UNDESIGNED COINCIDENCES: Resources for Study

What is an "undesigned coincidence"? 

"Notable details, often mentioned in passing by different authors, turn out on examination to fit like pieces of a puzzle, together presenting a fuller and more credible story....As in a jigsaw puzzle ins and outs, straights and curves fit, sky blue with a touch of cumulus, together in an unforeseen way to present an intelligible picture." (p.98 of Jesus Is No Myth by David Marshall)

Yet another description is given in this 2 1/2 minute video by Jonathan McLatchie:

My Class: 
"Undesigned Coincidences"
*MP3 Audio (45 minutes)
*PowerPoint Slideshow: When you click on this link, you will note the option at the top to "Open with Google Slides" or you may open with MS PowerPoint or OpenOffice Impress (which is free).
*Class Handout
*I recommend opening the audio and using the PowerPoint Slideshow as you listen (and/or the handout).
*"Peter's House" by Jerome Murphy-O'Connor: the article I mentioned that tells why Peter and Andrew moved from Bethsaida to Capernaum for a tax break on their fishing business.
*The entire 16-week course may be found here: "HOW TO HAVE CONFIDENCE IN CHRIST THAT CHANGES THE WORLD (Apologetics 101: A Cumulative Case)"


INTRODUCTORY
Videos
*McLatchie, Jonathan. "What Are Undesigned Coincidences?" The "One Minute Apologist" interviews McLatchie (2 1/2 minutes)
*Putnam, Cris. "Undesigned Coincidences (evidence for the historicity of the Gospels)" (9 1/2 minutes)

Articles
*Owens, Larry. "Undesigned Coincidences - An Introduction, Part 1." Part 2.
*McGrew, Tim. "John James Blunt." A very brief article introducing Blunt (& Paley's) relationship to the argument from undesigned coincidences.
*McGrew, Tim and Z.E. Kendall. "Undesigned Coincidences in Scripture" a page from the CAA Catechism at the Christian Apologetics Alliance website.

INTERMEDIATE
Videos

*McGrew, Lydia. "Hidden in Plain View: Undesigned Consequences in the Gospels and Acts." 
*McGrew, Tim. "Internal Evidence for the Truth of the Gospels and Acts" (1 hour)
*McGrew, Tim. "Timothy McGrew interviewed by Apologetics315." (53 minutes)
*Turek, Frank. "Elaborate Testimony, Part 1" (3 minutes); "Elaborate Testimony, Part 2" (7 minutes); "Elaborate Testimony, Part 3" (6 minutes); "Elaborate Testimony, Part 4" (6 minutes); "Elaborate [Extra Biblical] Testimony, Part 1" (8 minutes); "Elaborate [Extra Biblical] Testimony, Part 2" (6 minutes); "Elaborate [Extra Biblical] Testimony, Part 3" (13 1/2 minutes)
*McLatchie, Jonathan. "Can We Trust the New Testament?" (1 hour 5 minutes)
*Smith, Scott. "Undesigned Coincidences" (42 minutes)
*YouTube Query of Undesigned Coincidences will give you a few more.

Audio
*McGrew, Tim. "Are There Internal Marks of Truth in Scripture?" (39 minutes)
*"Do Undesigned Coincidences Confirm the Gospels" A debate on the Unbelievable? radio program between Tim McGrew and Bart Ehrman (over an hour). In this debate, Ehrman tries to make a parallel between Jesus and Baal Shem Tov. See a response here.

Articles (& Book Chapters)
*Cooper, Brad. "Why Peter Objected to Eating Animals That God Had Made Clean"
*McGrew, Tim. "Undesigned Coincidences" (a 6-part series of blog articles): 
  Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6
*McGrew, Tim. "Tim McGrew Replies to Ed Babinski's Critique of His Discussion of Undesigned Coincidences."
*McGrew, Tim. "Undesigned Coincidences: The Ring of Truth" (summary of Frank Turek's interview with Dr. McGrew on CrossExamined).
*McGrew, Lydia. "A New Undesigned Coincidence Discovered."
*McGrew, Lydia. "An Undesigned Coincidence Involving John 6."
*McGrew, Lydia. "Unexplained Allusions: The Sons of Thunder."
*McGrew, Lydia. "What We're Reading: Horae Paulinae."
*McGrew, Lydia. "Paley's Horae Paulinae on Aquila and Priscilla."
*McGrew, Lydia. "He Is Risen!"
*McGrew, Lydia. "Follow Up to Part II of Ehrman-McGrew Radio Debate."
*McGrew, Lydia. "Undesigned Coincidences in the Old Testament: The Revolt of Libnah."
*McGrew, Lydia. "Evidence & the Artless Author" chapter XI of The Mirror or the Mask, p.255-299. 
*McLatchie, Jonathan. Yes, Richard Carrier, There Are Undesigned Coincidences (6-Part Series). The link will take you to Part 6, but you will find the links to the other 5 articles at the beginning there.
*McLatchie, Jonathan. "The Feeding of the Five Thousand: Did It Really Happen?"
*McLatchie, Jonathan. "The Nativity Defended." 
*McLatchie, Jonathan. "Undesigned Scriptural Coincidences: The Ring of Truth."
*Wallace, J. Warner. Cold-Case Christianity. p. 183-191.
*Marshall, David. Jesus Is No Myth. Chapter 8, p.98-110.

