シャドーイング練習: 1/ 1 The Case for Christ Chapter Eyewitness Evidence does it reach a reasonable level of certainty - 動画で英語スピーキングを学ぶ

Chapter 1 The Eyewitness Evidence Can the Biographies of Jesus Be Trusted?

When I first met shy and soft-spoken Leo Carter, he was a 17-year-old veteran of Chicago's grittiest neighborhood.

His testimony had put three killers in prison, and he was still carrying a .38 caliber slug in his skull.

A grisly reminder of a horrific saga that began when he witnessed Elijah Baptist gun down a local grocer.

Leo and a friend, Leslie Scott, were playing basketball when they saw Elijah, then a 16-year-old delinquent with 30 arrests on his rap sheet,

slay Sam Blue outside his grocery store.

Leo had known the grocer since childhood.

When we didn't have any food, he'd give us some, Leo explained to me in a quiet voice.

So when I went to the hospital and they said he was dead, I knew I'd have to testify about what I saw.

Eyewitness testimony is powerful.

One of the most dramatic moments in a trial is

when a witness describes in detail the crime that he or she saw, and then points confidently toward the defendant as being the perpetrator.

Elijah Baptist knew that the only way to avoid prison

would be to somehow prevent Leo Carter and Leslie Scott from doing just that.

So Elijah and two of his pals went hunting.

Soon they tracked down Leo and Leslie, who were walking down the street with Leo's brother Henry, and they dragged all three at gunpoint to a darkened loading dock nearby.

I like you, Elijah's cousin said to Leo, but I've got to do this.

With that, he pressed a pistol to the bridge of Leo's nose and yanked the trigger.

The gun roared.

The bullet penetrated at a slight angle, blinding Leo in his right eye and embedding in his head.

When he crumbled to the ground, another shot was fired, this bullet lodging two inches from his spine.

As Leo watched from his sprawled position,

pretending he was dead, He saw his sobbing brother and friend ruthlessly executed at close range.

When Elijah and his gang fled, Leo crawled to safety.

Somehow, against all odds, Leo Carter lived.

The bullet, too precarious to be removed, remained in his skull.

Despite searing headaches that strong medication couldn't dull,

he became the sole eyewitness against Elijah Baptist at his trial for killing grocer Sam Blue.

The jurors believed Leo, and Elijah was sentenced to 80 years in prison.

And again, Leo was the only eyewitness to testify against Elijah

and his two companions in the slayings of his brother and his friend.

And once more, his word was good enough to land the trio in prison for the rest of their lives.

Leo Carter is one of my heroes.

He made sure justice was served, even though he paid a monumental price for it.

When I think of eyewitness testimony, even to this day, all these years later, his face still appears in my mind.

Yes, eyewitness testimony can be compelling and convincing.

When a witness has had ample opportunity to observe a crime, when there's no bias or ulterior motives, when the witness is truthful and fair,

the climactic act of pointing out a defendant in a courtroom can be enough to doom that person to prison or worse.

an eyewitness testimony is just as crucial in investigating historical matters

even the issue of whether jesus christ is the unique son of god

but what eyewitness accounts do we possess do we have the

testimony of anyone who personally interacted with jesus who listened to

his teachings who saw his miracles who witnessed his death and who perhaps even encountered him after his alleged resurrection.

Do we have any records from first-century journalists who interviewed eyewitnesses,

asked tough questions, and faithfully recorded what they scrupulously determined to be true?

Equally important, how well would these accounts withstand the scrutiny of skeptics?

I knew that just as Leo Carter's testimony clinched the convictions of three brutal murderers,

eyewitness accounts from the mists of distant time could help resolve the most important spiritual issue of all.

To get solid answers, I arranged to interview the nationally renowned scholar who literally wrote the book on the topic,

Dr. Craig Blomberg, author of The Historical Reliability of the Gospels.

I knew Blomberg was smart.

In fact, even his appearance fit the stereotype.

Tall at six foot two and lanky with short wavy brown hair unceremoniously combed forward,

a fuzzy beard and thick rimless glasses.

He looked like the type who would have been valedictorian of his high school.

He was.

A national merit scholar.

He was.

And a magna cum laude graduate of a prestigious seminary.

He was from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

But I wanted someone who was more than just intelligent and educated.

