Most of us have been reduced to being armchair travellers in the current circumstances. Thankfully with so much TV, internet and literature we have many ways to virtually leave our homes and explore the world.
But how do we distinguish between reliable, authentic guides to travel and history from the spurious and mythological? We instinctively look for the signs in the details. Do writers and directors really know the locations they try to describe? We have probably all watched news reports or documentaries that concern our local area, but made by people without local knowledge. We spot any blunders and laugh at any howlers. The credibility of the reports is undermined.
Hallmarks of local knowledge
It is this kind of scrutiny that can be applied to the four Gospels. Many New Testament historians have been able to test the details of historical and geographical references in the Gospels in order to demonstrate their knowledge of the Holy Land at the time of Christ.
Peter J. Williams, in Can We Trust the Gospels?, identifies 26 different towns that are mentioned in the Gospels. They are placed in the right locations and make geographical sense in terms of the journeys Jesus makes. Read a Gospel and notice how frequently they refer to regions, places or towns. On average five locations are mentioned in every 1,000 words. That is the kind of proportion that we would only expect in an account that had hallmarks of local knowledge.
Architecture and place names
Some of the locations demonstrate an awareness of the geographical setting at exactly the time of Jesus. The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70AD by the Romans, but the Gospel writers are aware of its architectural features and the layout of the town before this devastation. Bethsaida in Galilee became a Roman town in 30AD and its name changed to Julias. The Gospels only ever refer to it by the earlier name of Bethsaida, while later writers like Josephus will use its later name.
But perhaps this is only evidence of the research later writers put into producing an elaborate hoax? We are familiar with historical novels that pay meticulous attention to geographical and political accuracy. Could not the Gospel writers have done the same? The simple answer is no.
Modern historical fiction relies on a wealth of information provided by libraries that would have been unknown to these ancient writers. Providentially, we are able to compare the New Testament Gospels with the Gnostic Gospels which were written at least 100-150 years after the time of Jesus. The Gnostic Gospels are obviously later works by authors unfamiliar with the early first-century landscape of Galilee and Judea.
Peter Williams observes: ‘None of what is found in any of these Gospels give a sense of familiarity with the places Jesus lived in or visited.’ Putting together all the geographical references from these Gnostic Gospels we find only Judea, Jerusalem, Nazareth and the Jordan getting a mention. There is no contest with the four Gospels of the New Testament and their wealth of geographical detail.
It looks like travelling in our times will continue to be limited, but perhaps it is a fresh opportunity to virtually travel the Holy Land with the Gospel writers as our reliable guides.
