Why It Matters That the Gospels Were Written Within the Lifetimes of Eyewitnesses

There was a maxim in the newsrooms I grew up in professionally that held credible journalists must always “get it first, but first get it right.” That’s analogous to the first job of historians – seek out the most credible sources and get the details right.

As Cold-Case Christianity’s J. Warner Wallace points out in the following video, Luke, who wrote the Gospel bearing his name, as well as the Book of Acts, made it clear that, while he was not an eyewitness to the key events of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, he talked to those who were.

In other words, Luke was acting very much like an historian in seeking out the most credible sources available to document accurately the events and personalities of which he wrote. Importantly, Wallace also points out some events associated with four of the key eyewitnesses that Luke did not write about and why it’s significant that he didn’t:

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