James Tabor - Helen Bond - Mystery Files: Jesus TV - John Dominic Crossan - Excavating the Empty Tomb TV - Mysteries of the Bible TV -
If you just put the Gospels in a kind of chronological order it’s actually layered. You can just peel off the layers like a sort of forensic investigation. At the bottom you’ve got that core story of Mark – Mark was our earliest Gospel ... Matthew who writes next has ratcheted it up considerably – Pilate washes his hands; his wife has a dream; Jesus is a righteous man; don’t bother him. And the Jews take on the guilt. And then you go to Luke – it’s the Mark story but it’s amped up, and it’s getting louder and louder. And the basic idea is Pilate was just an innocent bystander, an unnecessary part of the story. And then John – he has them almost having a philosophical discussion. We are removing completely I think out of the realm of just straight history. Professor James Tabor
Luke and Matthew probably wrote some time in the eighties or nineties of the first century. We’ve actually no idea who Luke is. Most people nowadays don’t think he was an eye-witness of events. Professor Helen Bond
Only Luke actually has angels in his account [of Christ’s birth]. Professor Helen Bond
According to Luke, John the Baptist surfaces in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius. The year 29 C.E. So if Jesus is 30 in 29 C.E. this suggests the year 1 B.C.E. as a possible birth date. Jesus would need to be at least three years older to live in the time of Herod the Great, or seven years younger to be subjected to the Roman census. Therefore, at least a decade’s discrepancy is evident within Luke’s conflicting version of events. Mystery Files: Jesus, National Geographic 2011
I do not think the Nativity story in either Matthew or Luke is historical ... Parable rather than history. John Dominic Crossan, Biblical historian
Everything would be a Roman church. And that’s the story Luke wants to tell. John Dominic Crossan
Luke 22: 43-44 were never part of the original Gospel … Inserted later: Luke 24:12 and Luke 24:51. Excavating the Empty Tomb, 2011
Matthew and Luke may have copied the work of Mark. Mysteries of the Bible: Who Wrote the Bible? A&E 1996