The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel surveys scholars to examine the historical evidence for Jesus in the Gospels. The results demonstrate that the Bible’s testimony about Christ is reliable.

Careful examination of all the evidence points to the veracity of the Gospel accounts regarding Jesus, including His claims to divinity and His resurrection.

Yale-trained lawyer and former atheist Lee Strobel takes us on his incredible journey of examining the legal case of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He moves from disbelief to acceptance as we hear from a number of world-renowned experts in a variety of fields. We see how modern psychology and modern medicine lend credibility to the account of Jesus. We follow the traces of ancient manuscripts, picking up shreds of eyewitness accounts from early testimonies to Jesus. We examine whether the evidence supports Jesus’ understanding himself to be God and whether the Jesus of history has any resemblance to the Jesus worshipped by the church today.

We come away with answers to critical questions and the confidence to look more into the historical record and life of Jesus, trusting that they will line up with the Bible. Time and time again, we are pointed to world experts who piece together a complete picture of a Man who claimed to be God and who lived, died, and was resurrected.

In this summary, you will learn:

  • the historical facts for the Jesus of the Bible;
  • some of the errors that critics often make when examining the evidence; and
  • why we would believe that Jesus is who He said He was.

The importance and value of eyewitness testimony in the Gospels.

Eyewitness testimony is one of the most powerful forms of evidence in trials and is also one of the most powerful forms of evidence for examining historical records. In the case of Jesus Christ and His status as the Son of God, eyewitness testimony will be equally important. If we had records from early eyewitnesses or journalists, we could examine their records and see how they hold up to scrutiny.

It sometimes doesn’t seem possible to be a smart, educated person and believe in the testimonies of the four Gospels. It seems like the writers could’ve easily forged the names of early apostles to lend an air of authenticity. But actually, there were better names to borrow for that purpose. A Gospel according to Peter or James would’ve carried more weight than the names of Matthew and Mark. And if those Gospels are written by those apostles (a claim that was not disputed in the early source), then we have good reason to think that the Gospels represent eyewitness accounts of Jesus. The four Gospels, then, are based on direct or indirect eyewitness testimony.

Ancient biographies are different than modern biographies on a few levels. The ancient biographies we see in the Gospels might be drawing on “Q,” an earlier collection of sayings incorporated into Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Even in “Q,” however, there is a sense that Jesus is a miracle worker who claims to be wisdom personified and carries the judgment of God.

John’s Gospel was probably somewhat independent of the other three Gospels, and he may not have even been aware of their existence or perspective. John’s Gospel may seem more theological, but it just has a different theological emphasis.

Is the information in the Gospels reliably preserved over the years? Even when the Gospels are dated rather late by some scholars, they were still written by about 70-90 C.E., and thus within the lifespan of the direct and indirect witnesses. In contrast, biographies about major historical figures like Alexander the Great and Plutarch don’t start appearing until hundreds of years after the figures lived.

In the Gospels, Jesus’ testimony involves applying the phrase “Son of Man” to Himself. This isn’t a statement of Jesus’ humanity. It’s a nod to His divinity, a quote from Daniel 7:13-14, and a claim to God’s throne. In some of Paul’s early letters, the early oral traditions of the church emerge (like Philippians 2 and 1 Corinthians 15) and make statements about the divinity, power, and glory of Jesus.

The manuscripts that we have of the Gospels can be shown to be historically accurate.

But do these Gospel accounts stand up to historical evidence and historical scrutiny? A number of different tests can be used to determine how accurate a given source might be. We should look at the potential intentions of the authors. Did the authors of the material intend to represent Jesus’ life, actions, and claims accurately? Luke claims to have written down eyewitness accounts. John claims that he wrote things down so that we could come to believe. This may sound like a theological statement, but it is also a historical statement if we understand that theology should be based on true history.

In addition to the intentions, we should also look at the ability of the writers. Did they have the skills to deliver on their intentions? The writers based information on oral traditions that were incredibly accurate, probably vouching for the integrity of their information.

Next, we should look at contradictions, both internal contradictions within a single Gospel and the overall contradictions of the testimony that emerges from the four Gospels together. Many of these so-called contradictions, however, may be attributed to different ways of telling a story. In Mark, Jesus sends demons into pigs at Gerasa, and Matthew says that he did it at Gadara. One of these places might be a town, and the other might be a province. When we look closer at the contradictions, we often find that they can be attributed to differences in the way of telling the story, not differences in historical facts. Was there any bias or cover-up in the Gospels? No, the authors are honest about their failures and even Jesus’ inability to do miracles at times. The Gospels can also be corroborated by independent sources and don’t suffer from contradictory accounts and opposing witnesses.

All of this adds up to a faith that is informed and supported by facts. However, all these points in favor of the historical accuracy of the Gospels would be undone if we didn’t have reason to trust the preservation of the Gospels over the years. Couldn’t they have been changed over the years? We have a number of copies from just a couple of generations after the lifetimes of the apostles, more than for any other ancient texts…

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