Sceptics try all sorts of ways.
Sceptics sometimes seem to have sight problems. When they attack the Bible… They shoot blindly!
It seems like we are playing “naval battle” without… ships!
The problem for sceptics is that they would like us to believe that the gospels are mythological stories, in which the life of Jesus has been “embellished” by the authors, with the addition of “supernatural” material.
First, sceptics said that scribes altered manuscripts over the centuries. Then scholars checked one by one, almost six thousand ancient Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, and discovered… That they are all the same! Not believing it, even the sceptics went to check it out, and they found… It’s true!
So, sceptics dated the gospels to the second century: too late to be credible. This time too, scholars, with solid evidence, have shown that the four gospels were finished before 70 AD. Later sceptics themselves had to admit it.
The sceptics’ latest idea: the telephone game.
Having lost all naval battle games, the sceptics have now decided to try… The telephone game!
So today they woke up with a new idea. The embellishments would have been added during the few decades in which the gospel was transmitted orally. In fact, no more than thirty years passed between Jesus and the writing of the Gospels. There are no more than thirty
Sceptics are not always so negative and some of them like birthday parties. After the candles and the cake, their favourite part is playing the telephone game. The children form a line, and a message is whispered from ear to ear. When the last player hears the message, they’ll say it out loud. At this point, the message has been completely distorted and everybody laughs. For sceptics, this is exactly what would have happened, in the first century, with the oral transmission of the gospel.
Can we really make this parallel?
Even the ancients played the telephone game. But what was its name? The postman game?
Will it be true? If the oral transmission of the gospel is like the telephone game, then we can create a telephone game in which Jesus, the apostles, and the early church are the players, and the gospel is the message to be conveyed. If the sceptics are right, following the history of the church, we should see the parallels with the game.
Jesus begins the game.
Here is the sceptics’ explanation. Jesus was finishing assembling a door during a birthday party when….
Ready… Set… Go! The game begins. Jesus whispers the gospel in Peter’s ear… Um… No… Wait a moment… It didn’t really go that way… Jesus preached the gospel publicly, in front of thousands of people. So, the game has just begun and the first rule: to pass the message secretly, has already been broken.
Okay, but… Maybe… Jesus preached only once? Certainly not! Jesus preached hundreds of times throughout his three-year ministry. Maybe Jesus preached a different message each time? No! Jesus didn’t preach anything except for the gospel. He repeated over and over the same concepts, using different words. The “substance”, in practice, was always the same. Therefore, the second rule: not to repeat the message, was also broken.
Undisciplined disciples?
Mommy called John and James to give them a little speech. “I just finished talking to Jesus. This is the last time I’ll tell you… you are going to study… Or find yourselves a job!”
The next player is not just one but a group of seventy people. Jesus chose his disciples and taught them as a master teaches his students. So much so that they called him “rabbi“, which actually means “master”.
But, if the disciples had not been good students, the message could have been distorted. First of all, we must consider that the disciples followed Jesus voluntarily. No one forced them, and no one paid them, indeed they left everything, such as their wives, children, homes, lands and careers, to follow him. Therefore it follows the obvious.
Were they absentees? No, the disciples followed Jesus and lived with him from the beginning, after his baptism, until the day of his arrest. Were they distracted? Jesus worked miracles. It’s hard to distract yourself when someone resurrects the dead. They were also personally interested in absorbing their master’s teachings. So, the answer is no. They were present, alert, and, for this reason, excellent eyewitnesses.
Were they distracted? Jesus worked miracles. It’s hard to distract yourself when someone resurrects the dead. They were also personally interested in absorbing the teachings of Jesus. So, the answer is no. They were present, attentive, and, for this reason, excellent eyewitnesses.
Did they remember anything? Events like those were impossible to forget. Jesus’ teachings were repeated hundreds of times, and well imprinted in their memories. To make sure of this, Jesus used: parables, puns, poetic text, mental images, similes and so on. So much so that today we still use some of his sayings, such as “Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s”, in everyday conversation.
By the way… Did you know that the ancients’ memory was much better than ours? In ancient times they didn’t study from books. Everything was in their head. Written information was a secondary element. They believed that a wise person’s knowledge should be in his memory. In any case, those who knew how to write could take notes on wax tablets. This item, widespread in the ancient world, and used in everyday life, was reusable. The letters were etched into the wax with a stylus, and erased with the same stylus when heated. It’s not improbable that literate disciples like Matthew also took written notes.
