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Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity

The four gospels were written long
after the reported events, by
non-eyewitnesses, for whom their story
constituted hearsay evidence.
 

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Preview and Summary: The gospel accounts were likely written close to, or in, the second century; well beyond the purview of eye-witness authority to the events of Jesus' life.

The apostle Paul, working the missionary-fields for about 30 years, had already been killed by the time the first gospel-account was written.

And because Matthew inaugurates the New Testament, many assume that it was the first gospel. But it was not.

The gospel of Mark was written first. Scholars tell us that it was produced somewhere between 70 CE and the early second century.

It is likely that most, possibly all, gospel accounts were written in the second century by non-eyewitnesses of the reported accounts -testimonies from those who had no direct knowledge of the events of 30 CE!

It is one thing to claim that an eyewitness report is infallible - such claim is dubious enough. But when the "holy writings" are given to us by those who were not even in attendance to the drama, then new layers of fantasy come to greet us.

Hearsay evidence, deemed to be patently unreliable, generally, is not admissible in a court of law; but, in the kangaroo-jurisprudence of "snowballs in July, Doc," no tale is too tall to tell.