I was searching for an expert who wouldn't gloss over nuances or blithely dismiss challenges to the records of Christianity.

I wanted someone with integrity, someone who has grappled with the most potent critiques of the faith and who speaks authoritatively,

but without the kind of sweeping statements that conceal rather than deal with critical issues.

I was told Blomberg was exactly what I was looking for, and I flew to Denver wondering if he could measure up.

Admittedly, I had a few doubts, especially when my research yielded one profoundly disturbing fact that he would probably have preferred had remained hidden.

Blomberg still holds out hope that his beloved childhood heroes, the Chicago Cubs, will win the World Series in his lifetime.

frankly that was enough to make me a bit suspicious of his discernment

the first interview craig l blomberg phd craig blomberg is widely

considered to be one of the country's foremost authorities on the biographies of jesus

which are called the four gospels he received his doctorate in

new testament from aberdeen university in scotland later serving as a senior research fellow at Tyndale House at Cambridge University in England,

where he was part of an elite group of international scholars that produced a series of acclaimed works on Jesus.

For the last dozen years, he has been a professor of New Testament at the highly respected Denver Seminary.

In addition to the historical reliability of the Gospels, Blomberg's books include The Historical Reliability of John's Gospel,

Jesus and the Gospels, Interpreting the Parables, Can We Still Believe the Bible?, and Commentaries on the Gospel of Matthew and 1 Corinthians.

He also helped edit Volume 6 of Gospel Perspectives, which deals at length with the miracles of Jesus.

And he co-authored Introduction to Biblical Interpretation and a handbook of New Testament exegesis.

He contributed chapters on the historicity of the Gospels to the award-winning book, Jesus Under Fire.

His memberships include the Society for the Study of the New Testament, Society of Biblical Literature, and the Institute for Biblical Research.

As I expected, his office had more than its share of scholarly volumes stacked on the shelves.

He was even wearing a tie emblazoned with drawings of books.

However, I quickly noted that his office walls were dominated not by dusty tomes from ancient historians, but by artwork from his young daughters.

Their whimsical and colorful depictions of llamas, houses, and flowers weren't haphazardly pinned up as a casual afterthought.

They had obviously been treated as prizes, painstakingly matted, carefully framed, and personally autographed by Elizabeth and Rachel themselves.

Clearly, I thought to myself, this man has a heart as well as a brain.

Blomberg speaks with the precision of a mathematician.

Yes, he taught mathematics too earlier in his career,

carefully measuring each word out of an apparent reluctance to tread even one nuance beyond where the evidence warrants.

Exactly what I was looking for.

As he settled into a high-backed chair, cup of coffee in hand, I too sipped some coffee to ward off the Colorado chill.

Since I sensed Blomberg was a get-to-the-point kind of guy, I decided to start my interview by cutting to the core of the issue.

Tell me this, I said with an edge of challenge in my voice.

is it really possible to be an intelligent, critically thinking person and still believe that the four Gospels were written by the people whose names have been attached to them?

Blomberg set his cup of coffee on the edge of his desk and looked intently at me.

The answer is yes, he said with conviction.

He sat back and continued.

It's important to acknowledge that, strictly speaking, the Gospels are anonymous.

But the uniform testimony of the early church was that Matthew, also known as Levi, the tax collector and one of the twelve disciples,

100

was the author of the first gospel in the New Testament.

101

That John Mark, a companion of Peter, was the author of the gospel we call Mark.

102

And that Luke, known as Paul's beloved physician, wrote both the gospel of Luke and the acts of the apostles.

103

How uniform was the belief that they were the authors?

104

I asked.

105

There are no known competitors for these three Gospels, he said.

106

Apparently, it was just not in dispute.

107

Even so, I wanted to test the issue further.

108

Excuse my skepticism, I said, but would anyone have had a motivation to lie by claiming these people wrote these Gospels when they really didn't?

109

Blomberg shook his head.

110

probably not remember these were unlikely characters he said a grin breaking on his face

111

mark and luke weren't even among the 12 disciples matthew was

112

but as a former hated tax collector he would have been

113

the most infamous character next to judas iscariot who betrayed jesus

114

contrast this with what happened when the fanciful apocryphal gospels were written much later

115

people chose the names of well-known and exemplary figures to be their fictitious authors

116

philip peter mary james those names carried a lot more weight than the names of matthew mark and luke

117

so to answer your question there would not have been any

118

reason to attribute authorship to these three less respected people

119

if it weren't true now that sounded logical but it was obvious

120

that he was conveniently leaving out one of the gospel writers.

