By
James Bishop| When the historian wishes to learn about the life and ministry of Jesus he evaluates the primary sources (the gospels, Pauline epistles, and the rest of the New Testament) using what is known as the Criterion of Authenticity. Through this process the historian may come to the conclusion that the gospel accounts are
generally reliable when they report on the deeds and sayings of Jesus.
This process assigns probability to the deeds and sayings of Jesus, and, of course, the greater the probability the more confident we can be in an alleged saying or event. There are several aspects to this criteria that scholars routinely apply in their professional work. These are identified as multiple attestation, dissimilarity to Christian teaching, linguistic semitisms, traces of Palestinian milieu, retention of embarrassing material, coherence with other authentic material, and so on.
This method is aimed at affirming sufficient, not necessary, conditions of historicity. In other words, we could grant that a saying of Jesus is both multiply attested and dissimilar but not embarrassing. However, if the historian were to grant embarrassment as a necessary condition of authenticity for Jesus’ saying then it would have to be seen as inauthentic.
Yet that would obviously be the wrong approach since both multiple attestation and dissimilarity would be quite sufficient for affirming authenticity. The criteria is not infallible and can be mistaken, however, it remains, that they can be generally accepted as indications of authenticity.
Criteria for historical reliability
Philosopher William Lane Craig outlines several criterion than can be used to establish the likelihood of a specific event (S) ascribed to Jesus (1):
(1) Historical congruence: S fits in with known historical facts concerning the context in which S is said to have occurred.
(2) Independent, early attestation: S appears in multiple sources which are near to the time at which S is alleged to have occurred and which depend neither upon each other nor a common source.
(3) Embarrassment: S is awkward or counter-productive for the persons who serve as the source of information for S.
(4) Dissimilarity: S is unlike antecedent Jewish thought-forms and/or unlike subsequent Christian thought-forms.
(5) Semitisms: traces in the narrative of Aramaic or Hebrew linguistic forms.
(6) Coherence: S is consistent with already established facts about Jesus.
If a saying/event of Jesus can pass one or more of these criteria then one may be in a good position to affirm its historicity. We should keep in mind that this list does not presuppose the general reliability of the gospels, nor the inspiration of the New Testament. Instead they focus on a particular saying/event and give reason for thinking that a specific aspect of Jesus’ life is historical independent of the general reliability of the document.