EASTER WEEK MONDAY: How ‘Unintended Coincidences’ Boost New Testament’s Credibility

If you hear anything about the spiritual significance of this week in the media about the New Testament’s account of the final week in the life of Jesus Christ on this Earth, odds are it will include some variation of the claim the Gospel writers copied each other, made stuff up out of whole cloth and effectively turned Christianity into a bunch of fairy tales.

But Erik Manning of Reasonable Faith and Is Jesus Alive? blog explains in fascinating detail in the following video that “unintended coincidences” about throughout the Gospels and they contribute mightily to establishing the credibility of the authors, including Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

To understand how that might be, it is necessary to understand unintended coincidences. Philosopher Lydia McGrew puts it this way, defining an unintended coincidence as “a notable connection between two or more accounts or texts that don’t seem to have been planned by the person giving the accounts.” The term was first coined by William Paley and popularized by J.J. Blunt in the 19th-century.”

Enjoy!