121

What about John, I asked?

122

He was extremely prominent.

123

In fact, he wasn't just one of the twelve disciples, but one of Jesus' inner three, along with James and Peter.

124

Yes, he's the one exception, Blomberg conceded with a nod.

125

And interestingly, John is the only gospel about which there is some question about authorship.

126

What exactly is in dispute?

127

The name of the author isn't in doubt.

128

It's certainly John, Blomberg replied.

129

The question is whether it was John the Apostle or a different John.

130

You see, the testimony of a Christian named Papias, dated about A.D.

131

125, refers to John the Apostle and John the Elder.

132

And it's not clear from the context whether he's talking about one person from two perspectives or two different people.

133

But granted that exception, the rest of the early testimony is unanimous that it was John the Apostle, the son of Zebedee, who wrote the gospel.

134

And, I said, in an effort to pin him down further, you're convinced that he did?

135

Yes, I believe the substantial majority of the material goes back to the apostle, he replied.

136

However, if you read the gospel closely, you can see some indication that its concluding verses may have been finalized by an editor.

137

Personally, I have no problem believing that somebody closely associated with John may have functioned in that role,

138

putting the last verses into shape and potentially creating the stylistic uniformity of the entire document.

139

But in any event, he stressed, the gospel is obviously based on eyewitness material, as are the other three gospels.

140

While I appreciated Blomberg's comments so far, I wasn't ready to move on yet.

141

The issue of who wrote the gospels is tremendously important, and I wanted specific details, names, dates, quotations.

142

I finished off my coffee and put the cup on his desk.

143

Pen poised, I prepared to dig deeper.

144

Let's go back to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, I said.

145

What specific evidence do you have that they are the authors of the Gospels?

146

Blomberg leaned forward.

147

Again, the oldest and probably most significant testimony comes from Papias, who in about A.D.

148

125 specifically affirmed that Mark had carefully and accurately recorded Peter's eyewitness observations.

149

In fact, he said Mark made no mistake and did not include any false statement.

150

And Papias said Matthew had preserved the teachings of Jesus as well.

151

Then Irenaeus, writing about AD 180, confirmed the traditional authorship.

152

In fact, here, he said, reaching for a book, he flipped it open and read Irenaeus' words.

153

Matthew published his own gospel among the Hebrews in their own tongue, when Peter and Paul were preaching the gospel in Rome and founding the church there.

154

After their departure, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, himself handed down to us in writing the substance of Peter's preaching.

155

Luke, the follower of Paul, sat down in a book the gospel preached by his teacher.

156

Then John, the disciple of the Lord, who also leaned on his breast, himself produced his gospel while he was living at Ephesus in Asia.

157

I looked up from the notes I was taking.

158

Okay, let me clarify this, I said.

159

If we can have confidence that the gospels were written by the disciples Matthew and John, by Mark, the companion of the disciple Peter,

160

and by Luke, the historian, companion of Paul, and sort of a first century journalist,

161

we can be assured that the events they recorded are based on either direct or indirect eyewitness testimony.

162

As I was speaking, Blomberg was mentally sifting my words.

163

When I finished, he nodded.

164

Exactly, he said crisply.

165

There were still some troubling aspects of the Gospels that I needed to clarify.

166

In particular, I wanted to better understand the kind of literary genre they represented.

167

When I go to the bookstore and look in the biography section, I don't see the same kind of writing that I see in the Gospels, I said.

168

When somebody writes a biography these days, they thoroughly delve into the person's life.

169

But look at Mark.

170

He doesn't talk about the birth of Jesus or really anything through Jesus' early adult years.

171

Instead, he focuses on a three-year period

172

and spends half his gospel on the events leading up to and culminating in Jesus' last week.

173

How do you explain that?

174

Blomberg held up a couple of fingers.

175

There are two reasons, he replied.

176

One is literary and the other is theological.

177

The literary reason is that basically, this is how people wrote biographies in the ancient world.

