2009-05-11

Tim Keller — almost immediately, but a mere hundred years later, everyone knew the 4 gospels were true

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by Neil Godfrey

The canonical gospels were written at the very most forty to sixty years after Jesus’s death. (p.101 of The Age of Reason)

The four canonical gospels were written much earlier than the so-called Gnostic gospels. The Gospel of Thomas, the best known of the Gnostic documents, is a translation from the Syriac, and scholars have shown that the Syriac traditions in Thomas can be dated to 175 A.D. (sic) at the earliest . . . . (pp.102-103)

The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, however, were recognized as authoritative eyewitness accounts almost immediately, and so we have Irenaeus of Lyons in 160 A.D. (sic) declaring that there were four, and only four, gospels. (p.103)

It appears that the very first evidence Keller can find of anyone accepting the canonical gospels as “authoritative eyewitness accounts” was at the very least 90 years after the first gospel was supposedly penned.

Actually Keller’s 160 date for the composition by Irenaeus against heresies is generous in the extreme. We cannot be absolutely sure if Irenaeus was born earlier than 142 c.e., and it was from 161 to 180 that an imperial persecution against Christians was waged. (See Wikipedia Irenaeus.) It was from 180 c.e. that Irenaeus most likely had the time and circumstances to write his many volumes, and 180 c.e. is the date for his writings I usually see referenced.

Justin Martyr around 140 c.e. appears to quote some gospel passages, but he also appears to quote passages from non-canonical gospels, too. So he can hardly have regarded the canonical four as “authoritative” to the exclusion of others.

Ignatius and Polycarp are also highly debatable re how much of their works were late addition or compilations. Keller has no clear evidence of the belief in the canonical gospels as the authoritative “eyewitness accounts” apart from a late second century bishop and apologist for the church headquartered at Rome.

This, in The Age of Reason, is sufficient evidence for him to proclaim:

The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, however, were recognized as authoritative eyewitness accounts almost immediately, and so we have Irenaeus of Lyons in 160 A.D. (sic) declaring that there were four, and only four, gospels. (p.103)

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Neil Godfrey

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7 thoughts on “Tim Keller — almost immediately, but a mere hundred years later, everyone knew the 4 gospels were true”

  1. The intellectual dishonesty of statements like these is galling. Clement of Rome supposedly knew both Paul and Peter and thus should have been familiar with the gospels written by their companions Luke and Mark. Nevertheless, writing at the end of the first century, Clement doesn’t demonstrate any familiarity with any written gospel. Moreover, he doesn’t even treat Paul’s letters as authoritative. He just inserts passages from them in his letter as if they were his own words.

  2. ‘The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, however, were recognized as authoritative eyewitness accounts almost immediately, and so we have Irenaeus of Lyons in 160 A.D. (sic) declaring that there were four, and only four, gospels. (p.103)……’

    Luke was an eyewitness? Mark was an eyewitness?

    Not even Irenaeus claimed that…

  3. Ed Jones says,

    For a reconstruction of so-called Christian Origins go to Google Search enter Comments April 12, 13 plus add on April 17. It just may be worth your while.

    1. Clarification of Comment.
      Reference is to a reconstruction of the Jesus Traditioni in the form of a letter to R. Joseph Hoffmann. It is on the the blog: R. Joseph Hoffmann – Blogs, Pistures and more -Word Press. This is an archive of essays, scroll to essay title: The Importance of the Historical Jesus, c lick on and scroll to 9 Comments, Comments 1 and 5 Is the reconstruction. The remaining Comments are related.

  4. As there are difference of view today so there was at the time of Jesus as reflected by different Gospels. My issue is not the dating of other gospels but why “only” the four was selected.

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