The Case for Christmas - Chapter 2

Originally posted on bthebible.com/wordpress blog on
December 1st, 2007

There are some who couldn’t be present Sunday morning, so I decided to post the questions. Feel free to use them to review during the week. Here they are:

1. Q: What are the only two gospels which chronicle the birth of Jesus? p.42
2. Q: Which of the two authors actually interviewed eye witnesses? p. 42
3. Q: What are some things that also validate Luke as a reliable author? p. 43
4. Review two points on page 44 where Luke ended up being proved by modern archeology. Close by using quote on top of page 45: “One prominent archaeologist carefully examined Luke’s references to thirty-two countries, fifty-four cities, and nine islands, finding not a single mistake.”
5. Q: What place in John 5:1-15 was once thought to be factitious? p.45
6. Review the sheet “Three Archaeological Puzzles of the New Testament” (pp. 46-52)

Puzzle 1:The Census – How could a government force its citizens to return home to be counted? (p. 46)

Puzzle 2: Existence of Nazareth –It was common thought that Nazareth never existed during the time period of Jesus’ childhood. (p.48)

Puzzle 3: Slaughter at Bethlehem – Why is there no record of the slaughter of all of Bethlehem’s young boys? (p.51)

7. The author asked “what would we be able to conclude about Jesus purely by relying on ancient non-Christian sources?” What were they? (P.53)
8. Q: The book states on page 53 that “there is an unprecedented number of New Testament manuscripts and that they can be dated extremely close to the original writings.” Why is this important?