Are the Gospels Eyewitness Accounts? It’s More Complicated Than That - ABS BONUS

“Eyewitness” is one of those words that can end an argument before it even starts. So I slow the whole thing down and ask a basic question: what do we actually mean when we say the Gospels are eyewitness accounts? Once we separate eyewitness account from eyewitness testimony, the conversation instantly gets clearer and a lot more interesting.

I walk through four categories that constantly get blurred together in Gospel reliability debates: eyewitness account, eyewitness testimony, oral tradition, and written tradition. We talk about why eyewitness memory can be sincere and still mistaken, how testimony can travel through other voices before it reaches a written Gospel, and why oral tradition in the ancient world is neither a guaranteed “telephone game” nor a perfect transcript. I also touch on key biblical scholarship ideas like Markan priority, the Synoptic Problem, the hypothetical Q source, and why “written sources” still involve human choices like summarizing, rearranging, and emphasis.

Then I add one more overlooked category: theological storytelling. That does not have to mean deception. It can mean authors shape real memories and inherited material to communicate meaning. We pressure-test the labels by looking at scenes no ordinary follower could directly witness: the birth narratives, private plotting, Gethsemane while the disciples sleep, and even Pilate’s wife’s dream. My goal is simple: stop forcing false extremes and start asking better questions about sources, transmission, and confidence.

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Transcript

Why These Labels Confuse Us

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What's going on and welcome to another episode of the Agnostic Bible study. I'm your host, Joe Teal, and this is another bonus audio only episode. On these bonus episodes, we've been thinking about methods people use when interpreting the Bible. So today I want to slow down and clear up a major source of confusion in conversations about the gospels. People often use words like eyewitness account, eyewitness testimony, or tradition, and written tradition, but we rarely stop and really think through the differences between them. For example, an eyewitness account is not the same thing as eyewitness testimony. Or tradition is not the same thing as written tradition, even if one may later become the other. Those differences matter because if we use all these terms like they mean the same thing or something similar, we can end up having the wrong debate from the very beginning. So today we're going to define the terms, think through the categories, and ask how they relate to the gospels. So whether you believe, you don't believe, or don't know what to believe, you are welcome here to another episode of the Agnostic Bible study. Let's

What An Eyewitness Account Means

SPEAKER_00 1:10

get into it. Let's start with a phrase people use all the time: eyewitness account. At the most basic level, an eyewitness account is a report of events given by someone who personally saw those events happen. The key idea is direct personal observation. The person is not repeating what they heard from others. They are claiming some level of firsthand experience. That sounds simple, but even here we need to slow down. An eyewitness account does not automatically mean a perfect account. Just because someone was present does not mean they remembered every detail accurately, understood everything they saw, or reported it without bias. Real eyewitnesses can disagree, forget details, focus on different moments, or interpret the same event in different ways. So when people hear eyewitness account, they sometimes imagine a flawless video recording, basically. That is not how human memory works. Even modern court systems know eyewitness testimony can be sincere and still mistaken. One time my dad had an important package that was supposed to be delivered to our shop. A couple of weeks went by before he realized it never showed up. Now my dad has a flip phone, so he was not tracking the package like most people would today. Once he realized it was missing, he started making calls. FedEx told him the package had been delivered and signed for. So my dad had asked me if I had signed for it. I told him I remember signing for something around that time, but I didn't think it was that package. For the next month, he was going back and forth trying to figure out what happened. Meanwhile, I kept replaying my memory over and over and over again. Eventually, I had worked my brain into thinking I really might have signed for it and caused this whole problem. So in shame, I called my dad to tell him this may all be my fault. When he answered, he said he had already figured it out. The package had been delivered to the wrong person. A random neighbor had signed for it and everything, and they just kept it. It turns out I had signed for one of my own packages around the same time. I was an eyewitness to a real delivery. But in trying to reconstruct the details later, I blended two separate events together and became confident in something that was ultimately false. Another thing to think about, there's also a difference between a person being an eyewitness to some events and being an eyewitness to everything in, let's say, a narrative, like the Gospels. Someone may have seen one conversation, one miracle claim, one public speech, or one arrest, while having no direct access to private meetings, dreams, internal thoughts, or events that happened somewhere else. That matters because a long narrative can contain both scenes a witness may have seen and scenes no ordinary witness would directly know. So calling an entire work an eyewitness account can be more complicated than calling one moment an eyewitness memory. Another layer of this is authorship. If a document says, I was there and this is what I saw, that is closer to what many people imagine when they hear an eyewitness account. If a later author writes a polished narrative about earlier events, even if they use witnesses, that becomes a different category that we need to discuss later. So for now, the big takeaway is this an eyewitness account means firsthand reporting from someone claiming direct experience, but that does not automatically mean total coverage, perfect memory, or error-free history. And we also have to take into consideration when we look at the four gospels, none of the authors claim to be direct eyewitness accounts. Now let's move to a phrase that sounds similar but is not identical.

