Historical Studies of the Bible

On my YouTube account, I've received numerous messages asking me what this whole "Historical Jesus", "Historical Paul", and other related issues are all about. I'll dedicate this blog entry to answer that question.

The Historical Jesus and other related issues basically boils down to this: without presupposing the Bible is true or inspired, without presupposing Christianity is true and without presupposing the New Testament as a whole is true or inspired, how much can you prove about Jesus? That is, how much of Jesus' life, teachings and deeds can you prove through the historical method(ologies) without involving or relying upon theology and faith?

Honorably, many conservative and evangelical scholars have devoted many years to these issues. Some of them include Gary Habermas, Norman Geisler, William Lane Craig, Mike Licona, Craig L. Blomberg, Richard Bauckham, Darrell Bock, D. A. Carson, Craig S. Keener, N. T. Wright, James Dunn, Lee Strobel, among many others.

So, when one hears about the "historical Jesus" and the like, it refers to that which can be proven through the historical method(s). Now, whether those methods are problematic or not is a whole different issue (and they are an issue because they automatically rule out the possibility of any type of miracles [supernaturalism])!