Is it true that none of the writers of the bible ever met Jesus?

Question

I have found that There exists no evidence that the New Testament came from the purported original apostles or anyone else that had seen the alleged Jesus. Although the oldest surviving Christian texts came from Paul, he had never seen the earthly Jesus. He only claims that he saw the "spirit" of Jesus? There occurs nothing in Paul's letters that either hints at the existence of the Gospels or even of a need for such memoirs of Jesus Christ.

The oldest copy of the New Testament yet found consists of a tiny fragment from the Gospel of John. Scholars dated the little flake of papyrus from the period style of its handwriting to around the first half of the 2nd century C.E.

If this is true, then this puts my faith in serious doubt. I mean these guys could have just made things up!

Answer 1

no it is false.....Matthew and some others actually walked with jesus...

Answer 2

Well, then, be glad it is not true. Matthew , Mark, and John, who wrote Gospels, did know Jesus well. Peter and James, who wrote letters, also knew Jesus well. The letters were not written as diaries, the same day that things happened. Nor were they written in the same year. They were written when the groups of followers of Jesus had gotten large enough that they were spread over a large territory, and Jesus has mandated that the Good News be spread. Then it became necessary to put things in writing, in the form of books and letters,,, which were sorted through some centuries later to compile into what we now call the Bible.

One thing that is impressive, is that, although so old, and in many languages,, it remains the same. There is a saying abaout lies; a couple actually. One is that you can stomp on the Truth, bury it, drown in, twist it, but it will always ultimately prevail, rise to the top. Another is that lies are such that sooner or later the lies upon lies upon lies end up in nonsense, and they fall. It's been 2000 years now,,, and the Bible is standing that test of time.
The oldest complete Bible in Greek is the Codex Sinaiticus, from the mid-fourth century. The Old Testament is how old?

Here is a link to a good article with info on ancient Greek manuscripts of the New Testament.:
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/papyrus/texts/manuscripts.html

Answer 3

Let me see. Matthew, also called Levi, called by Jesus from being a tax collector. Mark was written from Peter's perspective, perhaps by his scribe. Luke, was an early historian, and probably did not meet Jesus while He walked this earth. John, the beloved disciple, wrote the Gospel bearing his name, and three letters later in the New Testament, 1st - 2nd & 3rd John. James and Jude were also early disciples, but more, they were Jesus' half brothers, sons of Joseph and Mary. Paul met the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus. And those are just New Testament examples. Jesus is Eternal God, so any Old Testament examples where the writers met the Angel of the LORD would be the preincarnate Jesus. Answer your question?

Answer 4

Your screen name is "Atheist," so you're telling us you have "faith"?

Scholars are not 100% sure of the identity of the authors of the various NT books, but internal and external evidence suggests that the works that bear their names were indeed written by them.

Matthew, Mark, John, James, Jude, and Peter, by this criterion, knew Jesus. Luke did not know Jesus, but became a Christian after Christ ascended. Luke did not CLAIM to have known Jesus, either.

Paul's writings don't hint at the existence of the gospels because they hadn't been compiled yet.

The guys who wrote the New Testament could have made it all up regardless - whether they WERE the actual guys or just purported to be them.

You've gotten your panties in a twist over nothing. Fine, your faith is in doubt. So become a Hindoo or a Wiccan or something. Who cares?

LoveJack.

Answer 5

I was a religion major in college and studied this quite a bit.

The answer to your question is always going to come down to what one wants to believe. The Christian church's standpoint is that the gospels were written by the actual apostles, but scholars don't believe this to be true.

More accurately, the gospels were probably written by communities started by the apostles they are named after. This explains similarities and differences in teachings, stories, and thematic focuses. In other words, the difficulties facing one community were different than those facing the others, so different aspects of the life of Jesus were focused on. Also, many scholars believe that some of the communities may have had copies of the other texts (ie, the gospels of Mark and Matthew have so many similar stories, that it is very possible that one of those communities could have had the other community's gospel that was already written down).

