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| - The historicity of the gospels refers to the reliability and historic character of the four New Testament gospels as historical documents. These gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John recount the life, ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus. Alternatively, some Christian scholars maintain that the gospels are inerrant descriptions of the life of Jesus, while certain other scholars have concluded that they provide no historical information about his life.
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abstract
| - The historicity of the gospels refers to the reliability and historic character of the four New Testament gospels as historical documents. These gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John recount the life, ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus. Prominent, mainstream historians consider the synoptic gospels to have serious historical value. They affirm the historical existence of Jesus as a Galilean teacher and of the religious movement he founded, and they look to the gospels for historical information about both. Historians subject the gospels to critical analysis, attempting to differentiate authentic, reliable information from what they judge to be inventions, exaggerations, and alterations. The Gospel of Mark, the first of the four gospels, narrates the historically authentic baptism of Jesus, preaching, and crucifixion of Jesus. Matthew and Mark follow Mark's narrative, with some changes, and add substantial amounts of Jesus' ethical teaching, such as the golden rule. They also add some details that historians largely discount, such as the nativity of Jesus. The fourth gospel, John, includes a number of historically reliable details, but it differs greatly from the first three gospels, and historians largely discount it. The canonical gospels, overall, have more historically authentic content than the various noncanonical gospels. Alternatively, some Christian scholars maintain that the gospels are inerrant descriptions of the life of Jesus, while certain other scholars have concluded that they provide no historical information about his life.
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