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…
If you are looking for apologetics resources and networking opportunities, here are two organizations to be aware of. Last weekend, I was down at the 2024 annual conference of the International Society of Christian Apologetics (ISCA), hosted this year at Fields Church in Carlsbad, California. There were presentations/papers from Dr.…
What does it do to the trustworthiness of the witness testimony contained within the Gospels, when it is asserted that the Gospel of Matthew was not written until four, five, or six decades after the dialogues and events contained therein? First, I want to highlight the dating claims made by…
This is my first published book and I have to admit to feeling more than a little giddy with excitement. I’ve been quite distracted over the last couple weeks, as the typesetting was finished, then the cover design, and now the book is available through Christianbook, Amazon, Barnes and Noble,…
In my search for historical authors who have speculated concerning the early date of Matthew’s Gospel, it is tempting to latch onto every author who might be “on my team.” However, there is need for circumspection. This morning, I found this interesting book from James Sheridan Knowles, Irish actor and…
Another type of publication which targeted the Christian public and likewise conveyed an early date for Matthew were Bible Knowledge and Bible History Handbooks. This first one was a Catholic publication, written in 1927 by the archbishop in Milwaukee, which largely drew from a work in German. B. IN PARTICULAR.…
Previous blog posts have profiled Protestant and Catholic family Bibles which identified early publication dates for the Gospels, including a publication date for Matthew within a decade of the resurrection and ascension. My goal has been to demonstrate that at one time there was a general awareness, within the English…
Excerpts from the writings of two additional authors, Robert Cockburne (1755) and Thomas Townson (1778), relating to the origins of Matthew’s Gospel, have now been posted. As with the other excerpts, I have modified the spellings and punctuation, to make the material more accessible to the modern reader. An extended…