The Lydia McGrew Podcast

Here I continue explaining apparent discrepancies between accounts of the feeding of the five thousand. These apparent discrepancies help us to see that the accounts are not dependent on a common source. And they are the kinds of things that could easily arise from different accounts that come from separate witnesses of the events. Originally uploaded to YouTube Nov 23 2020

This episode begins a sub-series on the feeding of the five thousand. The feeding accounts in the Gospels make an important contribution of their own to the case for Gospel reliability. But what about alleged discrepancies between them? Here I point out how the appearance of discrepancy between accounts contributes to the case that they do not come from a common source--a type of independence. Thi...

This is the second, shorter, section of my discussion of the miracle accounts of Jesus raising Jairus' daughter and healing the woman with the issue of blood. Here I discuss potential naturalistic competitors for a miraculous explanation and how well they hold up if the externally observable facts occurred as told in the Gospels. Note that I'm asking how much these accounts themselves support a mi...

In this continuation of my series on Gospel reliability and miracles, I evaluate the stories of Jesus' healing the woman with the issue of blood and raising Jairus's daughter. These stories are told in intertwined accounts. We find them in all three Synoptic Gospels--Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Here I discuss issues of independence between the accounts and of the credibility of the accounts and concl...

In this podcast, I take the methods that I talked about in the previous episode on methodology and Miracles and show how they apply to the central miracle of Christianity--Jesus' resurrection. I outline a "Paley-style" argument for the resurrection and give both a super-brief version of it and a somewhat expanded version. I show how Gospel reliability fits into the argument to bolster the claim th...

This is the introductory episode in a new series on historical methodology, Gospel reliability, and miracle reports. How can we avoid being either too skeptical or too credulous about miracle stories in the Gospels? How can we take proper account of evidence for high Gospel reliability while recognizing that miracles are unusual and exercising due care in evaluating miracle stories? Suppose that w...

Suppose that you're inclined to accept the existence of fact-changing "compositional devices" in the Gospels, without carefully investigating the arguments against them, because you believe that this will simplify your apologetic task. Now, thank goodness, you don't have to "get into the weeds," "get off-track" discussing alleged discrepancies and harmonizations. What a relief!  But this come...

In this final episode of my series on the Temple cleansing, I point out the subjectivity and implausibility of the theological motives attributed to John. If it's too easy to come up with imaginative ideas about what theological or literary symbolism John might have intended by such a factual change, isn't that a clue that none of those various theories are well supported? And how would John's aud...

In this episode I discuss a specific reference to the year of the Temple cleansing in John's Gospel--46 years. How does this time reference confirm the historicity of an early Temple cleansing as record.  This episode was originally uploaded to YouTube Oct 16, 2020.

In this episode I talk about how the Jerusalem religious leaders try to "spin" Jesus' early miracles by saying that he is casting out demons by the prince of the demons. This is after some of them have witnessed Jesus healing a paralytic man while claiming to be able to forgive sins. Following New Testament scholar Alan Chapple, I argue that the fact that these scribes and teachers of the law, app...

Here I continue the series on the Temple cleansing, defending the conclusion that John reports historically rather than changing the facts. This episode discusses an undesigned coincidence between some dialogue in John's account of the Temple cleansing and the testimony of some hostile witnesses in Jesus' trial. This casual connection provides evidence both that John and the Synoptic authors are r...

In the second part of my series on the Temple cleansing, I discuss what one sometimes hears vaguely referred to as "other" reasons why many scholars reject two Temple cleansings. These reasons consist of the insistence that Jesus would not have been allowed to cleanse the Temple twice or would not have been allowed to continue to live and carry out a ministry for several years as described in the...

In this first episode on the Temple cleansing, I discuss the objection to two Temple cleansings that says that the two accounts in John and the Synoptics are just too similar to describe different events and that therefore such a harmonization is strained and artificial. I point out various differences that make it entirely open and not implausible that these were indeed two different events, just...

Today I begin a new series of short episodes on New Testament reliability. These episodes will highlight a concept or issue in this area. This first episode discusses the reporting of time order or chronology. I distinguish four different ways that one might report time. 1) You state or imply a time and get it right. 2) You state or imply a time and get it wrong by honest error. 3) You state or im...

In my recent book, The Mirror or the Mask: Liberating the Gospels from Literary Devices, I argue that the Gospels are historical reportage. This argument involves both positive evidence for literal accuracy and arguments against the views of Michael Licona, Craig Evans, and others that the evangelists felt free to make historical changes due to the literary conventions of their time. Dr. Licona ha...

In my recent book, The Mirror or the Mask: Liberating the Gospels from Literary Devices, I argue that the Gospels are historical reportage. This argument involves both positive evidence for literal accuracy and arguments against the views of Michael Licona, Craig Evans, and others that the evangelists felt free to make historical changes due to the literary conventions of their time. Dr. Licona ha...

In my recent book, The Mirror or the Mask: Liberating the Gospels from Literary Devices, I argue that the Gospels are historical reportage. This argument involves both positive evidence for literal accuracy and arguments against the views of Michael Licona, Craig Evans, and others that the evangelists felt free to make historical changes due to the literary conventions of their time. Dr. Licona ha...

In my recent book, The Mirror or the Mask: Liberating the Gospels from Literary Devices, I argue that the Gospels are historical reportage. This argument involves both positive evidence for literal accuracy and arguments against the views of Michael Licona, Craig Evans, and others that the evangelists felt free to make historical changes due to the literary conventions of their time. Dr. Licona ha...

In my recent book, The Mirror or the Mask: Liberating the Gospels from Literary Devices, I argue that the Gospels are historical reportage. This argument involves both positive evidence for literal accuracy and arguments against the views of Michael Licona, Craig Evans, and others that the evangelists felt free to make historical changes due to the literary conventions of their time. Dr. Licona ha...

In my recent book, The Mirror or the Mask: Liberating the Gospels from Literary Devices, I argue that the Gospels are historical reportage. This argument involves both positive evidence for literal accuracy and arguments against the views of Michael Licona, Craig Evans, and others that the evangelists felt free to make historical changes due to the literary conventions of their time. Dr. Licona ha...

In my recent book, The Mirror or the Mask: Liberating the Gospels from Literary Devices, I argue that the Gospels are historical reportage. This argument involves both positive evidence for literal accuracy and arguments against the views of Michael Licona, Craig Evans, and others that the evangelists felt free to make historical changes due to the literary conventions of their time. Dr. Licona ha...