Eyewitness Testimony Through Other Voices

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Eyewitness testimony. And I'll be honest here, for months now, I personally have been thinking that eyewitness accounts and eyewitness testimony were basically the same thing. I think a lot of people do that. We hear those phrases and assume they both mean a person saw something and then reported it. But once you slow down, there's an important difference. Like we said earlier, an eyewitness account usually points to a narrative presented as firsthand reporting. It carries the idea that the witness themself is giving the story of what happened. Eyewitness testimony is broader. It is information that comes from a witness, but it may reach you through another person, through an interview, through community memory, through a later writer, or through legal or public retelling. The key point is that the source of the information may be a witness, even if the final form is not written directly by that witness. Let's use a simple example. If I saw a car wreck and then wrote about what I personally saw, that would be an eyewitness account. Now, if I saw a car wreck and then told you what happened, that would be eyewitness testimony. If you then wrote about the wreck based on what I told you, your writing would not usually be called an eyewitness account in the direct sense because you were not there. It would be a written report containing eyewitness testimony. That distinction matters a lot. So a text can preserve testimony from people who were there without being a first person memoir from those same people. And just like we said in section one, testimony does not automatically equal perfect accuracy. A witness may be honest and still mistaken. They may remember the core event correctly, but mix up timing, sequence, wording, or side details. Then another person may summarize the testimony, shorten it, organize it, or combine it with other sources. Now think about how important that is for the conversation about the gospels. Some might say the gospels are eyewitness accounts. Someone else might say, no, they're not. But there is a middle category people often skip. The gospels may contain eyewitness testimony or memories passed through other channels, even if they are not straightforward first person eyewitness memoirs. That is a much more precise conversation than forcing only two options. So the big takeaway here is this eyewitness testimony means information connected to a witness, but it does not require that the witness personally wrote the final narrative you are reading.

Oral Tradition And Human Memory

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Now let's move into another category that matters a lot in conversations about the gospels, oral tradition. This is another phrase people hear often, but many of us don't always stop and think about what it actually means. Oral tradition is information passed from person to person by speaking rather than writing. That can include stories, teachings, sayings, memories, parables, explanations, and community beliefs that are repeated over time before they are ever written down. This was normal in the ancient world. We live in a world of phones, screenshots, cloud storage, and instant notes. But for much of history, communities preserved important material through memory, repetition, teaching, and public recitals. That means oral tradition should not automatically be treated as fake or worthless. People in oral traditions often develop strong habits of remembering and repeating important material. At the same time, oral tradition is not always the same thing as word-for-word transcript. As stories are told and retold, different things can happen. Core ideas may stay stable, but wording may change, details may be shortened, examples may be expanded, orders may shift, and certain points may be emphasized for a new audience. That doesn't mean the whole tradition is false, it means oral transmission is a human process. I read Bart Ehrman's book Jesus Before the Gospels a few months ago, and one thing that book helped me think through was how memory and oral tradition are more complicated than people often make them sound. Some scholars challenge the idea that stories remain highly stable just because communities value them. In that view, traditions may preserve a core memory while still changing in wording, detail, and shape over time. So the discussion is not as simple as saying oral tradition always changes or oral tradition always stays the same. Think of it like family stories. Many families tell the same stories for years. The main event may remain the same, but each person tells it with different details, emphasis, humor, or perspective. Now let's think about why this matters for the gospels. If the stories about Jesus circulated orally for years before being written down, then the category is not simply eyewitness book or made up legend. There's another possibility. Remember traditions carried through communities and eventually written in literary form. Or tradition means material passed by speech through communities over time. It can preserve a real memory, but it is not identical to modern recording or transcript. Now let's move into another category that often gets overlooked: written tradition.

