So says the atheist...called a 'fool' by God! [Psalms 14 and 53]
It's just a pity you haven't taken the time to check these things out. Luke, whose role is one of historian and recorder, says exactly what his undertaking involved:
Acts 1:1-3. 'The former treatise [the Gospel of Luke] have l made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and teach.
Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:
To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:'
Now l hope the sceptics on RF read these words carefully because Luke talks about 'many infallible proofs'. To whom were these infallible proofs shown? Luke doesn't claim to be the eyewitness, he claims to be the record writer. Clearly, it was the apostles who witnesses the events. And how many apostles were there? There were 12 apostles who spent time with the risen Lord, and to each one of these apostles Jesus' resurrection became an 'infallible proof'.
There were, of course, others who saw the resurrected Lord, for in 1 Corinthians 15:5-8, Paul says, 'he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:
After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto the present, but some are fallen asleep.
After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.
And last of all he was seen of me also, as one born out of due time.'
Is it now sinking in? Can you not see that Luke is acting as the historian, and he is using information given to him by men and women who were eyewitnesses to the events recorded.
What you, Shunydragon, and others are trying to do is suggest that Luke's record is just a 'subjective' account, whereas it is nothing of the sort. It's a treatise, in which he has gathered the relevant evidence from a wide range of sources.
What sits alongside Luke's two orderly records [Luke and Acts] are other 'eyewitness' Gospel records. Matthew was an apostle. John Mark accompanied Peter and acted as his scribe. John was the 'beloved' disciple who was asked by Jesus to look after Mary, his mother.
At the end of John's Gospel it says, 'This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true.'
So the Gospels were written by eyewitnesses, and by Luke, who acted as an historian for the early Church.
In Josephus, we have a Jewish historian whose own history covers the times recorded in the Gospels and in Acts. When the two are compared, there is remarkable agreement, with Josephus providing credence to the Biblical testimony.
