Can We Trust the New Testament? Thoughts on the Reliability of Early Christian Testimony

by Wells, George Albert

• ISBN13: 9780812695670
• ISBN10: 0812695674
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-11-26
• Publisher: Open Court

Summary

The earliest refernces to Peter reveal a pre-gospel Christianity which had not yet come to believe that Jesus had lived and died in the recent past as described in the gospels. What emerges from critical reading of the sources is that the real Peter and Paul were bitterly divided, but that later traditions tried to represent them as working harmoniously together, and presented Peter as companion of the newly-composed gospels. Peter began to be linked with Rome in the second century A.D., only much later does this legend become elaborated so that Peter is the sole founder of the church of Rome and thus the first pope.
In the final chapters, Professor Wells describes how leading church spokesmen have themselves accepted the non-historicity of much of the New Testament, and shows the varied conclusions for Christian faith they have drawn from this disturbing development.

Author Biography

G.A. Wells is Professor Emeritus of German in the University of London. He is the author of numerous books and articles on the origins of Christianity and on German intellectual history.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Actual Historical order of Writing of New Testament Books	xi
A Revolution in Christology	1	(74)
The Earliest Evidence	1	(42)
Jesus on Earth	1	(11)
The Epistle to the Hebrews	12	(5)
Jesus as a Heavenly Figure	17	(7)
Man's Redemption and Justification: The Religion of Paul	24	(19)
The Transition to the Gospels and to Later Writings	43	(9)
Doing Without Jesus in the Second Century	52	(6)
The Futile Appeal to Eyewitness Testimony	58	(10)
The Believer's Predicament	68	(7)
The Acts of the Apostles---A Historical Record?	75	(40)
The Author and His Book	75	(5)
Christianity and Judaism	80	(3)
Eschatology and Relations with Rome	83	(4)
Missionary Speeches. The Twelve Apostles and Paul	87	(9)
Miracles and the Spread of Christianity	96	(7)
The `We' Source and Paul's Travels	103	(8)
The Crossing into Europe	103	(2)
The Return to Jerusalem and the Money Collection	105	(4)
The Final Voyage to Rome	109	(2)
A Less Spectacular Beginning	111	(2)
Addendum: Wedderburn on the `We' Passages	113	(2)
Peter at Rome? The Literary Evidence	115	(26)
Some Notable Silences	115	(1)
1 and 2 Peter	116	(6)
The Tradition Develops	122	(3)
Ignatius and 1 Clement	125	(11)
Topographical Support	136	(1)
The Mythological Process at Work	137	(4)
Reinterpreting Early Christian Testimony	141	(38)
Radical Anglican Theology	141	(26)
Don Cupitt and Hugh Dawes	141	(9)
Anthony Freeman	150	(7)
Richard Holloway and Mark Oakley	157	(6)
Jonathan Blake	163	(4)
Responses to Radical Theology	167	(4)
From Dogma to Incoherence	171	(8)
Conclusion: Poetry and Piety	179	(8)
Epilogue: Some Recent New Testament Scholarship	187	(12)
Burton Mack	187	(3)
Rowan Williams	190	(5)
Edward Norman	195	(2)
The Shifting Balance	197	(2)
Notes	199	(18)
Bibliography	217	(10)
Index of New Testament References	227	(6)
General Index	233