The criteria of authenticity are not magical — they are common-sense principles: prioritize early sources, eyewitness reports, unsympathetic sources, multiple independent attestation

Licona demystifies the criteria: they are simply common-sense principles historians apply — early sources get more weight; eyewitness sources are more valuable; multiple independent sources reporting the same thing is the strongest evidence; unsympathetic sources corroborating something are especially compelling. Rejecting these criteria would make knowledge of the past impossible.