Some suggest that the people of the first century were eager gullible people who really did not worry about verifying facts.  There have always been gullible people.  What do we know about the early Christian believers and the way they demanded truth?  Did they care?

Examples of NT passages claiming that the authors were eyewitnesses.  Were the early Christians careless in not checking who wrote these? 

First, recognize that several of the New Testament writers claimed to be eyewitnesses of Christ’s ministry, crucifixion and resurrection.  Many question the authorship of the books that bear their name, but it certainly true that the traditional named authors were well positioned to know the facts. I will deal with this more in other posts. The author of Luke and Acts doesn’t claim to have been a witness of Jesus while he was on Earth, but he does claim to have been with the Apostle Paul on some of his journeys.  

Early New Testament Timeline

This timeline illustrates when the traditional authors lived, what happened to them and how they connect to later disciples. 

  1. Look at the greenish boxes to the left. These show when most of the writers of the NT lived.  We don’t know when they were born but we have church traditions regarding when they died.  We don’t have verification of these reports but it is very clear that there are no ancient reports of any of the disciples recanting.  Peter, Matthew and John were among the 12 disciples.  Paul claimed to meet the risen Jesus later.  Mark was a disciple of Peter and records Peter’s account in his book.  Luke traveled with Paul and claimed to investigate the reports of Jesus’ life.
  2. These first-hand reports are followed by the orange boxes below. These men, known as the apostolic fathers, were trained and discipled by the apostles. We have their writings and can tell that they accepted at least some of the NT books based on their quoting them or alluding to them. These apostolic fathers carried on the Christian faith, discipling others.  Others came to know Jesus from hearing from believers.  Some wrote important early apologetic defenses of the Christian faith, addressing the questions that were pressed in their day.  Examples shown here are Justin Martyr and Irenaeus of Lyons.
  1. How did they decide what to trust? These were thinking people who really cared about the truth that they were risking their lives for. An example that demonstrates this is provided by this quote from one of the Apostle John’s disciples, Papias. (It could be that he knew Polycarp, but not John himself.) Papias himself is reported to have been martyred for his faith.  

 Papias made sure to get as close to the eyewitness testimony as possible.  It was important to him to get the story straight. 

Early Christians did not lay their lives down lightly.  They investigated.  They could not do internet searches, but they did have avenues to investigate.  They were convinced that the testimony that they received was true.