Am starting to frame-up some ideas for another paper. The tentative question: If Matthew’s Gospel was indeed the first Gospel to be published, while the sequence of events was relatively fresh in the minds of many of its readers, then would Matthew not have been particularly concerned with presenting the…
What is being taught to students of the Bible, to future pastors and Christian teachers, concerning when the first Gospel was published? First, here is what is taught by some of the apologetic works which are addressed in my book: Bauckham (2017): Mark was published in the 60s CE, thirty…
We will be talking about my recently published book, A Trustworthy Gospel: Arguments for an Early Date for Matthew’s Gospel. Here is the link for the 5/28/24 Youtube webcast. Midwest Christian Outreach strives to: “give clear answers, and a solid defense of the orthodox biblical faith, to all types of…
For those in the broader Seattle area, do check out the speaker lineup at the upcoming events sponsored by the Apologetics Forum of Snohomish County. https://www.apologeticsforum.org/ My thanks to Atonement Free Lutheran Church in Arlington for hosting a gathering last night, where we heard Dr. Phil Fernandes survey the apologetic…
Those who argue for an early date for Matthew’s Gospel must contend with Irenaeus’s claim that “Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect, while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome, and laying the foundations of the Church.” My approach for dealing with the…
To the chorus of those who assert that Matthew was written within a decade of the resurrection and ascension, I have added four more voices: Samuel Ellwood (1709), Samuel Humphreys (1746), Thomas Horne (1825), and Arthur Carr (1898). An extended excerpt from Horne has been included, which provides a nice…
In 2 Timothy 4:13, Paul makes a personal request of Timothy: Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at…
In chapter 2, on the “Intent to Have a Written Gospel,” Upham begins with a quick allusion to Milton’s Paradise Lost: Surely it was not the “Archangel ruined” who deluded men into saying that the Witnesses [of Christ] never thought of putting their witness into writing! … The ancient genealogies…
Sitting atop one of my bookshelves is a collection of older works—some were treasures discovered at used bookstores and others were sought out. One of my favorites is a small hardback by Francis W. Upham, published in New York in 1881. This was almost 150 years ago! To put this…
When scholars assess the genre classification of the Gospels, the concern is generally over which ancient “biographical works are most analogous to the Gospels” and “what level of historical accuracy did audiences in the period of the early empire expect from biographies?” For example, Craig Keener “establishes that biographers, especially…