Show notes
Do the Gospels behave like history when we test the details? The Gospel writers could never have anticipated the kinds of tests researchers can perform nearly 2,000 years later.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Can the Gospels be tested?
01:16 Joanna, Chuza, and an obscure historical detail
02:42 The claim to eyewitness testimony
05:03 Were the Gospels written close enough to the events?
08:25 Mark, Alexander the Great, and living memory
09:23 Was John written before AD 70?
11:26 Testing the Gospels through names
14:33 Why common names matter
16:09 Undesigned coincidences
19:00 Can historical fiction pass the same tests?
19:30 New statistical research on Gospel names
23:15 The Spear and the difficulty of recreating the past
25:27 Acts versus the apocryphal Acts
26:23 125 chronological markers in Acts
29:14 Evidence for eyewitness testimony
30:40 The “we” passages in Acts
32:39 The shipwreck in Acts 27
33:53 The cumulative case
34:50 What this evidence can and cannot prove
FEATURED SCHOLARS:
@CraigKeenerPhD — Professor of Biblical Studies, Asbury Theological Seminary, Author of Christobiography.
Dr. Nathan Nadeau — New Testament Scholar, Toronto Baptist Seminary (https://nathannadeau.substack.com/).
@LydiaMcGrewChannel — Analytic Philosopher, Author of Hidden in Plain View: Undesigned Coincidences in the Gospels and Acts.
Dr. Luuk Vandeweghe — New Testament Scholar, Author of Living Footnotes in the Gospel of Luke. Luuk did extensive research, preparation, and original script for this video — thank you, Luuk (https://www.luukvandeweghe.com/).
SOURCES and FURTHER READING:
Richard Bauckham, "Wife of Chuza the Nabataean," in Gospel Women: Studies of the Named Women in the Gospels (Eerdmans, 2002)
Bruce Chilton, The Herods (Fortress Press, 2021)
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews
Craig S. Keener, Christobiography (Eerdmans, 2019)
Craig S. Keener, Miracles (two volumes; Baker Academic, 2011)
George van Kooten, “The Pre-70 ce Dating of the Gospel of John: ‘There is (ἔστιν) in Jerusalem … a pool … which has five porticoes’ (5.2),” New Testament Studies 71.1 (2025)
Lydia McGrew, Hidden in Plain View: Undesigned Coincidences in the Gospels and Acts (De Ward, 2017)
Lydia McGrew and Timothy McGrew, "The Argument from Miracles," ch. 11 in The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009)
Luuk Van de Weghe, Living Footnotes in the Gospel of Luke (Pickwick, 2023)
Luuk Van de Weghe, "Name Recall in the Synoptic Gospels,” New Testament Studies 68.3 (2022)
Luuk Van de Weghe and Jason Wilson, “Why Name Popularity is a Good Test of Historicity,” Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 22.2 (2024)
Nathan Nadeau, The Puzzle of Paul in Acts (Routledge, 2026)
Jason Wilson and Luuk Van de Weghe, "Re-examining the Statistical Methodology and Onomastic Claims of Gregor and Blais's Argument," Journal for the Study of the New Testament (2026)
(forthcoming book, InterVarsity Academic)
Tal Ilan, Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity (4 Volumes; Mohr Siebeck, 2002-2012)
Daniel Wallace, “John 5:2 and the Date of the Fourth Gospel,” Biblica 71.2 (1990)
Steven Walton, Leadership and Lifestyle: The Portrait of Paul in the Miletus Speech and 1 Thessalonians (Cambridge, SNTSMS 108)
Paul N. Anderson (editor), Archaeology, Jesus, and the Gospel of John: What Recent Discoveries Show Us (Eerdmans, 2026)
Colin Hemer, "First Person Narrative in Acts 27–28," Tyndale Bulletin 36 (1985)
H. J. W. Drijvers and J. F. Healey, The Old Syriac Inscriptions of Edessa and Osrhoene (Brill, 1999)
Special thanks to Craig Keener, Lydia McGrew, and Nathan Nadeau for taking the time to discuss this evidence.
Editing services provided by Jake Mooney from @greenlightyourmarketing, based out of Chiang Mai, Thailand. Jake runs an agency providing remotely managed marketing/media support to companies around the world.
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