*Wartick, J.W. "Jesus' Birth: How Undesigned Coincidences Give Evidence For the Truth of the Gospel Accounts."
*Spikes, Maryann. "McGrew's Undesigned Coincidences in the Bible."

*Williamson, Ben. "Discovered Undesigned Coincidences."

Books

*McGrew, Lydia. Hidden in Plain View. This important work brings modern scholarship to the argument from undesigned coincidences and does so in a way that is helpful to scholars yet accessible to everyone.
*Blunt's Undesigned Coincidences and Paley's Horae Paulinae (1874). FREE. The two most important books on undesigned coincidences bound together in a single volume. Blunt's Undesigned Coincidences is divided as follows: Part I: The Veracity of the Books of Moses (p.1-109); Part II: The Veracity of the Historical Scriptures (p. 110-219); Part III: The Veracity of the Prophetical Scriptures (p. 220-253); Part IV: The Veracity of the Gospels and Acts (p.254-361).
*Birks, T.R. Horae Apostolicae (1850). FREE (at title link): You will need to scroll all the way to the  bottom of this page to find the PDF file to download. Look for the red Adobe icon just  inside the bottom border. Or you can read it online here.
*Howson, John Saul. Horae Petrinae: Or Studies in the Life of St. Peter (1883). FREE.
*McGarvey, John Williams. Evidences of Christianity (1886). FREE (at title link). "Part III, ch. 7. McGarvey’s textbook contains a chapter discussing nineteen undesigned coincidences among the Gospels. He draws material from Blunt, but he also adds some of his own. The whole book provides excellent material for further study." (from a handout by Tim McGrew)


ADVANCED
Articles
*McGrew, Lydia. "Undesigned Coincidences and Coherence for an Hypothesis." A pre-publication version of an article submitted to the journal Erkenntnis. "A detailed analysis of the probability-theoretic basis for undesigned coincidences, explained in secular terms....Author's accepted manuscript version archived with publisher's permission..." (as stated in the footnote on p.257 of The Mirror or the Mask by Lydia McGrew)

Jesus feeding the crowd of 5000 men (heads of household) plus women and children--an account in all four of the Gospels for which there are undesigned coincidences (Matthew 14; Mark 6; Luke 9; John 6). Image source: Wikimedia Commons.

JESUS' RESURRECTION: Resources for Study

“Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” 

(The Apostle Thomas in John 20:25, NIV)

~~******************************************~~

Resources on the evidence for Jesus' resurrection....


INTRODUCTORY
My Class: "Jesus Is Alive!"
*MP3 Audio 
*PowerPoint Slideshow: When you click on this link, you will note the option at the top to "Open with Google Slides" or you may open with MS PowerPoint or OpenOffice Impress (which is free).
*Class Handout
*I recommend opening the audio and using the PowerPoint Slideshow as you listen (and/or the handout).
*The entire 16-week course may be found here: "HOW TO HAVE CONFIDENCE IN CHRIST THAT CHANGES THE WORLD (Apologetics 101: A Cumulative Case)"

