Positive evidence FOR gospel reliability: consistent personality of Jesus across Gospels, unexplained allusions (John 7 — Jesus quotes a scripture nobody can identify), unnecessary realistic details, and the absence of realistic fiction as a genre in the first century.

Multiple lines of positive evidence: (1) Jesus's personality is consistent across all four Gospels — impulsive Peter, warm-hearted Peter across different stories; (2) Unexplained allusions — in John 7, Jesus says "as the Scripture says, out of his innermost being shall come rivers of living water" and nobody can identify the OT passage. If John felt free to put words in Jesus's mouth, why invent an unidentifiable Scripture reference? (Leon Morris noted this); (3) Unnecessary realistic details — Mark says Jesus's head was "on a cushion" in the boat, the colt was tied "outside in the street" — no literary purpose, just eyewitness detail; (4) No realistic fiction genre existed in the first century — fiction existed but wasn't written to look like reportage. The realistic details in the Gospels have no literary precedent as fiction.