8. Are the Witnesses Honest? (4)

When the documents were written and circulated, were there people around who could verify the accuracy and/or raise objections against any mistakes or fabrications? This all boils down to dating and timing. For each event in history one can establish what is often called the eyewitness period, this is a time period of about 40 years (an average adult lifespan in those years) from the actual event. In that time period it is reasonable to assume that there will be a significant number of eyewitnesses still alive to testify to the accuracy or inaccuracy of the described event. In case of the gospels and Paul’s letters, this period would be from around 30 AD (the start of Jesus ministry) until about 70 AD (the end of the 40 year period). Obviously, some people grow older than others, so even after 70 AD some eyewitnesses would still be alive (like the apostle John), but on average the population of eyewitnesses would have been significantly reduced at the end of the eyewitness period.

Earlier[1], we have discussed and analyzed the dating of all gospels, Acts, and Paul’s epistles. All (except for John’s gospel) are likely dated in the range 49 through 70 AD, 80 AD at the latest. John is likely more in the 80-90 AD range. This places most accounts (all but John) safely in the eyewitness period, allowing verification by both friendly as well as hostile contemporaries.

From friendly contemporaries (other Christians) we see positive confirmations by the end of the century and early second century through Papias, Clement of Rome, Epistle of Barnabas etc.[2]

From the unfriendlies we do not hear much in terms of refuting the events and claims. As we have seen, there are quite a few extra-Biblical confirmations, but there are no contradicting claims. That is quite significant if you realize the hostile environment in which Christianity was born. The whole movement could have been stopped in its tracks almost right from the beginning if anybody would have ever claimed that the resurrection did not happen and/or, even better, would have produced Jesus’ body. This did not happen, nor do we find any writings that make these claims. Indirectly, this is strong testimony to the validity of the resurrection claims.