Videos
*"Epic Easter Unbelief" (2-minute video) by Luteran Satire
*Craig, William Lane. "Does the Resurrection Require Extraordinary Evidence?" (7 minutes)
*Cooper, Brad. "Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ."
*Impact 360 Institute. "Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?" (4 1/2 minutes). An excellent popular presentation of the minimal facts argument for the resurrection.
*Habermas, Gary. "Did Jesus Rise From the Dead or Are We Delusional?" The "One Minute Apologist" interviews Dr. Habermas, one of the foremost experts on the evidence for the resurrection. (2 minutes)
*Wallace, J. Warner. "Did The Disciples Lie About the Resurrection?" The "One Minute Apologist" interviews the famous L.A. Cold-Case detective.
*Licona, Michael & Michael Patton. "The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus: 10 Myths." A series of 10 short videos:
-Myth #1: Contradictions in the Gospels (2 1/2 minutes)
-Myth #2: Pagan Parallels in the Mystery Religions (under 3 minutes)
-Myth #3: The Fraud Theory (2 1/2 minutes)
-Myth #4: Hallucinations (2 1/2 minutes)
-Myth #5: It's a Matter of Faith (under 2 minutes)
-Myth #6: Apparent Death Theory (2 1/2 minutes)
-Myth #7: It Was Merely a Legend (2 minutes)
-Myth #8: Science Proves That Resurrections Cannot Occur (under 2 minutes)
-Myth #9: Not Enough Evidence (under 2 1/2 minutes)
-Myth #10: Lost Gospels (under 3 minutes)

Tracts
*True Way Tracts (by Marilyn Joy Tyner). "Did Jesus Rise From the Dead?" Available as a full-color pamphlet or a tract.


Articles
*Craig, William Lane and Sean McDowell. "Can I Get a Witness?" A simple 3-point case for the resurrection.
*Wallace, J. Warner. "The Commitment of the Apostles Confirms the Resurrection of Jesus" An article by the famous L.A. Cold-Case Detective.
*Wallace, J. Warner. Did the Disciples Lie about the Resurrection?
**Last Seminary hosts 17 articles on the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus that can be download for FREE--with brief abstracts for each.
*"Geological and Historical Evidence for Jesus' Crucifixion Account." Excellent!

Books
*Miller, Thomas. Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead?: A Surgeon-Scientist Examines the Evidence. See a review of this book by Craig Blomberg here.
*Morrison, Frank. Who Moved the Stone? Read online for FREE!
*Christian Apologetics Alliance. "Equipped: Vol. 1, No. 3. - Evidence for the Resurrection." FREE! Not a book but a journal issue filled with articles on the evidence for Jesus's resurrection.


INTERMEDIATE
Audio
*Maximal Data Case for the Resurrection with Lydia McGrew: podcast on Apologetics315

*Nick Peters interviews Gary Habermas and Michael Licona (nearly 2 hours)

*Habermas, Gary. "The Minimal Facts Approach to the Resurrection of Jesus" (1 hour 11 minutes): A high quality interview with Gary Habermas giving an overview of the Minimal-Facts approach to the Resurrection of Jesus. A must-listen and a great place to start research into the historical evidence for the Resurrection. The interview was originally given on March, 19, 2014 on The Mind Renewed Radio Program (England).

Video
*McGrew, Tim, Lydia McGrew, Jonathan McLatchie & Tom Gilson. "The Resurrection of Jesus: Live Panel Q&A". (130 minutes) This is an excellent discussion of the evidence for the resurrection between 4 expert apologists. There is excellent discussion related to the evidence for the resurrection and the nature of evidence for miracle claims. 
*McGrew, Lydia. "Minimal Facts vs. Maximal Data Approaches to the Resurrection: A Conversation with Dr. Lydia McGrew." (2 hours 45 minutes)
*Habermas, Gary. "The Resurrection Argument That Changed a Generation of Sholars" (81 minutes)
*Habermas, Gary. "Teaching on the Resurrection" (65 minutes, 2014)
*Wright, N.T. "Did Jesus Really Rise From the Dead?" (97 minutes)
*Williams, Peter. "Things Which Ought To Be Better Known About The Resurrection of Jesus" (100 minutes). "This Easter season lecture will take a serious look at the resurrection accounts in the Gospels and some of the surprises they contain, as well as at some of the best arguments for the resurrection."
*Miller, Calum, Richard Swinburne, Tim & Lydia McGrew, John DePoe and David Glass. "Probability and the Resurrection Workshop." A series of 9 lectures on the evidence for the resurrection and how it relates to Bayes' theorem.

