>>13236066All the Apostles, who wrote the Gospels and several epistles were his contemporaries. I have as much reason to believe Jesus was who he said he was as you do that Alexander the Great existed. Jesus' prediction that the Temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed places all the Gospels except for John's before 70 AD well within the lifetimes of all the Apostles. Not to mention the dating of Paul's epistles, since he died in the late 60's AD and the fact that he quotes the Gospel of Luke and calls it Scripture
“Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer deserves his wages.’” (1 Timothy 5:17–18, ESV).
Paul quoted John's Gospel
“I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ”. (1 Timothy 6:13–14, ESV).
Paul quotes Matthew
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures’’ (1 Corinthians 15:3–4, ESV).
You are wrong. It would be impossible for a man who died in the late 60's AD to quote from works that had not been written, especially since he calls it Scripture.