Written Tradition And Earlier Sources

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Written tradition is material that has already been put into written form and is then used, copied, collected, edited, or built upon by later writers. This is different from oral tradition because now the information is no longer moving through speech and memory. It exists in documents, notes, collections, letters, records, or earlier written accounts. That does not mean written tradition is automatically perfect either. A written source can preserve information more consistently than memory alone, but writers still make choices about how they use written material. They may quote exactly or summarize, rearrange events, combine multiple sources, leave things out, expand certain details, or adapt wording for a new audience. So the move from oral to written does not remove the human element. It simply changes the stage of transmission. Think of it like this. If a family tells a story for years out loud, that is oral tradition. If someone in the family finally writes that story down, now you have written tradition. Then if another family member later uses that written version to make a longer family history, they are working with written tradition. Now, let's think about why this matters for the Gospels. A lot of scholarship works with the idea that the Gospel writers may have used earlier written sources. The most common example is the view that Mark was written first and then later used by Matthew and Luke in some way. If you've listened to my show at all, then I know you've heard of Mark and Priority. I always hit it almost every single episode. Some scholars also propose a hypothetical Q source, usually described as a saying source used by Matthew and Luke. It is used to explain material shared between Matthew and Luke that does not show up in Mark. Others talk about M material for content unique to Matthew and L material for content unique to Luke. Those labels do not mean we found lost books called M or L or anything like that. They're simply ways of talking about material unique to the Gospels and whatever sources may stand behind them. And it's also possible that Mark himself was working from earlier sources, whether oral, written, or a mixture of both. Mark does not have to be imagined as writing in a vacuum. Even in traditional Christian views, Mark is usually not presented as one of the twelve apostles or as a direct eyewitness author, in the same sense people sometimes speak of Matthew or John. And we're assuming Mark is the one that actually wrote the gospel, which is debated. Anyways, if Mark is preserving real information about Jesus, then the question becomes where that information came from. It had to come from somewhere. Or tradition, written sources, eyewitness testimony passed on to him, or some combination of those. The only other option would be that he simply invented material. And that is a separate claim people would need to argue for. Whether someone agrees with all those theories or not, the category itself matters. Because once written sources are on the table, the conversation is no longer limited to only two choices direct eyewitness memoir or pure or rumor. There is another option to those. Authors using earlier written material while composing their own narratives. That helps explain why some passages can look very similar while other sections look expanded, rearranged, or uniquely shaped. So the big takeaway here is this written tradition means earlier written material that later authors may preserve, adapt, or build upon when creating new works.

Why Definitions Change The Debate

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Now that we've walked through eyewitness account, eyewitness testimony, oral tradition, and written tradition, we can ask the bigger question. Why do these categories matter so much when talking about the gospels? They matter because people often skip straight to conclusions without defining the terms first. Someone says, the gospels are eyewitness accounts. Someone else says, hey, no, they're not. But if we never slow down and ask what kind of source are we actually talking about, the conversation can become confusing fast because those are not the only two options. The Gospels could involve eyewitness memories from people who were there, testimony passed through others, or tradition repeated in communities, earlier written materials, author shaping and organizing sources into narratives, or theological emphasis added by each writer. Those possibilities are not equal in every passage. But they show the discussion is much more complex than a simple yes or no label. This also explains why debates often go nowhere. One person may mean eyewitness account as a direct first person memoir. Another person may mean based on eyewitness testimony somewhere in the chain. Another person may mean historically reliable enough. Those three are different claims. And if we treat them like they are the same claim, we will keep talking past each other. This is why definitions matter. You can disagree with scholarship, you can disagree with my conclusions, but it helps everyone if we at least know what category we are defending or criticizing. For me personally, this has been one of the biggest lessons in studying this topic. Sometimes the argument is not really about one verse or one contradiction. Sometimes it's about what kind of document we think we are reading in the first place. Before asking whether the gospels are eyewitness accounts, we may need to ask a better question first. In what sense?

Theological Storytelling As A Category

SPEAKER_00 15:53

Before we move into specific examples, I think we need to mention one more category, theological storytelling. I am not saying this automatically means fiction or deception. I am saying that ancient authors often wrote with theological purpose, not just modern journalistic goals. That means a writer may shape material, arrange scenes, emphasize certain details, connect stories to scripture, or present events in a way that communicate meaning to their audience. In other words, they may not only be asking what happened, they may also be asking, what does this mean? We can't always prove this with total certainty in every passage. We were not there watching the writing process, but we can show why many scholars see it as a real possibility. For example, one gospel may shorten a story while another expands it. One author may move material into different order. One account may include details others leave out. Wording may be adjusted to fit themes important to that writer. Or Old Testament language may be echoed to frame Jesus in a certain way. Those are the kind of things that lead people to ask whether an author is doing more than raw reporting. Let's think about modern documentaries for a second. Two filmmakers can use these same basic events and still shape the story differently depending on the message they want to highlight. That does not automatically mean either filmmaker is lying. It means storytelling choices are being made. The same question can be asked of the ancient text. So theological storytelling does not have to mean nothing happened. It can mean real events, remembered traditions, or inherited material being presented through the lens of theological meaning. Why does that matter? Because once this category is on the table, the conversation is no longer limited to only these choices. Perfect transcript, total fabrication. There is another possibility. Authors communicating truth claims and meaning through shape narrative. We may not be able to prove theological storytelling in every case, but it is a serious interpretive option that can help explain why some passages look the way they do. Now let's make this practical.

