. Men may occasionally be willing to die for an unworthy cause which is false, but never if they know it to be so. It is impossible that all these would gladly sacrifice their lives for what they knew to be a gross deception.

The Sanity of the Writers

Granted, then, that the writers of the new Testament were sincere men, firmly convinced of the truth of what they wrote, could they have been simply mistaken? Were they subject to some form of mass delusion or hysteria? Were they either highly unstable, easily convinced by their own emotions that they were seeing supernatural manifestations, or else were they gullible, deluded by sleight-of-hand artistry and clever persuasion?

The events reported by the writers, however, especially the miraculous events supposedly hardest to believe, were not at all such as to be amenable to mass hallucination or mass deception, as they would have to be if such suggestions have any validity. The events were:

1 In the open, among crowds of people, not in isolation or in dark corners. (For example, note the amazing feeding of the 5,000, one of the few events in the life of Christ reported in all four Gospels.)

2 Reported in a great variety of times and places, by many different people of varied backgrounds and characteristics, unlike any other cases of mass delusion ever reported.

3 Written up by men who were clearly not the type of men subject to credulity or hallucinations — e.g., Paul, one of the best-educated men of his day, with a highly logical and careful mind; Luke, an exceptionally competent physician and historian; Peter and John, trained as hard and pragmatic fishermen; Matthew, a politician and tax-assessor; James, a stolid and practical individual, acknowledged as leader of the early church in Jerusalem; and Jude, brother of James.

4 Accepted by great numbers of people who, because of the intense persecution they endured for their faith, would have certainly had every reason to analyze and test very critically the claims made concerning Christ by the early Apostles. It is inconceivable they could have persisted in their faith if there were any grounds for believing the Apostles to be nothing but deluded fanatics.

The Character of Christ

The only remaining source of deception that could be a possible explanation must be in Jesus Christ himself. That is, we have seen that the New Testament documents are authentic, written around the middle of the first century by men who were intelligent and stable men, sincere in what they wrote; men who had full access to the facts they were reporting, and who were firmly convinced that the one about whom they wrote was God himself, perfectly in union with human flesh, as Son of God and Son of Man, the one whose words and deeds were uniquely perfect, who performed many mighty miracles, and who had triumphed over death itself by His bodily resurrection.

Now, if all this were not really true, the only remaining possible way of accounting for such beliefs is to say that Jesus Christ himself somehow deceived His disciples into believing them. He so dazzled them with His speech that they thought He was absolutely perfect in word and deed. Likewise, He somehow tricked them into imagining they had seen Him walking on water, giving sight to the blind, and restoring Lazarus to life after four days in the tomb. And then, most marvelous of all, by some sort of incredible "passover plot," He persuaded them He had been crucified, buried and then raised again. Furthermore, He deceived them into thinking that after His resurrection, they saw Him ascending up through the clouds into heaven!

The mere recital of such absurdities is proof enough that they are impossibilities! If Jesus were of such absolutely unique skills in trickery and deception as such an explanation would require, He becomes a more marvelous enigma than if He actually did all the disciples claim for Him. Furthermore, He is surely the greatest charlatan and hypocrite in all history, if such an explanation is really true.

Yet even His enemies have continually acknowledged Him to be the greatest teacher, by precept and example, the world has ever known. The influence of His teachings and those He inspired in His followers have been the greatest force for good that man has ever encountered. Unless His character is truly as portrayed in the New Testament, there is no way ever to find that which is good and true in this world. Life is certainly devoid of any meaning, and God is dead, if Christ is not what the Scriptures declare.

The Witness of the Ordinances

Christian churches everywhere, of almost all denominations, practice two most remarkable ceremonies. Though the particular form of the observance of each may have changed in some respects with the passing years, the very fact of the observance is itself a strong testimony to the authenticity of the New Testament and Christianity. These two ceremonies are what are known as the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper.

According to the gospel records (e.g., Matt. 28:19), baptism was commanded by Jesus Christ as an integral part of His Great Commission, to be given to each new convert won to himself by the preaching of the disciples. Similarly, observance of the Lord's Supper was commanded by Him as a regular observance to commemorate His sacrificial death (e.g., Matt. 26:26-28).

It is known, of course, from the literature of the Church through the ages that the churches have always practiced these two ordinances in one form or another. The authority for doing so comes from the New Testament. However, the ordinances do have a peculiar witness of their own, not shared by the other events recorded in the New Testament.

