CHAPTER XV.
THAT THE GOSPELS ARE GENUINE FROM INTERNAL EVIDENCE.
(A.) The First Three Gospels.
(1.) Their general accuracy; this is shown by secular history, where they can be tested.
(2.) Their sources; the triple tradition; other early documents.
(3.) Their probable date; before the destruction of Jerusalem, A.D. 70.
(B.) The Fourth Gospel.
(1.) Its authorship. The writer appears to have lived in the first century, and to have been an eye-witness of what he describes; so probably St. John.
(2.) Its connection with the other Gospels. It was meant to supplement them; and it does not show a different Christ, either in language or character.
(3.) Its connection with the Book of Revelation. This admitted to be by St. John, and the Gospel was probably by the same author.
Having decided in the last chapter that the Four Gospels are probably genuine from external testimony, we pass on now to the internal evidence, which, it will be seen, strongly supports this conclusion. For convenience we will examine the first Three, commonly called the Synoptic Gospels, separately from the Fourth, which is of a different character.