Articles (& Book Chapters)
*McGrew, Tim & Lydia. "The Argument from Miracles: A Cumulative Case for the Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth." This 75-page article is more like a small book but it is well worth the time, as Drs. Tim & Lydia McGrew are both brilliant and careful thinkers and Tim is among the foremost experts on miracles.
*McGrew, Tim. "Is The Resurrection Unbelievable?": A look at Hume's argument against miracles and Bayesian probability theory.
*Habermas, Gary. Dr. Habermas is one of the foremost experts on evidence for the resurrection. This link will take you to a long list of articles on Dr. Habermas' site. There are several on Jesus's resurrection. The easiest way to find them is to use the "Find" function in your browser and enter the word "resurrection."
*Habermas, Gary. "Experiences of the Risen Jesus." A journal article available for FREE at Habermas' site. A good intro to Habermas' work.
*McDowell, Josh and Sean McDowell. Evidence That Demands A Verdict (2017 edition). Chapters 10 & 11.
*Geisler, Norm and Frank Turek. I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be An Atheist, Chapter 12: "Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead?" (p.299-326).
*Craig, William Lane. "Contemporary Scholarship and Jesus' Resurrection."
*Thompson, Bert and Brad Harrub. "An Examination of the Medical Evidence for the Physical Death of Christ" 
*Shrier, Cahleen. "The Science of the Crucifixion"
*Theopedia. "Resurrection of Jesus"

Books
*Habermas, Gary & Michael Licona. The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus.
*Licona, Michael. The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach.
*Wright, N.T. The Resurrection of the Son of God. 
*Orr, James. The Resurrection of Jesus (1908). Biography of James Orr.

*Terry Miethe, ed., Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?
*Copan and Tacelli, eds., Jesus’ Resurrection: Fact or Figment?

*William Lane Craig, Assessing the New Testament Evidence for the Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus

*"Seven of the Best Books on the Resurrection" (list and brief descriptions by Mikel Del Rosario)

RELATED RESOURCE PAGES ON MY BLOG
*Jesus' Historicity
*Miracles
*Messianic Prophecy
*MASTER LIST OF APOLOGETIC RESOURCES


**STILL LOOKING?....
Check out Rob Bowman's picks for the Top 12 Books on the Resurrection...
OR this excellent list of links chosen by my friend and expert apologist, Eric Chabot....
OR "Is Jesus Alive?": an excellent user-friendly website by my friend Erik Manning 
OR this extensive bibliography (with links and many FREE pdf files) 
OR this one....
OR these great resources from bethinking.

"Donall and Conall Meet Richard Dawkins"

by Luthern Satire

JESUS' HISTORICITY: Resources for Study

“There is not a single well-evidenced historical fact about Jesus that undermines the ‘orthodox’ view of Jesus. Nearly two and a half centuries of assiduous study, research, and discovery by archaeologists, historians, textual critics, and other scholars searching for an alternate Jesus have failed to turn up a scrap of evidence that contravenes what Christians have traditionally said about him.” 

(p. 23-24 of Jesus, Skepticism, and the Problem of History: Criteria and Context in the Study of Christian Origins, edited by Darrell L. Bock and J. Ed Komoszewski)

~~*~~

Related Resource Pages on My Blog
*Archaeological Confirmation of the New Testament

*Jesus' Resurrection

*Undesigned Coincidences: Undesigned coincidences are a unique and compelling piece of evidence for the historicity of the Bible. This link will take you to an extensive list of videos, audio, articles and books that are organized similar to this one.
*Alleged Pagan Parallels.
*The So-Called Synoptic Problem: A brief but helpful bibliography with a link to a more detailed bibliography.
*So-Called Lost Gospels ("Gnostic" Writings)
*How Jesus Is Unique from All Other Religious Leaders in History
*Jesus Mythicism
*Miracles
*Messianic Prophecy
*Extrabiblical References to Jesus: A long list of documents from the First & Second Centuries that mention Jesus, with brief notes on some. This is followed by links to a series of blog articles that discuss the more important documents.
*Jesus' Legacy: aka, "Wisdom's Children": How the teaching of Jesus, his Gospel, and his Church have transformed the world (The article is entitled "Christianity and the Ending of the Roman Games, but see the bibliography at the end of the article.)
*MASTER LIST OF APOLOGETIC RESOURCES


INTRODUCTORY
Videos
*Bock, Darrell and Craig Evans. "Did Jesus Do Miracles?" (5 minutes)
*"Are The Gospels Reliable?" (less than 3 minutes) by Questions from Atheists. A very nice concise outline of the evidence.