178

They did not have the sense, as we do today, that it was important to give equal proportion to all periods of an individual's life,

179

or that it was necessary to tell the story in strictly chronological order, or even to quote people verbatim, as long as the essence of what they said was preserved.

180

Ancient Greek and Hebrew didn't even have a symbol for quotation marks.

181

The only purpose for which they thought history was worth recording was

182

because there were some lessons to be learned from the characters described.

183

Therefore, the biographer wanted to dwell at length on those portions of the person's life that were exemplary, that were illustrative, that could help other people,

184

that gave meaning to a period of history.

185

And what's the theological reason, I asked?

186

It flows out of the point I just made.

187

Christians believe that as wonderful as Jesus' life and teachings and miracles were, they were meaningless if it were not historically factual that Christ died

188

and was raised from the dead and that this provided atonement or forgiveness of the sins of humanity.

189

So Mark, in particular, as the writer of probably the earliest gospel, devotes roughly half of his narrative to the events leading up to,

190

including one week's period of time and culminating in Christ's death and resurrection.

191

Given the significance of the crucifixion, he concluded, this makes perfect sense in ancient literature.

192

In addition to the four Gospels, scholars often refer to what they call Q, which stands for the German word Quell or Source.

193

Because of similarities in language and content,

194

it has traditionally been assumed that Matthew and Luke drew upon Mark's earlier gospel in writing their own.

195

In addition, scholars have said that Matthew and Luke also incorporated some material from this mysterious Q, material that is absent from Mark.

196

What exactly is Q?

197

I asked Blomberg.

198

It's nothing more than a hypothesis, he replied, again, leaning back comfortably in his chair.

199

With few exceptions, it's just sayings or teachings of Jesus, which once may have formed an independent, separate document.

200

You see, it was a common literary genre to collect the sayings of respected teachers,

201

sort of as we compile the top music of a singer and put it into a best of album.

202

Q may have been something like that.

203

At least that's the theory.

204

But if Q existed before Matthew and Luke, it would constitute early material about Jesus.

205

Perhaps, I thought, it can shed some fresh light on what Jesus was really like.

206

Let me ask this, I said.

207

If you isolate just the material from Q, what kind of picture of Jesus do you get?

208

Blomberg stroked his beard and stared at the ceiling for a moment as he pondered the question.

209

Well, you have to keep in mind that Q was a collection of sayings,

210

and therefore it didn't have the narrative material that would have given us a more fully orbed picture of Jesus,

211

he replied, speaking slowly as he chose each word with care.

212

Even so, you find Jesus making some very strong claims.

213

For instance, that he was wisdom personified, that he was the one by whom God will judge all humanity, whether they confess him or disavow him.

214

A significant scholarly book has argued recently that if you isolate all the Q sayings, one actually gets the same kind of picture of Jesus,

215

of someone who made audacious claims about himself, as you find in the Gospels more generally.

216

I wanted to push him further on this point.

217

Would he be seen as a miracle worker?

218

I inquired.

219

Again, he replied, you have to remember that you wouldn't get many miracle stories per se, because they're normally found in the narrative, and Q is primarily a

シャドーイングとは？英語上達に効果的な理由

シャドーイング（Shadowing）は、もともとプロの通訳者養成プログラムで開発された言語学習法で、多言語習得者として知られるDr. Alexander Arguelles によって広く普及されました。方法はシンプルですが非常に効果的：ネイティブスピーカーの英語を聞きながら、1〜2秒の遅延で声に出してすぐに繰り返す——まるで「影（shadow）」のように話者を追いかけます。文法ドリルや受動的なリスニングと異なり、シャドーイングは脳と口の筋肉が同時にリアルタイムで英語を処理・再現することを強制します。研究により、発音精度、抑揚、リズム、連音、リスニング力、そして会話の流暢さが大幅に向上することが確認されています。IELTSスピーキング対策や自然な英語コミュニケーションを目指す方に特におすすめです。

シャドーイング練習: 1/ 1 The Case for Christ Chapter Eyewitness Evidence does it reach a reasonable level of certainty - 動画で英語スピーキングを学ぶ

この動画が英語スピーキング練習に最適な理由

自然な英語表現を分解してみよう

シンプルな英語シャドーイング練習ルーティン

シャドーイングとは？英語上達に効果的な理由