Plutarch's error about older customs doesn't invalidate his knowledge of his own time

Mike addresses Plutarch's misunderstanding about pre-150 BC customs.

The only detailed source for Apollonius is Philostratus, writing around 215–225 AD — approximately 125 years after Apollonius's death. Philostratus himself expresses uncertainty about details, contradicts himself (e.g., says Apollonius had incredible memory at 100, then says he doesn't know how old he was when he died), and was commissioned by Empress Julia Domna to promote Apollonius worship in Rome.

The Bible is 66 books by 40+ authors spanning over 1,500 years in multiple languages. This provides the kind of multiple independent attestation historians look for when establishing historical reliability. Historians prize multiple witnesses close in time to events — criteria the New Testament's 27 first-century documents meet.

Epistles are not biographies — they don't need to quote Jesus extensively

Before diving into scripture, Mike explains why Paul's letters don't contain extensive biography of Jesus and why that doesn't undermine their historical value.

Craig Blomberg cited: Epistles of John contain no quotations of Jesus despite being written after the Gospel of John

Mike uses this scholarly observation as evidence that the absence of Jesus-quotations in epistles is normal and expected, not a red flag.

Paul's letters predate the Gospels — his knowledge of Jesus is independent from them

Key methodological point: Paul's testimony cannot be derived from the Gospels since he wrote earlier.

Empty tomb: majority scholarly agreement exists, but Mike doesn't know a compelling argument against it

Q&A: question about why the empty tomb is only majority (not unanimous) scholarly agreement.

Women as witnesses - criterion of embarrassment in male-centered culture

Why early Christians would not invent women as the first witnesses

The book of Acts as a sustained narrative of persecution — Paul's pre-conversion role as persecutor and post-conversion experience of being persecuted

Persecution is the central recurring theme of Acts

General reliability of the Gospels and Acts as a fourth argument

Winger and McLatchie introduce the general historical reliability of the Gospels and Acts as an additional, related argument.

Peter Williams — Can We Trust the Gospels?

Winger recommends Peter Williams's book as a resource for the general reliability of the Gospels.

Evidence for the Exodus exists and is growing; Inspiring Philosophy preparing a detailed video on the topic

Continued response on OT historical reliability, specifically the Exodus.

Global flood traditions across disconnected cultures support the historicity of a major flood event

Q&A question from Lindsay Pinkert about helping a friend who doubts biblical historical accuracy (flood and Exodus)

Scholarly assumption of a late Exodus date (~1100 BC) obscures available evidence; biblical date (~1400 BC) has stronger support

Explaining why Exodus evidence has been underappreciated

Q16: Bart Ehrman's claim that John 3 "born again" wordplay couldn't have occurred in Aramaic — Jesus spoke Greek

Response to viewer citing Bart Ehrman's argument about John 3 and language

Evidence Jesus spoke Greek: Nazareth as Roman construction site, Greek inscription found there, multilingual Galilee

Continuing Q16 on Jesus speaking Greek

Nicodemus likely spoke Greek to Jesus for secrecy — eliminating the Ehrman problem

Concluding Q16 on John 3 and Greek

There is extra-biblical evidence (possibly Tacitus) for the darkness at the crucifixion

Question from Lior about extra-biblical evidence for the earthquake and darkness at the crucifixion

The presence of women as the primary witnesses to the empty tomb was an embarrassment to the early church in first-century culture, where women's testimony was widely discredited. What was a liability then is actually strong evidence for historical reliability now — people don't fabricate stories that hurt their own credibility.

The criterion of embarrassment and the women witnesses; Celsius's criticism

Richard Bauckham's thesis in "Jesus and the Eyewitnesses" is that names appearing in Mark's gospel identify living witnesses known to the community receiving the text. When Mark names Simon of Cyrene "the father of Alexander and Rufus," and Paul greets a "Rufus" in Rome (Rom. 16:13), this likely connects to the same family — confirming these are not invented characters but real people vouching for the account.

Named eyewitnesses in Mark as evidence of historical reliability; Bauckham's thesis