Article - Top 10 Reasons for Accepting Jesus' "I Am" Sayings in John as Historically Reliable by Robert M. Bowman
In this featured article, Robert M. Bowman offers 10 reasons that we can accept Jesus' "I Am" sayings in the Gospel of John as historically credible and reliable.
He writes:
"Although we cannot 'prove' with any definitive, indubitable argument that Jesus made each and every one of these statements, we have many good reasons to view them as historically credible and reliable. In what follows I will present ten such reasons. The argument here is cumulative, i.e., these reasons taken together constitute a strong argument for the historicity of the 'I am' sayings of Jesus in John."1
Bowman's reasons are as follows:
1. The Gospel of John has historical value as an ancient biography of Jesus.
2. The Gospel of John was written by an eyewitness.
3. John distinguishes between what Jesus said and what the church later understood.
4. Jesus’ self-references in John are in notable ways unlike John’s designations for Jesus.
5. Jesus sometimes speaks in the Synoptics in ways that are usually considered “Johannine.”
6. The Synoptics report Jesus making statements about himself that are similar in import to some of the Johannine “I am” sayings.
7. Few of the “I am” sayings in John occur in the lengthy discourses.
8. At least one of the “I am” sayings in John has multiple attestation in the Synoptics.
9. Two “I am” sayings found in the Synoptics but not in John make implicit claims to deity.
10. The divine claims of the “I am” sayings in both John and the Synoptics are implicit and in some instances ambiguous.2
You read Bowman's defense of each reason here.
Courage and Godspeed,
Chad
Footnotes:
1. Robert M. Bowman, "Top 10 Reasons for Accepting Jesus' 'I Am' Sayings in John as Historically Reliable," p. Oct. 4, 2017.
2. Ibid.
Related Posts
Did Jesus Claim to Be God? by Robert M. Bowman, Jr. and J. Ed Komoszewski
Free E-Book - Faith Has Its Reasons by Kenneth D. Boa and Robert Bowman, Jr.
What is the Book of Mormon? by Robert M. Bowman, Jr.
Comments