Don't forget, the gospels in the NT were not decided upon until hundreds of years after the life of Jesus. There were so many different gospels and teachings, the church convened and decided which ones were going to be (from that point forward) the Synoptic gospels. Gospels that didn't make the cut include the gospel of Mary Magdalene, a text commonly called simply "Q" which is like a text of quotes of Jesus, the gospel of Thomas, and the infancy gospel of Thomas. Infancy gospel of Thomas is a particularly intriguing read, as it is the only text (that has been found) that covers Jesus' adolescent life. Jesus performs miracles, but not really as noble as the miracles that most know now. He makes birds out of clay, and actually kills someone. Wonder why that one got left out of the NT??

Also, remember that the gospels that we read now are flawed further. What I mean by this is that the NT is pretty much a translation of a translation. Might not sound like much of a difference, but try reading the same gospel from two different bibles. The words you read come from the same original text, it was just translated differently over the 2000 years.

To further complicate things, I thought I would throw into the mix the fact that most scholars don't believe that all the letters of Paul were actually written by Paul. Some of them are almost definitely written by others who are writing in Paul's name. If you read them closely, verbage and word choice changes dramatically, and sometimes Paul contradicts himself from one letter to another. Just another little tidbit that you might enjoy reading up on.

The important thing to remember, though, is that it all comes down to faith. After all, the Old Testament was passed from generation to generation as oral traditions for thousands of years before it was written down. Most scholars believe that John was probably written last, and it was at most 2 generations after Jesus' life.

Any time I discuss this with someone, I always suggest that they study it a little further, if it interests them. I find it fascinating, personally, especially trying to pull everything together in such a way that makes sense to me.

Hopefully that helped, if you want to study it more, I'd suggest starting with: "Fortress Introduction to The Gospels" by Mark Allan Powell.

Answer 6

I don't think you ever had any faith. It is required that a Christian having faith that the Lord Jesus Christ died for your sins. What does it matter if the apostle seen Jesus or not their words were inspired by God. When Jesus was on the earth He call 12 apostles and sent them out. How could He do that if the could not see him. Matthew 10: 5 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: The Apostle John writes John, 1, II, III John and Revelation. Luke writes Luke and Acts, Peter writes 1 & II Peter, Matthew writes the book of Matthew< I dont know what books you have been reading but you need to start reading your Bible. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Romans 10: 17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Answer 7

Well, let's see -- the Gospel according to John was written by "the disciple that Jesus loved" (yes, there was a disciple named John) and the letter from James was written by James, the brother of Jesus. OK, so the oldest copy of the New Testament has been dated circa A.D. 200-250 -- so what? Are you telling me that your faith is on such shaky ground that you are inclined not to believe without a manuscript dating back to the first century A.D.?!?!!?!?!!! Better yet, why don't you ask the Orthodox Jews about the writings of Josephus, a Jewish historian who lived from approximatey 12 B.C. - 39 A.D.? He recounts many of the events of the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Remember, according to the most accurate accounts, Jesus lived from 3 B.C. to 30 A.D. (yeah, someone screwed up the calendar along the way...)

Answer 8

You are correct. The writers of those Christian manuscripts from which the bible was made were themselves simply men, who called themselves disciples.

The Bible was not written by any of the apostles themselves, and any given copy of the various different translations was certainly written out and printed by ordinary men and women.

This is not important. The people who hear the story of Jesus need to understand the message - it is not really important who told you about it. All that is important is what the message means. Any person who can recognize the nature of the Divine is blessed when they hear truth and will find it is like water that makes a small soul grow and become greater and fruitful and able to nourish others. After all is said and done, it is what the truth means, and how it works in your life that is really important - not the exact words used to tell it, and not even 'who' said it. If you have faith in that truth to guide you, then all who see you will see that in your own life...

