Lydia McGrew on Undesigned Coincidences, Internal Evidence, and the Historicity of the New Testament

Many people wonder if a document as old as the Bible can be considered historically reliable. Moreover, they wonder if it is even possible to test the reliability of a document that is so old. My guest today helps us to see that there are intellectually credible ways to test and rely on the historicity of the Gospels and the New Testament. Her name is Lydia McGrew and she introduces us to the argument from internal evidence and undesigned coincidences.

Dr. Lydia McGrew is a widely published analytic philosopher and author. She received her Ph.D. in English from Vanderbilt University in 1995. She has published extensively in the theory of knowledge, specializing in formal epistemology and in its application to the evaluation of testimony and to the philosophy of religion. She defends the reliability of the Gospels and Acts in her books Hidden in Plain View: Undesigned Coincidences in the Gospels and Acts, The Mirror or the Mask: Liberating the Gospels From Literary Devices, and most recently The Eye of the Beholder: The Gospel of John as Historical Reportage.

Show Highlights

  • Dr. McGrew sheds light on the literary composition of the New Testament and how we can test the historical reliability of very old documents.

  • Internal evidences are pieces of information that are within the text that can add to the credibility of the document. External evidences are data come from outside the text and correspond to something in the document to add to its credibility.

  • McGrew explains the internal evidence called “undesigned coincidences” and shares some examples from the Gospels.

  • We hear about several other types of internal evidences that McGrew has written about in her books.

Resources

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