HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The criterion of multiple attestation, also called the criterion of independent attestation or the cross-section method, is a tool used by
Biblical scholars Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse academic discipline, disciplines to the study of the Bible, with ''Bible'' referring to the books of the Biblical canon#Jewish canons, canonical Hebrew Bible in mainstream Judais ...
to help determine whether certain actions or sayings by
Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
in the
New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
are from the
Historical Jesus The term ''historical Jesus'' refers to the life and teachings of Jesus as interpreted through critical historical methods, in contrast to what are traditionally religious interpretations. It also considers the historical and cultural context ...
. Simply put, the more independent witnesses that report an event or saying, the better. This criterion was first developed by F. C. Burkitt in 1906, at the end of the first quest for the historical Jesus.


Description

The gospels are not always independent of each other. Matthew and Luke, for example, are likely dependent on Mark. The ''criterion of multiple attestation'' focuses on the sayings or deeds of Jesus that are attested to in more than one independent literary source such as Mark, Paul, Q, M, L, John,
Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...
, or Thomas.John P. Meier,
A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Volume IV: Law and Love
', Yale University Press, 2009.
The force of this criterion is increased if a given motif or theme is also found in different literary forms such as parables, dispute stories, miracle stories, prophecy, and/or aphorism. Potentially reliable sources that scholars have considered to be independent of one another for the purposes of this criterion include: * Paul's 7 undisputed
epistles An epistle (; ) is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as part of the scribal-school writing curriculum. The ...
* Q source *
Gospel of Mark The Gospel of Mark is the second of the four canonical Gospels and one of the three synoptic Gospels, synoptic Gospels. It tells of the ministry of Jesus from baptism of Jesus, his baptism by John the Baptist to his death, the Burial of Jesus, ...
* M source (special Matthean tradition) * L source (special Lukan tradition) *
Gospel of John The Gospel of John () is the fourth of the New Testament's four canonical Gospels. It contains a highly schematic account of the ministry of Jesus, with seven "Book of Signs, signs" culminating in the raising of Lazarus (foreshadowing the ...
*
Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...
* (Coptic) Gospel of Thomas (disputed by some) *
Gospel of Peter The Gospel of Peter (), or the Gospel according to Peter, is an ancient text concerning Jesus Christ (title), Christ, only partially known today. Originally written in Koine Greek, it is a non-canonical gospel and was rejected as apocryphal by the ...
(possibly; its independence from the canonical Gospels is debated) *
Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. Tacitus’ two major historical works, ''Annals'' ( ...


Examples of its use

For example, the "
Kingdom of God The concept of the kingship of God appears in all Abrahamic religions, where in some cases the terms kingdom of God and kingdom of Heaven are also used. The notion of God's kingship goes back to the Hebrew Bible, which refers to "his kingdom" ...
" ''motif'' appears in "Mark, Q, special Matthean tradition, special Lucan tradition, and John, with echoes in Paul, despite the fact that 'Kingdom of God' is not Paul's preferred way of speaking."John P. Meier, ''A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus'', Doubleday, 1991. v. 1, pp 174–175, 317 It also appears in an array of literary genres. The ''words'' attributed to Jesus on the bread and wine during the
Last Supper Image:The Last Supper - Leonardo Da Vinci - High Resolution 32x16.jpg, 400px, alt=''The Last Supper'' by Leonardo da Vinci - Clickable Image, ''The Last Supper (Leonardo), The Last Supper'' (1495-1498). Mural, tempera on gesso, pitch and mastic ...
(found in Mark 14:22–25 and 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 (Paul), compare to John 6:51–58) and his prohibition on divorce (found in Mark 10:11–12, Luke 16:18 (attributed to Q), and 1 Corinthians 7:10–11 (Paul)) are examples of sayings that are multiply attested.Gerd Theissen, & Dagmar Winter.
The Quest for the Plausible Jesus: The Question of Criteria
', Westminster John Knox Press, 2002.
However, the
Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also known by its incipit Our Father (, ), is a central Christian prayer attributed to Jesus. It contains petitions to God focused on God’s holiness, will, and kingdom, as well as human needs, with variations across manusc ...
, although found in both Matthew and Luke, evidently derives from their common source Q, and therefore cannot pass the criterion. Perhaps the most widely independently attested ''event'' is the
crucifixion of Jesus The crucifixion of Jesus was the death of Jesus by being crucifixion, nailed to a cross.The instrument of Jesus' crucifixion, instrument of crucifixion is taken to be an upright wooden beam to which was added a transverse wooden beam, thus f ...
during the governorship of
Pontius Pilate Pontius Pilate (; ) was the Roman administration of Judaea (AD 6–135), fifth governor of the Judaea (Roman province), Roman province of Judaea, serving under Emperor Tiberius from 26/27 to 36/37 AD. He is best known for being the official wh ...
(and the emperorship of
Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus ( ; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was Roman emperor from AD 14 until 37. He succeeded his stepfather Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC to Roman politician Tiberius Cl ...
), namely by Paul (the only one not to mention Pilate), all four canonical Gospels, the
Gospel of Peter The Gospel of Peter (), or the Gospel according to Peter, is an ancient text concerning Jesus Christ (title), Christ, only partially known today. Originally written in Koine Greek, it is a non-canonical gospel and was rejected as apocryphal by the ...
(its independence from the canonical Gospels is debated),
Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...
, and even
Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. Tacitus’ two major historical works, ''Annals'' ( ...
. Another example of an event that is multiply attested is Jesus's meeting with
John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...
(found in Mark, Q, and John).Bart D. Ehrman, '' Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium,'' Oxford, 1999. pp 90–91. However, John does not explicitly mention the
baptism of Jesus The baptism of Jesus, the ritual purification of Jesus with water by John the Baptist, was a major event described in the three synoptic Gospels of the New Testament ( Matthew, Mark and Luke). It is considered to have taken place at Al-Maghta ...
(merely having the Baptist saying he 'witnessed the spirit descending on
esus Esus is a Celtic god known from iconographic, epigraphic, and literary sources. The 1st-century CE Roman poet Lucan's epic ''Pharsalia'' mentions Esus, Taranis, and Teutates as gods to whom the Gauls sacrificed humans. This rare mention of Cel ...
like a dove', John 1:32) that is attested in Mark, although Theissen (2002) claimed that the Gospel of the Hebrews 2 did corroborate the baptism. The episode of Jesus and the rich young man is found in all three Synoptic Gospels, but is evidently dependent on Mark, and not mentioned outside the Synoptics, and therefore does not pass the criterion.


