The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony and Theology

Testimony starts with a presupposition: it wants to be trusted. When I share testimony in a conversation with someone, I want them to trust me. If a person does not trust what I say, then I am left trying to defend myself. In reality, I will likely move on to talk with someone else. If one person does not believe me story, I will find someone who trusts me and will listen.

The four Gospels were written as eyewitness testimony. They differ from attempts at historical reconstructions of the story of Jesus because Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John use eyewitnesses to compile their Gospels. Reading them as eyewitness testimony takes the Gospels seriously. It acknowledges their uniqueness and their message. This does not mean we are to be uncritical or literal in our understanding, but we are to assess them as testimony.

The Gospel writers using eyewitness accounts have testified to the transcendental meaning of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. These Gospels speak of Jesus as the one to whom they cannot help but give testimony.

Scholar Richard Bauckman writes, "Testimony, we might say, authorizes theology only as theologically understood history." In other words, the Gospels, as testimony about Jesus, are historical theology. We who read the Bible cannot escape theology, even if we think we can!