As a matter of fact, they antedate the New Testament, since they were established by Christ himself and have been practiced ever since. It is clear from the Book of Acts that converts always were baptized soon after conversion (Acts 2:41; 8:12; etc.). Also, the churches regularly observed the Lord's Supper (1 Cor. 11:20-26), even before they had the New Testament Scriptures which commanded them to do so.

To appreciate the significance of this fact, one should try to imagine what it was like to be in one of these first century churches when they first began to receive copies of the epistles and other writings which eventually were to be the New Testament. Say, for example, it was a church which had been established as the result of the preaching of Philip the evangelist. This church continued to exist for, say, about 20 years after its founding before it began to receive copies of some of Paul's epistles and perhaps another 10 years before it obtained a copy of one of the four Gospels.

During this time it was guided in its practice by the teachings of its founder and perhaps also by other teachers whom God sent its way or raised up from its own members. Among the instructions they were following were, of course, those pertaining to baptism and the Lord's Supper. Philip, who had been one of the original seven deacons, would certainly have been careful to emphasize the basic importance of these two ordinances in the life of the church. When they finally received the actual written accounts of how those ordinances were first established, this would merely strengthen and confirm them in what they were already practicing and knew to be in accordance with the verbal teachings they had received at first.

But, now, just suppose neither Philip nor any of their other teachers had ever told them anything about either ordinance and they had not practiced either baptism or the Lord's Supper before, and neither had any of the sister churches with whom they had contact. Suddenly they receive a document purporting to be from an Apostle (say, the Gospel of Matthew, or Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians) in which these ordinances are discussed in such a way as to indicate they had been established by Christ and practiced by the churches ever since.

The obvious reaction by the church would be to assume the documents were fraudulent and to reject them forthwith. Their authors obviously could not have been the real Apostles, because they were proposing two ceremonies as having existed in the churches since the days of Christ himself, which the church receiving the documents knew, from their own previous contacts, did not exist in the churches. Thus, these documents would have been rejected as spurious by this church and by any other churches to which they came.

Thus, at no time after the days of Christ, could any such writings ever have gained acceptance as authentic records at all, unless these ordinances which they described were actually being practiced in the churches at the time of their writing and circulation. In this way the very existence of the two simple ceremonies of baptism and the Lord's Supper, both picturing and commemorating the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus in obedience to His commandment, is in itself a powerful witness to the authenticity of the New Testament documents which describe their establishment and perpetuation. There is no way of accounting for the initiation of either of the ordinances except as described in these documents. The churches could never have been persuaded to begin practicing them by books or teachers who told them they had already been practicing them since the days of Christ, if in fact they knew otherwise. Therefore, the ordinances were established by Christ, and the New Testament writings which tell about them are authentic.

Demonstration of New Testament Truth in History

A somewhat different, but nonetheless powerful, line of proof of the validity of the New Testament portrait of Christ is found in the historical vindication of certain amazing statements concerning His influence made by Christ himself.

For example, consider John 8:12 in which Jesus said (or, at least, the writer says that He said it!) "I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life." This seems absolute insanity, for a man to make a claim such as this! If such words were to come from the lips of some great world leader of the present day, he would not continue very long as a leader! And Jesus, of course, was nothing at the time except an obscure Galilean carpenter, with a motley handful of disciples.

Yet this ridiculous assertion, whether actually made by the carpenter's son himself in a moment of fanatical frenzy, or imagined by the gospel writer on the lips of a character he was creating, has been demonstrated for two thousand years to be a remarkably fulfilled prophecy! This man, whether insane or imaginary or what, has indeed been the "light of the world" ever since the words were written. The world's greatest literature, the most beautiful paintings, the most glorious music have all been inspired by Jesus Christ. Most of the hospitals, many or even most of the great educational institutions, and most of the world's charitable organizations have been founded originally in His Name. The same is true of genuine social reforms, such as abolition of slavery. Not only so, but literally millions of individuals over the centuries have found that in following Jesus, they indeed received "the light of life." Instead, therefore, of the ravings of a fanatic or the philosophizings of a fictional character, these words of the Lord Jesus Christ have been proved to be, in light of all subsequent history, the sanest and truest words that could be spoken!