Limitations

This criterion cannot be used for sources that are not independent. For example, a saying that occurs in all three
Synoptic Gospels The gospels of Gospel of Matthew, Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Mark, and Gospel of Luke, Luke are referred to as the synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in a similar sequence and in similar or sometimes identical ...
may only represent one source. Under the two-source hypothesis, both the authors of the
Gospel of Matthew The Gospel of Matthew is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells the story of who the author believes is Israel's messiah (Christ (title), Christ), Jesus, resurrection of Jesus, his res ...
and the
Gospel of Luke The Gospel of Luke is the third of the New Testament's four canonical Gospels. It tells of the origins, Nativity of Jesus, birth, Ministry of Jesus, ministry, Crucifixion of Jesus, death, Resurrection of Jesus, resurrection, and Ascension of ...
used the Gospel of Mark in their writings; therefore, triple-tradition material represents only a single source, Mark. The same problem exists under the four-source hypothesis, unless Q can be demonstrated to attest the same tradition independently from Mark. (The Augustinian hypothesis posits that Mark and Luke used Matthew, so once again triple-tradition material would have originated in a single source). Another limitation is that some sayings or deeds attributed to Jesus could have originated in the first Christian communities early enough in the tradition to be attested to by a number of independent sources, thus not representing the
historical Jesus The term ''historical Jesus'' refers to the life and teachings of Jesus as interpreted through critical historical methods, in contrast to what are traditionally religious interpretations. It also considers the historical and cultural context ...
. Finally, there are some sayings or deeds of Jesus that only appear in one form or source that scholars still consider historically probable. Multiple attestation has a certain kind of objectivity. Given the ''independence'' of the sources, satisfaction of the criterion makes it harder to maintain that it was an invention of early Christians. Multiple attestation is not always a requisite for historicity, nor is it enough to determine accuracy by itself. However useful, it is typically one of a number of criteria that have been developed by scholars to assess whether a tradition is likely to be historical; the widely-recognized criteria were distinguished by Stanley E. Porter as dissimilarity, coherence, multiple attestation, least distinctiveness and Aramaic linguistic background. Porter suggests three new criteria in the search for the words of the
historical Jesus The term ''historical Jesus'' refers to the life and teachings of Jesus as interpreted through critical historical methods, in contrast to what are traditionally religious interpretations. It also considers the historical and cultural context ...
(Porter 2000), which have not yet found broad acceptance: a criterion of Greek language, of Greek textual variance and of "discourse features" at variance with the text's usual style. Of the criterion of multiple attestations, Porter makes the point, which has been expressed before, that multiple attestations identify common motifs rather than absolute wording, and speak only to the independence of documents and not their reliability.Porter (2000), p. 86.


See also

* Criterion of contextual credibility * Criterion of dissimilarity * Criterion of embarrassment * Independent sources *
Josephus on Jesus Flavius Josephus was a first-century Jewish historian who provided external information on some people and events found in the New Testament. Josephus was a general in Galilee, which is where Jesus ministered and people who knew him still lived; ...
* Mutawatir, an analogous concept in Islam


References


Literature

* {{Historicity Historiography Quest for the historical Jesus Biblical criticism