Chapter 5 Oral Traditions and Legend Making - The Influence of Eyewitnesses

Those who believe that the account of Jesus came from an oral tradition that evolved over time and was not historically accurate, rely on four assumptions which we are considering. We are now up to the fourth assumption which is that  traditions are primarily developed from the needs of the communities and are not influenced or regulated by individual eyewitnesses. Specialists in oral traditions now understand that while community influence is important,  these communities usually desiginate an individual to be the "tradition bearer". If the person was an eyewitness to events that are part of the tradition they are recognized as an important link in preserving the tradition. Therefore, it would be reasonable to assume that eyewitnesses to the ministry of Jesus would have had a strong influence on preserving the historical accuracy of accounts of his life. It is also important to remember that early Christianity was strongly influenced by Judaism. In the Jewish Old Testament, there was a strong emphasis on eyewitnesses and honesty. These priorities are also present in the tradition of the early church as evidenced by many accounts in the New Testament.


This discussion and the previous ones show us that it is very reasonable to believe that the oral traditions about Jesus in the early church were passed on in a reliable fashion. We have now concluded the part of the book that considers the question of whether the story of Jesus is just a fictional legend. Next time we will review the main points we have covered before we start part two, which considers whether the Gospels are historically accurate.