Consider also the remarkable fulfillment of the words of Christ in Matthew 24:35: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." Such a claim, at the time it was made, must have seemed sheer madness! Who was this eccentric wanderer from an obscure village in a despised nation, that He should imagine anyone but His own circle of ignorant followers would ever be interested in what He had to say? Never pass away, indeed!

And yet, absurd and impossible though it may be, for two thousand years His words have not passed away! They have, in fact, been heard and read and loved and obeyed by more people in more nations that those of any other man who ever lived.

He also said: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This He said, signifying what death He should die" (John 12:32-33). One would think that the sight of the death of a condemned criminal on a Roman cross would present no great attraction, but rather a feeling of repulsion, to be erased from the memory as quickly as possible.

But once again, the prophecy has experienced a continuous fulfillment for two thousand years. Representative men from every nation, every walk of life, every degree of learning or ignorance, every age, every level of wealth or poverty, have been drawn to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Such a phenomenon, utterly unique in history, could never have been anticipated by human reason. But there it is!

Then there is the prophecy concerning His church. "Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18). Again, this is an absurdly impossible claim that has nevertheless been fully accomplished in history. That the pitiful aggregation of disciples, for whom the spokesman and leader was an ignorant and impulsive fisherman like Peter, should somehow be perpetuated and multiplied despite intense and continuous opposition and persecution, seems a wild dream at best. Still more foolish would seem the notion that this persistence would be founded on Peter's belief that Jesus was the Son of the living God. Nevertheless, the dream has come true.

Jesus also predicted that these unlikely disciples would be witnesses for Him "unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). This was, so far as known at the time, an utter physical impossibility, not to mention the intrinsic absurdity of the very thought that the disciples of such a teacher and such a message would be equal to such an assignment. And now, with radio, air travel, and other technological aids the Word is being taken to the most isolated tribes in the remotest regions, and has long since been preached as a witness in all the more accessible lands.

Many similar prophetic claims of Christ could be discussed in similar fashion. He made any number of claims and predictions which, coming from the lips of any other man who ever lived, would sound insane and impossible. But these words coming from His lips seem always right and natural and true, and in fact have always proved out to be true, whether on the stage of world history or in the realm of individual human experience.

This body of unequivocal facts, like it or not, has no rational explanation if Jesus is not actually God in human form, as the New Testament everywhere proclaims Him to be. It doesn't help any to allege, as some have done, that the writers may have misquoted Jesus and exaggerated His claims. This itself is a naive notion; the writers would rather have been shocked themselves by such claims and, if anything, would have tried to soften them and make them sound more rational. But in any case the greater fact is that, whether Christ made the claims or not, they have nevertheless been fulfilled. The writers can hardly be charged with manufacturing the fulfillments! If Christianity is false, the existence of a fallacy of such scope as this constitutes a greater miracle than if it were true.

Selected books for further study:

Bruce, F.F. 1954. The New Testament Documents: Are they Reliable? Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ. Co. 120 p.

Burgon, John W. 1990. Unholy Hands on the Bible: An Introduction to Textual Criticism. ed. Jay Green. Sovereign Grace Trust Fund. 603 p.

Deissman, Adolph. 1927. Light from the Ancient East. New York, NY: Hodder and Stoughton. 535 p.

Greenleaf, Simon. 1965. Testimony of the Evangelists. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House. 613 p.

Habermas, Gary R. 1984. Ancient Evidence for the Life of Jesus. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers. 187 p.

Kenyon, Frederick G. 1940. The Bible and Archaeology. New York, NY: Harper Brothers.

Kenyon, Frederick G. 1967. The Story of the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Linnemann, Eta. 1992. Is There A Synoptic Problem? Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House. 219 p.

Linton, Irwin H. 1943. A Lawyer Examines the Bible. Boston, MA: W. A. Wilde Co. 300 p.

Morris, Henry M. 1980. King of Creation. San Diego, CA: CLP Publishers. 239 p.

McRay, John. 1991. Archaeology and the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House. 432 p.

Ramsay, William. 1953. The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament. New York, NY: Hodder and Stoughton. 427 p.

Ramsay, William. 1962. St. Paul the Traveler and the Roman Citizen. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

Thiessen, Henry C. Introduction to the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ. Co. 347 p.

Unger, Merrill F. 1962. Archaeology and the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publ. House. 350 p.

Waite, D.A. 1992. Defending the King James Bible. Collingwood, NJ: Bible for Today Press. 306 p.