Have you ever wondered how much confidence you should put in the four gospel accounts that open the New Testament? Are they just legends? Should we read them as reliable accounts of what Jesus actually did? Could they have preserved Jesus’ teachings after such a long time? These are questions I asked when I first began to investigate Christianity, but a course that I’m taking in the gospels with Wayne Baxter this term has given me greater clarity in understanding them. Let me share what I’ve learned.

Scholars today estimate that the gospels were written somewhere between the mid-60s to the mid-80s. That places them 30 to 50 years after the events they describe. It’s generally accepted that this isn’t enough time for a full-blown legend to develop, but the question still remains whether Jesus’ teachings and the events of His life could still be accurately recorded after all this time. Consider the following:

1. Memorization was at the heart of 1st c. education

Education today doesn’t place a lot of stress on rote learning. We try to teach children to think because any facts they’ll need are just a click away. In the 1st c. that wasn’t the case. Rabbis expected their disciples to memorize their teachings and disciples were eager to do so. In an age where books were rare and the internet a fantasy, people had a greater capacity to memorize what they heard than we do today. That’s the case for any learning, but surely the motivation of Jesus’ disciples would be greater than most. If you believed that you were at the centre of a new movement led by the Messiah and called as His inner circle, there would be a huge sense of responsibility to remember His teachings with care and precision.

2. Jesus’ teaching would have been deeply embedded in the disciples’ memory

While the disciples would be highly motivated to memorize Jesus’ teachings, there’s a sense in which it would have been easy for them to do so. Jesus travelled from village to village teaching the crowds wherever He went. Like any itinerant preacher, he would frequently repeat His sermons. After a 3-month home assignment as a returning missionary from Japan, my wife and children had heard me preach the same one or two sermons more than a dozen times. By the time it was over, they could preach the sermon as well as I could, and to this day they’re able to quote lines from the sermons they heard. The disciples were ringside to hear Jesus preach almost constantly over a period of several years. In addition to that, Jesus’ sermons made them easy to learn. His teachings were filled with stories and metaphors. He used jokes, illustrations, and rhyming. It would be hard to forget His teachings even if they tried.

3. Jesus’ life and teachings were recorded and passed on before the gospels were recorded

It’s true that paper was more precious in Jesus’ day, and nobody carried along an iPad. But it’s likely that some of the disciples would have taken notes as they listened to Jesus. Luke tells us as much. In the opening verse of his gospel, he says that “many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us” (Luke 1:1). In other words, he sees his gospel as just one of many accounts. Then he adds, “just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us” (Luke 1:2). So, before Luke ever began to record his gospel, eyewitnesses to Jesus’ ministry and teachers in the early church were carefully passing on that message. The disciples didn’t have time to forget what Jesus had taught. On the Day of Pentecost, the church was born with 3,000 members and it was all hands on deck to try to teach and disciple the new converts. They would be given a steady diet of vivid eyewitness accounts. After several decades had passed, the eyewitnesses started to pass away, and the church was expanding to the far reaches of the Roman Empire. At this point, written gospel records were an urgent need in the Christian movement and the gospel writers were perfectly positioned to give faithful accounts. As Luke wrote, “it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught” (Luke 1:3-4). When you read the gospels, you can have that same certainty that they preserve the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. May that certainty stir your desire to read them with eagerness!

In awe of Him,

Paul