Articles (& Book Chapters)
*Cooper, Brad. "The Reliability of the Gospels, Discrepancies and Harmonizing Accounts"
*Cooper, Brad. "The Real Jesus: New Testament vs. Gnostic Writings" (p.28-32 of Equipped: Vol. 1, No. 4, "Evidence for the Reliability of the Bible"
*Cooper, Brad. "Neognosticism." A response to claims that Christianity was originally gnostic until the time of Irenaeus (late 2nd Century).
*Habermas, Gary. "Reinterpretations of the Historical Jesus." This is the fourth chapter from one of Dr. Habermas's books and is available for FREE at the title link.
*"Six Hints that the 'Baby Jesus Stories' of the Gospels Are Not Late Additions" by Rob Bowman, Jr.
*"Geological and Historical Evidence for Jesus' Crucifixion Account." Excellent!
*Last Seminary hosts dozens of articles on the "Historical Jesus" that can be download for FREE--with brief abstracts for each. (Scroll down about half way.)


Books
*Wallace, J. Warner. Cold-Case Christianity (288 pages). HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! Available in paperback, Kindle, Audible & Audio CD. Also at OverDrive in ebook & audiobook. 
*Williams, Peter. Can We Trust the Gospels?. Highly recommended.
*Strobel, Lee. The Case for The Real Jesus. Listen to the audiobook version of the book for FREE! Available on OverDrive in ebook and audio. This book and the whole series by Strobel has been extremely popular and I highly recommend them all. Strobel is an award-winning legal journalist from the Chicago Tribune who came to Christ by investigating Christianity's claims for himself. In these books, he interviews a different expert in each chapter.
*Strobel, Lee. The Case for Christ.
*Strobel, Lee. In Defense of Jesus.
*Habermas, Gary. Evidence for the Historical Jesus: Is the Jesus of History the Christ of Faith? This is a FREE! ebook by one of the foremost experts on the issue. Available at Dr. Habermas's web site by clicking on the title link. (Only 88 pages)
*Roberts, Mark D. Can We Trust the Gospels?
*The Christian Apologetics Alliance (various authors). "Evidence for the Existence of Jesus." The FREE Journal of the CAA.


INTERMEDIATE
Videos
*Williams, Peter. "New Evidences the Gospels Were Based on Eyewitness Accounts." A brilliant lecture. Highly recommended.
*Maier, Paul. "Paul Maier Interviewed by Apologetics315."
*Maier, Paul. "The Real Jesus: Paul Maier presents new evidence from history and archaeology at Iowa State" (The Veritas Forum). Paul Maier is an eminent expert on ancient history.
*McGrew, Tim. "Reliability of the Gospels" (Lecture Series)
*Bauckham, Richard. "The Authenticity of the Apostolic Eyewitness in the New Testament" (56 minutes)
*"The Case for Christ": (FREE at title link) Award-winning legal journalist for the Chicago Tribune interviews experts about the evidence for Jesus Christ. "The documentary The Case for Christ follows reporter Lee Strobel as he interviews a number of religious and historical scholars in order to find out if there is any proof of the resurrection, and to discover the historical veracity of the New Testament. In trying the case for Christ, Strobel cross-examined a number of experts and recognized authorities in their own fields of study. He conducted his examination with no religious bias, other than his predisposition to atheism. (72 minutes)
*Craig Keener (also in mp3 audio) has three lectures on "The Reliability of the Gospels" in his online course on the Gospel of Matthew. They are the first three lectures in the course: Lecture one focuses on the genre of the Gospels, the written and oral sources behind the Gospels, issues of form criticism and related issues. Lecture two has some limited interaction with the philosophical objections to miracles and then further responds with a very large number of miracles accounts from historical sources, documented studies and accounts that Keener has carefully investigated himself. Lecture three continues with the miracle accounts and then provides similar evidence for demon possession and exorcism. Highly recommended.
*"Everybody Says Mark Was the First Gospel, But Was It?" with David Alan Black (41 minutes)


Audio
*Tim McGrew is interviewed by Nick Peters at Deeper Waters
*Richard Bauckham is interviewed by Nick Peters at Deeper Waters
*Craig Blomberg is interviewed by Nick Peters at Deeper Waters
*Paul Maier is interviewed by Nick Peters at Deeper Waters
*Darrell Bock is interviewed by Nick Peters at Deeper Waters


