The Case For Christ

history is based on single sources.
Generally, if a source is considered reliable-and I would argue
that there are plenty of reasons to believe that the gospels are
reliable-it should be considered credible, even if it can't be
confirmed by other sources.
Even when Jesus' sayings are found in two or three gospels, they
don't consider this as passing the 'multiple attestation'
criterion. If a saying is found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they
consider that only one source, because they assume that Matthew
and Luke used Mark in writing their gospels. They're failing to
recognize that an increasing number of scholars are expressing
serious reservations about the theory that Matthew and Luke used
Mark. With this line of thinking, you can see why it's extremely
difficult to prove multiple attestation." Boyd started to go on,
but I told him he had already made his point: loaded criteria,
like weighted dice, inevitably bring the results that were
desired from the beginning.
JESUS THE WONDER WORKER
One approach taken by naturalistic scholars has been to look for
parallels between Jesus and others from ancient history as a way
of
demonstrating that his claims and deeds were not completely
unique. Their goal is to explain away the view that Jesus was one
of a kind. "How do you respond to this?" I asked Boyd. "For
example, there were ancient rabbis who did exorcisms or prayed
for rain and it came, so some scholars have said Jesus was merely
another example of a Jewish wonder worker. Do those parallels
hold up?"
I was about to see Boyd the debater in action as he responded
point by point to a complex issue without the benefit of notes. I
was glad I was taping our conversation; my note taking would
never have kept up with his rapid-fire delivery.
"Actually, the parallels break down quickly when you look more
closely," he began, picking up speed as he went. "For one thing,
the sheer centrality of the supernatural in the life of Jesus has
no parallel whatsoever in Jewish history.
Second, the radical nature of his miracles distinguishes him. It
didn't just rain when he prayed for it; we're talking about
blindness, deafness, leprosy, and scoliosis being healed, storms