Pedigree and history are important for breeding dogs and horses and foolish men. But If you would like to understand the Divine, I recommend that you steadfastly pursue the understanding of the mystery that even a broken cup may be able to hold just enough water that you may drink, and don't worry about the fact it is not a perfect cup because it is good enough for you at this time in your life.

Answer 9

It is true that the original manuscripts are lost to history. However, Peter and John certainly met and were disciples of Jesus, and then James and Jude were Jesus' half-brothers, sons of Mary. Paul was converted to Christianity after Jesus ascension, but I'm not sure that we can say with confidence that he never saw Jesus before that.

The interesting thing about scripture is that there is far more evidence that the account of Jesus' ministry is true than there is of any other point of religious interest from any religion anywhere. There are literally millions upon millions of testimonies of people who are very credible in all ways.

But you must know, in the search for reconciliation with the One True God, Creator of all Creation, that this is a spiritual journey, and not aphysical one. So if you seek physical evidence, you are already looking in the wrong place. And as you say, physical evidence could be faked anyway, so how could you trust it? You will have to seek God in a place that can't be faked...in truth and in spirit...through the only true WAY to him at all...through Jesus.

The scriptures are a guidebook, not an encyclopedia of evidence. Use them correctly and you will find that the Word of God is Spoken and that by His Grace your Spirit can hear Him.

David

Answer 10

From what I have read, seen on documentaries and been taught at the Christian College seminars I attended, the New Testament was written between 100 to around 500 years CE. There are also several books written that were never put in the version of the bible you read now and the old testament is not complete, because the catholics that put it together thought parts sounded too Jewish and left them out (wasn't Jesus Jewish?) Now ready for the kicker?? Look at the myth of Hercules and compare it to the life of Jesus......scary how it is so similar!!!OH, and for the record, I am no longer christian, too many contradictions, too much confusion.

Answer 11

Until recent times, there was virtually no dispute as to the early dating of the Gospels, as well as the fact that they were indeed written by the named writers.

Also, nothing in recent times has been discovered to cast doubt on all of the above.

The only thing that has changed is the wide spread adoption by academia of a the Historical-Critical Method of Bible study.

According to the advocates of this method, the Bible is no different than any other book, and like any other book, it is also subject to various errors, omissions, abuses, etc.

Now these guys haven't discovered anything new or different about the Bible, they just choose to treat the Bible more like a cheap romance novel than than what we know it to be.

The proponents of this method make all sorts of charges and claims about scripture. They claim it wasn't written by the named authors. They claim that it was written late. Some even suggest a late 2nd century or early 3rd century time period. They also claim that much of it was made up by "faith communities" and when finally comitted to writing, was merely labeled as the authentic words of Jesus Christ and the apostles.

There's more, but I think you get the picture.

These guys have no evidence to support their claims, but they do have wide spread support for their methods in universities, seminaries, and in many well known Bible schools.

Their opinions get published, and they receive widespread distribution.

In my own opinion, all of this just serves to provide more evidence that scripture is truly God-inspired. For example, the Bible specifically mentions this type of activity:

2Pe 3:2 That you may be mindful of those words which I told you before from the holy prophet and of your apostles, of the precepts of the Lord and Saviour.
2Pe 3:3 Knowing this first: That in the last days there shall come deceitful scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
2Pe 3:4 Saying: Where is his promise or his coming? For since the time that the fathers slept, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
2Pe 3:5 For this they are wilfully ignorant of: That the heavens were before, and the earth out of water and through water, consisting by the word of God:
2Pe 3:6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.
2Pe 3:7 But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of the ungodly men.

For your own benefit and for your own peace of mind, I suggest you obtain a Bible study or two that predates this current novelty, and study scripture in a way that is both faithful and true.

That way you won't have to needlessly agonize over questions which were definitively settled long, long ago by some of the greatest saints and scholars of all time, and who made excellent use of original source documents and texts that no longer even exist in today's world.

Peace be with you.