Articles (& Book Chapters)
*"The State of Historical Jesus Studies" by Sean McDowell
*"The Evidence for Jesus" by William Lane Craig
*"Is the Jesus of History the Jesus of Faith?" by Ted Wright of Epic Archaeology
"Are the Gospels Reliable?: 10 Quick Points"
*"Recent Perspectives on the Reliability of the Gospels" by Gary Habermas
*"Evangelical Responses to the Jesus Seminar" by Robert L. Thomas
*"The Gospels as Historical Sources for Jesus..." by R.T. France
*"23 Historical Things We Know For Sure About Jesus" by James Bishop
*"Internal Evidence for the Authenticity and Genuineness of John's Gospel": by J.B. Lightfoot. An essay from Biblical Essays, a posthumous collection of his essays (1904).
*I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be An Atheist, Chapters 9 & 10 (p.221-274) by Norm Geisler and Frank Turek
*"The Historicity of Jesus" at Theopedia
*Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus. This journal is published three-times a year and features articles by the world's top scholars. By subscription. Back issues available.


Books

*Skepticism, and the Problem of History: Criteria and Context in the Study of Christian Origins, edited by Darrell L. Bock and J. Ed Komoszewski
*Jesus Is No Myth by David Marshall. My review. Here are a couple of blurbs from two top scholars on the historicity of the Gospels: Dr. Craig Blomberg: “Support for the credibility of Christianity can be found here that is available nowhere else. A must read. ” Dr. Timothy McGrew: "Full of fresh insights, penetrating analysis, and dry wit -- the section on the Baal Shem Tov alone is worth the price of the book -- and some of the best material from the rich storehouse of the history of apologetics." This book responds to Bart Ehrman, Richard Carrier and Reza Aslan, and then builds a strong case for the historicity of the Biblical Gospels.
*Jesus and the Eyewitnesses by Richard Bauckham
*Christobiography: Memory, History, and the Reliability of the Gospels by Craig Keener
*The Historical Reliability of the Gospels by Craig Blomberg
*The Historical Jesus of the Gospels by Craig Keener
*Who Is Jesus?: Linking the Historical Jesus with the Christ of Faith by Darrell Bock
*Jesus and His World: The Archaeological Evidence by Craig Evans. Available at OverDrive.
*The Historical Reliability of John's Gospel by Craig Blomberg
*The Case for Jesus: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for Christ by Brant Pitre
*The Gospel of the Lord: How the Early Church Wrote the Story of Jesus by Michael F. Bird
*Finding the Historical Christ by Paul Barnett

*The Gospels and Acts (The Holman Apologetics Commentary on the Bible) by Michael Wilkins, Craig Evans, Darrell Bock, et al.
*Jesus and the Remains of His Day by Craig Evans
*The Works of Nathaniel Lardner: This has been called "the apologetics masterpiece of the 18th Century" and it's FREE! See a nice summary of Lardner's work at The Library of Historical Apologetics.
*The Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels, Volume 1 (1847) by Andrews Norton. Volume 2. FREE!
*Dethroning Jesus by Darrell L. Bock and Daniel B. Wallace. This book answers common objections: (1) The original New Testament has been corrupted so badly it canot be recovered; (2) Secret Gospels Show Early Alternative Chrisitianities; (3) The Gospel of Thomas radically alters our understanding of Jesus; (4) Jesus' message was fundamentally political and social; (5) Paul changed Jesus' message; (6) Jesus' Tomb has been found and his resurrection did not involve a physical body; (7) Other popular claims
*Historical Tradition in the Fourth Gospel by C.H. Dodd
*The Jesus Legend: A Case for the Historical Reliability of the Synoptic Jesus by Paul Rhodes Eddy and Gregory Boyd. Available at OverDrive.
*The Earliest Christian Artifacts by Larry Hurtado.
*The Mystery of the Last Supper: Reconstructing the Final Days of Jesus by Colin J. Humphreys.
*Was Christ Born in Bethlehem? by William Mitchell Ramsay
*Why Four Gospels: The Historical Origins of the Gospels by David Alan Black


