tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805190.post4871930712138663766..comments2024-03-01T07:35:49.740-08:00Comments on Come Reason's Apologetics Notes: A. N. Sherwin-White on Jesus as Historical FigureLenny Espositohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04064209669748618955noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805190.post-20558972699246400772018-04-17T05:10:28.616-07:002018-04-17T05:10:28.616-07:00Matthew Ferguson, the historian and blogger that B...Matthew Ferguson, the historian and blogger that Babcock Nate cites above, also wrote a very good post that includes a brief discussion of why, although we only have four sources for Tiberius' life, they're much better than the four Gospel sources:<br /><br />'Consider just the four most extensive sources that we have for the life of the emperor Tiberius: Paterculus, Tacitus, Suetonius, and Cassius Dio. All four authors obtain their material from a much broader range of sources, rather than simply copy from each other, they write in a far more diverse range of styles, and yet they independently corroborate each other’s claims. Paterculus is an eyewitness historian writing a brief universal history of the known world, which concludes with Tiberius’ military campaigns (which he himself took part in). Tacitus is writing a year-by-year annalistic history of the Julio-Claudian period, but rather than just copy Paterculus for Tiberius, he instead draws from a whole array of authors who wrote during the Julio-Claudian period, as well as public records and other sources. Suetonius, who is writing almost at the same time as Tacitus, does not produce a carbon copy of his Annals, and very likely does not rely on Tacitus as a source at all (as argued by Tristan Power in “Suetonius’ Tacitus”), but instead writes a historical biography, not in chronological order, that is very different from the earlier sources in its style. And yet, Suetonius independently corroborates the claims of these earlier authors. Dio, who is writing a full history of Rome from its foundation in Greek prose, a different language than the earlier Latin sources, has only one part of his massive history dealing with Tiberius. Dio probably used Tacitus, but also many other earlier sources, and writes his own unique narrative that is still consistent with the other independent sources.<br /><br />For the life of Tiberius we have a wide array of independent sources corroborating each other, whereas for Jesus we have sources that are all copying and redacting one another, not providing as much independent information or research, but instead repeating and adding to growing legends.'<br /><br />https://celsus.blog/2013/08/18/ancient-historical-writing-compared-to-the-gospels-of-the-new-testament/Dr Sarahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05527764539582203372noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805190.post-40206151831260189202016-01-20T16:48:50.970-08:002016-01-20T16:48:50.970-08:00Do you happen to know if Sherwin-White died a Chri...Do you happen to know if Sherwin-White died a Christian?Neilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03184410014846626190noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805190.post-33984426266609232132014-07-08T17:25:21.676-07:002014-07-08T17:25:21.676-07:00Compare what Sherwin-White says to this: http://ad...Compare what Sherwin-White says to this: http://adversusapologetica.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/ten-reasons-to-reject-the-apologetic-1042-source-slogan/Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07287099023542449921noreply@blogger.com