Can multiple eyewitness accounts be the key to getting the truth?
As you watch the video below, ask yourself these questions:
If many people are eyewitnesses to an event, does that mean that their stories must be identical? Do their stories have to match verbatim?
I would emphatically say no. Now, their stories can’t contradict themselves and be true, but they can vary in what they focus on.
Why, or why not?
Just to let you know, this happens everyday and you don’t think twice about it! And, this is why there are many different newspapers that cover a single event. Each reporter is watching and listening to the same event, yet each article they write is somewhat different than the other reporter.
There are many sports reporters that watch and report on professional football, yet each one sees the game from his own perspective. One may concentrate on how the offense was dominant, another might describe the defense as being weak, but neither view is a contradictory account.
Each differing view actually adds helps us understand what actually happened. If all we had was one account, we would have a much less robust understanding of what actually took place. The more accounts you have, the more pieces of the puzzle you can assemble to complete the picture. In fact, it is better to have more eyewitnesses than less. More eyewitnesses lead to more confidence.
And so it is with the gospels. They are factual accounts of events that happened two thousand years ago from each writer’s different perspective.
Don't the Gospels accounts contradict?
Former homicide detective J. Warner Wallace discusses how the contradictions that may be found in the Gospel accounts only strengthens their reliability rather than decreases it. Want to learn more on this topic and others like it? Check out our FREE Summit Basecamp Resources, with hours of content equipping you to know the truth!