Scriptural unreliability

I remember that when I was a kid I used to have one of those bibles that had the so called words of Jesus highlighted in red. But when you come to think of it, if Jesus existed, what were really his words? The reason I ask this question is that for those of us that have taken the time to study the origins and formation of the Bible as a whole and specifically the New Testament, they will immediately begin to question the authenticity of the scriptures.

Most scholars agree that the alleged time of death of Jesus was around 33 or at the latest 35 A.D. but the earliest gospel written is believed to be the gospel of Mark and that is dated from 65 to about 70 A.D. This puts a minimum of 35 to 38 years between the alleged death and the first biography of the life of Jesus. Another thing to note is that none of the gospels namely: Matthew, Mark, and Luke are first hand accounts of the life and times of Jesus Christ. The gospels when they began to make their first appearance were presented as anonymous works whose authors were unknown. It wasn't until the mid second century that the names were later attached to the gospels as they are presented to us today.

Another fact that works against the authenticity of the scriptures is that none of the original documents are extant (exist) today. In other words what we have are copies of copies of the so called original versions of the gospels and other writings included in the N.T. This opens up the possibility of human errors in transcription, not to mention the other problem of translation from one language to the another. Let's not forget that also there is the influence of the beliefs of the scribe himself.

Another issue is the many contradictions of the gospel stories of certain key moments in the life and death of Jesus. For example how can the gospel writers tell us what were the last words of Jesus as he hung on the cross when the gospel accounts state that they all fled? Or how can anyone write about what Jesus was thinking or praying about when he was in the garden on the mount of olives when the gospels state that they were all asleep when he had finished his prayers? The three gospels differ greatly when they recount the resurrection morning scene. Also, there is the manner or method in which the church later decided what books were considered inspired by god or not. The various councils that were utilized to authenticate the scriptures were decided by votes by bishops of the church etc.

One last final thing before I close this post is that many people did not know that one of the requirements for a book to be chosen as inspired was that it had to be written by an apostle of Christ or a disciple of an apostle. It was common practice in those days for people to add the name of someone else to their works in order to give it that sense of authenticity. Because of this many of the writers of the N.T. books are to this day anonymous or unknown.