Is The New Testament an Eyewitness Account?
History provides clues from three primary sources regarding the date of origin for the 27 books of the New Testament:
- Testimony of Church Enemies
- Early Christian Accounts
- Early Manuscript Copies
The first clue is a partial list of New Testament books made by enemies of the Church called heretics. As outlaws of the Church, heretics wouldn’t have been concerned about agreeing with Church leaders about the authorship or dating of the New Testament. Yet, two early heretics, Marcion and Valentinus, did attribute the writings of several New Testament books and passages to the apostles.
In AD 140, the heretic Marcion listed 11 of the 27 New Testament books as being the authentic writings of the apostles.
At about the same time, another heretic, Valentinus, alludes to a wide variety of New Testament themes and passages.
What this tells us is that by the middle of the 2nd century many New Testament books had been in circulation for some time. Even heretic “outlaws” accepted these New Testament accounts as the eyewitness reports from the apostles.
Early Christian Accounts
Our second clue is the vast number of early Christian letters, sermons, commentaries, and creeds referring to Jesus as the resurrected Lord. They appeared as early as five years after his crucifixion.
The number of these documents is impressive; more than 36,000 complete or partial writings, some from the 1st century, have been discovered.17 Their words could replicate virtually the entire New Testament except for a few verses.18
So how does that compare with the Gospel of Barnabas? We have already noted that there are only two citations of it prior to the 15th century, and it is doubtful those references were to the “Gospel of Barnabas” in question.19
The earliest writings outside the New Testament were from men who knew and followed Paul, Peter, John and the other apostles. These early church leaders were not eyewitnesses to Jesus but learned about him from those who had actually seen and heard him.
The most important of these early writings outside the New Testament are from Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, and Polycarp of Smyrna.
In AD 96, Clement of Rome wrote a lengthy letter to the church at Corinth in which he cited Matthew, John, and 1 Corinthians. Some believe he is the Clement mentioned by Paul in Philippians 4:3. Since Clement’s letter was written in AD 96, these three books must have been written earlier.
In about AD 110, Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple of the apostle John, wrote six letters to churches and one to a fellow bishop, Polycarp, in which he refers to six of Paul’s letters. Polycarp of Smyrna, also a disciple of the apostle John, refers to all 27 New Testament books in his letter to the Philippian church (AD 110-135).
Therefore, the Gospels must have been in existence in the 1st century when eyewitnesses (including John) were still alive. We have seen that no such early reference to the Gospel of Barnabas exists.
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