Sunday, January 11, 2009

The Gospels: Sources of insider information

Every once in awhile, when reading the gospel accounts, I have found myself wondering: "How would the gospel writers know that?" How would the early Christians have known about Herod's birthday party and the dancing girl? How would the early Christians have known about private conversations involving the high priest? How did the early Christians know what John the Baptist taught? And other similar questions. I have stumbled across the answers to some of these while reading, and have begun a list on sources of inside information mentioned in the gospels
  • On Herod's household: Joanna (Luke 8:3)
  • On Herod's life: Menaen (Acts 13:1)
  • On John the Baptist: Andrew (John 1:40)
  • On events in the Sanhedrin: Nicodemus (John 7:50)
  • On events in Cana: Nathanael (John 21:2)
  • On events involving the high priest (John 18:15-16)
If I come across more, I will update this list.
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4 comments:

  1. Tony12:09 AM, January 12, 2009

    Weren't John and Peter there during Christ's trial, at least in the background?

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  2. Weekend Fisher6:45 AM, January 12, 2009

    We know Peter was. Then there was an unnamed disciple that may or may not have been John, who got Peter in through the door when they weren't going to let him in.

    I didn't list those kinds of things because I think most Christians are familiar with the fact that at least Peter was there during that part of the trial. So it's not a mystery how we know things that happened in front of one or more disciples. But for the parts where no disciples were present, how exactly did they know about any of the private deliberations of the Sanhedrin? That's the kind of thing I'm looking at here. I probably should have specified. ;)

    Take care & God bless
    Anne / WF

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  3. Martin LaBar9:00 AM, January 12, 2009

    This is a good idea, and you've got some interesting likely sources.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Weekend Fisher6:38 PM, January 12, 2009

    Hi Martin

    I didn't know you ever stopped by here. Good to see you. Thanks for commenting.

    Take care & God bless
    Anne / WF

    ReplyDelete