Continue with: THE GOSPELS/History or Myth-QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

If the Gospels were legends, could they have been compiled so quickly after the death of Jesus?

According to available evidence, the Gospels were written between the years 41 and 98 C.E.  Jesus died in the year 33 C.E.  This means that the accounts of his life were put together in a comparatively short time after his ministry ended.  This poses a tremendous obstacle to the argument that the Gospel narratives are mere legends. Time is needed for legends to develop.   Take, for example, the Iliad and the Odyssey by the ancient Greek poet Homer. Some hold that the text of those two epic legends developed and became stabilized over hundreds of years. What about the Gospels? 

In his book, Caesar and Christ, historian Will Durant writes:  "That a few simple men should .  .  .  have invented so powerful and appealing a  personality, so lofty and ethnic and so inspiring a vision of human brotherhood, would be a miracle far more incredible than any recorded in the Gospels. After two centuries of Higher Criticism the outlines of the life, character, and teaching of Christ, remain reasonably clear and constitute the most fascinating feature in the history of Western man."

Next time: Continue with THE GOSPELS/History or Myth-QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

From the Watchtower magazine, 2000