Today I sat down again with Dr. Michael Licona, Associate Professor of Theology at Houston Baptist University. This episode is the third in a new series where we’ll take a book-by-book approach for most of the New Testament, but before we actually get to the individual books of the New Testament, though, I wanted to take some time to dig into the #Gospels as ancient biographies. To do just that, Mike joins us for the second week in a row, this time to talk about the differences between each Gospel.
In 2017 Mike wrote a book titled Why Are There Differences in the Gospels? What We Can Learn from Ancient Biography (link below). I think this is the clearest and best all around explanation for why the four #canonical #evangelists differ in matters of detail, arrangement, and emphasis in each of their accounts.In the book, Mike examines several biographies written by a Greek author named Plutarch, who lived from roughly ad 46 to 120. #Plutarch often discussed the same person in different biographies, and Mike shows how these differences in matters of detail, arrangement, and emphasis from Plutarch are precisely the kinds of differences we see in the Gospels. Near the end of the episode Mike says, “Our view of inspiration must be consistent with what we see in Scripture,” and I think he’s correct.
For Why Are There Differences in the Gospels? What We Can Learn from Ancient Biography, go here: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/why-are-there-differences-in-the-gospels-9780190264260?cc=us&lang=en&
Additional books from Mike Licona, referenced in an earlier episode of Faith in Folds that debuted on October 1, 2021, can be found at these links
The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach: https://www.ivpress.com/the-resurrection-of-jesus
Paul Meets Muhammad: http://bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/paul-meets-muhammad/269070
The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus: https://www.kregel.com/theology-and-religious-studies/the-case-for-the-resurrection-of-jesus-6964/
You can also find several of Mike’s resources at his personal website, Risen Jesus: https://www.risenjesus.com/
Check out Mike’s YouTube page, which has his Risen Jesus podcast and many of his debates: https://www.youtube.com/c/milico885