Ancient Historiography & the Genre of the Gospels
*Timeline of the Ancient Greco-Roman Historians: accompanied with concise biographies. A great way to orient yourself to the primary sources.
*The Mirror or the Mask: Liberating the Gospels from Literary Devices by Lydia McGrew. Reigns in some of the "chreia-zy" ideas about ancient historiography current in New Testament studies. The 3 chapters and appendix examining the primary sources are worth the price of the book by themselves! Careful, cogent and lucid. A must read.
*Jesus and the Eyewitnesses by Richard Bauckham. Masterful! A must read.
*The Gospels as Histories by Richard Bauckham. A series of four lectures. FREE!
*"Imitatio Christi and the Gospel Genre" by David B. Capes. FREE PDF article
*Christobiography: Memory, History, and the Reliability of the Gospels by Craig Keener
*What Are the Gospels?: A Comparison with Graeco-Roman Biography by Richard Burridge
*Why Are There Differences in the Gospels?: What We Can Learn from Ancient Biography by Michael Licona
*Plutarch's Lives translation and commentary by Bernadotte Perrin. FREE! Also FREE on audiobook at Librivox are the first 4 volumes of this work (through the comparison of Lysander and Sulla). Since Plutarch's Lives comprise 50 of the 90 extant Greco-Roman biographies, they are important background to the discussion on ancient biographies.

THE QUEST FOR THE HISTORICAL JESUS
Audio
*Quest for the Historical Jesus, a 39-minute audio lecture by Robert Stein. 
*For a more comprehensive treatment of how the Bible's critics have framed the "quest for the historical Jesus" over the last 250 years, check out this set of three excellent lectures by Michael Krueger: Reimarus to Strauss, Baur to Schweitzer, and the 20th Century--surveying the Old Quest, No Quest, New Quest & Third Quest for "the historical Jesus." You can also access it through iTunes or through the RTS Android app from Google Play. It is lectures 2-4 of the Gospels class. 


Books
*Jesus in European Thought, 1778-1860 by Colin Brown
*Jesus Quest: The Third Search for the Jew of Nazareth by Ben Witherington III
*The Quest of the Historical Jesus: A Critical Study of its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede (1906) by Albert Schweitzer, translated by W. Montgomery. FREE!

STILL LOOKING?....

Check out this extensive bibliography topically arranged by my friend and expert apologist, Eric Chabot....
OR this massive 657-page bibliography: Gospel Origins by Alan Bill
OR this very large bibliography compiled by William Harmless at Creighton University....
OR the extensive list of resources at Christian CADRE.....
OR "Retrospective Bibliographies" by John Kloppenborg. Bibliographies for a large number of topics in New Testament studies, especially focused on the Gospels. (Seems to be focused on skeptical works but does include some biographies from more conservative scholars.)
OR the lists of General Resources, Audio and Video, Books, Dissertation & Articles, Discusson at The New Testament Gateway: Part of a large directory of academic internet resources, though sadly lacking in some of the best evangelical scholarship.

Painting by Pieter Lastman (1616) Image Source

COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENTS: Resources for Study

If something has a beginning, it must have a cause. Science has confirmed that the Universe has a beginning. The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, the General Theory of Relativity, and astronomical observations showing the universe expanding outward from a single point, and many other scientific evidences prove the universe had a beginning. In other words, science has confirmed that there was a time when the universe didn't exist. The universe, then, must have a cause that brought it into existence....And that cause must be greater than the Universe.....more powerful than all the energy in the Universe, greater than the size of the Universe, intelligent enough to bring into being the immense order of the laws of physics and the stellar and planetary systems, and with the will to cause it.

RESOURCES FOR DIGGING DEEPER:

My Class: "Why Is There Stuff?"
*This is Week 3 in my series "How to Have Confidence in Christ That Changes the World (Apologetics 101: A Cumulative Case)" which I began September 8, 2019.
*MP3 Audio (45 minutes)
*PowerPoint Slideshow: When you click on this link, you will note the option at the top to "Open with Google Slides" or you may open with MS PowerPoint or OpenOffice Impress (which is free).
*Class Handout
*I recommend opening the audio and using the PowerPoint Slideshow as you listen and/or the handout.

SUPPLEMENTAL LINKS RELATED TO THE CLASS:
*Cooper, Brad. "Understanding The Nature of a Cumulative Case"
**Cooper, Brad. "The Universal Innate Knowledge of God: Resources for Study." See this article for resources related to the fact that we are born with an intuition for detecting design and recognizing that God is behind that design.
*The entire 16-week course may be found here: "HOW TO HAVE CONFIDENCE IN CHRIST THAT CHANGES THE WORLD (Apologetics 101: A Cumulative Case)"