Gospel Scenes Nobody Could Witness

SPEAKER_00 18:09

When people hear the phrase eyewitness account, they sometimes imagine that every scene in the Gospels comes from someone who directly watched it happen. But once you look at certain stories, that claim becomes more complicated. Something like the birth narrative. Take the birth stories in Matthew and Luke. These include things like angelic announcements, private conversations, dreams, reactions of family members, and events surrounding Jesus' birth before the disciples were even followers. Even under traditional authorship views, none of the disciples were present for Jesus' birth. So where would that information come from? Family tradition, community tradition, theological storytelling, written sources, or some mixture of those possibilities. Then let's think about private meetings among the opponents of Jesus. Herod has a secret meeting around the time Jesus is born. The religious elite have a secret meaning about how to get rid of Jesus in the passion narratives. Some gospel seems describe religious leaders plotting, discussing strategy, or making decisions away from the disciples. If the followers of Jesus were not in the room, how did those scenes enter the narrative? Again, maybe it is later testimony, rumor, memory from insiders, literary reconstruction, or something else, but it is more complex than a simple eyewitness label. Then let's take Jesus praying alone in Gethsemane while the disciples fall asleep. If they were asleep and Jesus was at some distance, how would they know the exact content of the prayer? Some people appeal to later retelling, resurrection appearances, or narrative shaping. The point is not that no explanation can exist. The point is that the category needs thought. Matthew includes Pilate's wife sending a message about a troubling dream. A dream is private by nature. Only the dreamer can experience it. So how did that detail become known? There may be proposed explanations, but again, it is not a straightforward public eyewitness scene. And sometimes narratives describe what people thought internally, their motives, or why they acted. That is common in ancient storytelling. But inner thoughts are not usually something outside observers directly witness. None of this automatically proves the stories are false. That is not the point. The point is that eyewitness account can be too simple of a label for text that contain public events, private scenes, interpretive motives, community memory, and shape narrative altogether. So the better conversation is often not eyewitness or fake. The better conversation is what kind of source material are we looking at in each scene?

A Middle Path On Reliability

SPEAKER_00 20:50

Now, after all that, you may be wondering where I personally land, or it might be obvious. I do not think the best conversation is forcing only two options. Either the gospels are direct eyewitness transcripts with no complexity, or the gospels are worthless and nothing in them matters. I think both of those extremes miss the real discussion. My view is that the text can be historically valuable, deeply influential, and worth studying seriously, while also being more complicated than the popular labels people sometimes use. I'll also be honest that I do often question the historicity of certain events in the Gospels. I think that is a fair part of the conversation. But questioning historicity in some passages is not the same thing as dismissing everything in the text. They may contain remembered events, eyewitness testimonies somewhere in the chain, or tradition, written sources, author shaping, and theological storytelling. And those categories may not apply equally in every passage. Some scenes may be closer to preserve memory, some may show stronger literary shaping, some may be impossible to verify with confidence. That is what makes this topic interesting. Interesting. And the differences we see between the gospels can remind us that these writings may function more like portraits than carbon copies. Each author may be presenting Jesus through a particular lens, emphasis, and arrangement rather than handing us four identical reports. For me, learning these distinctions has been helpful because it changed the kinds of questions I ask. Instead of only asking, is this true or is this false? I also ask, what kind of source is this? How might this story been transmitted? What is the author trying to communicate? What level of confidence can we have here? Are we reading history, theology, memory, or a blend of several things? That kind of precision leads to better conversations. And even if you disagree with where I land, I think slowing down and defining the categories first can help all of us think more clearly. The big takeaway for the whole episode is this before debating the gospels, it helps to know what kind of claim we are actually making about them. So if there's one thing I hope this episode showed, it's that conversations are often more complicated than the labels we throw around. Eyewitness account, eyewitness testimony, oral tradition, written tradition, theological storytelling, those are not all the same category. And if we use them like they mean the same thing or something similar, we can end up debating past each other before the conversation even starts. You may still believe the gospels are direct eyewitness accounts. You may think they are later theological portraits built from sources and tradition. You may land somewhere in the middle. But wherever you land, I think it helps to slow down, define the terms, and think carefully about what kind of claim is actually being made.

Closing Thoughts And Listener Request

SPEAKER_00 23:48

As always, don't just take my word for any of this. Open the sources for yourself. Read broadly, compare perspectives, ask your own questions, and most importantly, draw your own conclusions. Since I know you're listening to Spotify or Apple Podcasts, please make sure to follow and rate the show so you don't miss future episodes. This really helps me out a lot. Thanks for hanging out with me on another bonus episode of the Agnostic Bible study. And remember, never stop learning. We will see y'all next time.