Evidence for the Gospels - Names!

Christadelphians New Lynn

Names change significantly from place to place and from time to time. They are difficult to remember. The New Testament contains many named individuals. One can see the statistical distribution of names in the Gospel area from ancient literature and from inscriptions in tombs. Using modern statistical techniques these can be compared with the distribution of names from the New Testament; it can be seen that the two distributions match very well. It would be very difficult for even a modern author to invent names with the correct distribution; an ancient writer would not have the statistical methods to even attempt to do so.

This is very good evidence that the Gospels were written close to the time of Jesus, and that the writers did not invent the stories in them. The fact that the names are remembered at all indicates that the accounts were remembered in detail and not just in general terms.

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