Other Resources:
INTRODUCTORY
Videos

*Craig, William Lane. "The Kalam Cosmological Argument." A very easy to understand and well-produced video with lots of graphics, produced by the leading expert on this particular argument. This video is embedded at Hashtag Apologetics, where you will also find a transcript. (4 minutes)
*Craig, William Lane. "Leibniz's Argument for the Existence of God." A one minute video.
*Craig, William Lane. "Explaining Hilbert's Hotel." A philosophical argument for why the universe cannot be infinite but must have a beginning. (2 1/2 minutes).
*Wallace, J. Warner Wallace. "Does the Origin of the Universe Point to a Creator God?" (29 minutes)
*Meyer, Stephen C. Part 1 of "The Four Great Discoveries of Modern Science that Prove that God Exists": Dr. Stephen Meyer is interviewed on the John Ankerberg Show (29 minutes).
*Meyer, Stephen C. Part 2 of "The Four Great Discoveries of Modern Science that Prove that God Exists": Dr. Stephen Meyer is interviewed on the John Ankerberg Show (29 minutes).
*Strobel, Lee. The Case for a Creator (60 minutes). Also in 10 parts on YouTube.

Articles (& Book Chapters)
*"ID's Top 6 - The Origin of the Universe" at Evolution News & Science Today
*Durston, Kirk. "Why Past History Cannot Be Infinite: There Must Be a Beginning."
*Hainline, Allen. "New Proofs for God's Existence." 
*Craig, William Lane. On Guard (available in Kindle, Audible, audio CD & paperback). Chapters 3 & 4. Also available on Overdrive.
*Strobel, Lee. The Case for a Creator. Chapter 5 (pages 93-123). Available on OverDrive in ebook and audio. This chapter is an interview with the leading expert on the Cosmological Argument, William Lane Craig. This book and the whole series by Strobel has been extremely popular and I highly recommend them all. Strobel is an award-winning legal journalist from the Chicago Tribune who came to Christ by investigating Christianity's claims for himself. In these books, he interviews a different expert in each chapter.
*Andrews, Edgar. Who Made God?, Chapter 7 (pages 93-106). Dr. Andrews' wit and creative approach make this a thoroughly enjoyable book that is thought-provoking and full of insight. This is my #1 pick for anyone who is interested in science and is relatively new to apologetics.
*Geisler, Norm and Frank Turek. I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be An Atheist, Chapter 3: "In The Beginning There Was a Great Surge" (p.73-94).

Books
*Jastrow, Robert. God and the Astronomers. 1978, 2000. Jastrow is an eminent astronomer and an agnostic--not a Christian. In this easy read, he explores how we have come to know that the universe has a beginning and how the fact that this implies that God created it has been disturbing for his unbelieving colleagues.


INTERMEDIATE
Videos
*Inspiring Philosophy. "A Universe from Nothing, Therefore God Exists!" (12 minutes)
*Craig, William Lane. "The Kalam Cosmological Argument" (Plantiga Conference 2014). (50 minutes)
*Craig, William Lane. "Objections So Bad I Couldn't Have Made Them Up (Worst Objections to Kalam Cosmological Argument). (58 minutes)
*Groothuis, Douglas. "The Cosmological Argument."
*Inspiring Philosophy. "The Leibnizian Cosmological Argument" (12 minutes).

Audio
*Craig, William Lane. "05 Cosmological Argument" (Over 2 hours). Four lectures from Craig's "Introduction to Apologetics" course, comprised of 51 lectures. Scroll down the list there to "05 Cosmological Argument."

Articles
*Craig, William Lane. "The Existence of God and the Beginning of the Universe."
*Feser, Edward. "Cosmological Argument Roundup."
*Last Seminary has a large list of excellent articles by various authors that can be download for FREE--with brief abstracts for each.

Books
*Ross, Hugh. The Creator and the Cosmos. (2018) Astrophysicist Hugh Ross presents the scientific evidence for the beginning of the Universe in the first chapters of this book. (The rest of the book is devoted to another important topic: the fine tuning of the universe.)

ADVANCED 
Video
*Feser, Ed. "Ed Feser on Aquinas' First Way and the nature of God" (1 hour 42 minutes). Feser is a leading expert on Thomas Aquinas, and Aquinas did more to develop the cosmological argument than probably anyone else in church history.

Articles
*Reichenbach, Bruce. "Cosmological Argument" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy online).

Books
*Craig, William Lane. The Kalam Cosmological Argument. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2000. Probably the leading evangelical expert on the cosmological argument.
*Feser, Edward. Five Proofs of The Existence of God. Probably the leading Catholic expert on the cosmological argument.


STILL LOOKING?.....
*Check out Christian CADRE's list of resources.

A Hubble/NASA image of Starburst Galaxy Messier 94 (Source)