Concluding: the disciples remembered Jesus’ teachings, word for word, when necessary, and were very good at it.
A loaded ship full of… Disciples!
Once all the 70 disciples jumped in the bus Judas said “Did someone bring the upper room keys?”
Everyone knows the famous twelve disciples. They were those closest to Jesus. But Luke tells us that there were seventy disciples. This is a considerable number. Let’s think about it, if, in the first century, there had been buses, we could have filled one with disciples! Let’s say that one of them hadn’t understood something well, or had missed some event: all the others would have told him or repeated it. Let’s put it this way: think of an important live event, in which seventy cameras are turned on to record every detail.
The disciples take exams.
John and James entered the village, climbed onto the pulpit, git the attention of the crowd, they realized that… they had forgotten everything! At least they knew… Dance and sing! Yes, that was it…. A big success!
Jesus calls the disciples: “apostles”, which in Greek means: “messengers”, and sends them ahead of him to preach alone in the villages he wants to go to. Surely, to carry out this task, they had to understand well what to say and put in all the effort possible so as not to make mistakes. Imagine what a fool it would have been to preach the gospel all wrong, only to be publicly corrected by Jesus.
Jesus respects at least one rule.
Jesus ascends to heaven and leaves the task of preaching the gospel to the apostles. As soon as they realise that, the apostles… just panic!!
Jesus respected at least one rule of the telephone game. He left the scene and the task of preaching the gospel to the apostles.
Jesus’ secret plan.
Marriage is like the apostolate. Once you have discovered what awaits you… you can’t go back.
Jesus predicted several times his crucifixion and his resurrection. So, since the beginning, his plan was to prepare the apostles for their ministry. Jesus knew that they had to be well-equipped to preach the gospel before he’d let them “walk” on their own.
The disciples “take to the streets”.
Peter is speaking to his mother-in-law: “I’m very excited! This new job is so easy! I just have to go to the temple courtyard and say out loud what I have learned by heart! I have a secret to tell you though…. Don’t tell anyone… But I was recommended… By the Son of the Boss!”
Did the apostles whisper the gospel secretly? Obviously not. Like Jesus, they preached the gospel publicly, each time running the risk of being stoned.
Did they preach only once? No. The gospel was preached by them several times, repeatedly, in different places. For example, Peter was preaching in the temple of Jerusalem every day, so much so that the Jewish leaders threatened him and finally imprisoned him.
Did they preach a different gospel from Jesus’ one? Certainly not. As we can read in their letters. Here we find the same theology preached by Jesus. For historians, the principle of multiple sources confirms the authenticity of these texts. In fact, the gospels and letters were written by different authors, but they confirm the same information.
Are the disciples making it all up?
John is angry with James: “Your plan doesn’t work! Didn’t you say that with this story of the resurrection we would get… women?”!
Did the apostles willfully distort Jesus’ message? Nobody lies without reason. To lie you need a motive. But the disciples gained nothing from their testimony, on the contrary, they suffered and were persecuted for it. On the contrary, for them, It would have been easier to lie and save themselves a lot of problems, than to tell the truth and face the consequences. If the disciples were lying, how do we explain their behaviour? The most plausible explanation for it is that they were telling the truth. Their testimony, therefore, is not exaggerated or fabricated but corresponds to what they actually saw and heard.
The game’s message is a “cheat”.
When Jesus appeared, the disciples felt like they were in the movie… the Matrix!
So what are you going to do Thomas? Red pill or blue pill?
The reason why the disciples began to preach is because the risen Jesus appeared to them, and asked them to do so. Put yourself in the disciples’ sandals: if the risen Jesus appeared to you and asked you to go and preach the gospel, what would you do? Maybe you’d say: no, but before answering, let’s see the message they were so carefully passing. What’s in the gospel?
There’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that we have all sinned by rebelling against God. One day we’ll be judged by God, the Perfect Judge, with perfect justice. The wages of sin is death. So a terrible eternal punishment awaits us. The good news is that God loves us. He sent Jesus to die on the cross and pay the price for all our sins. So that if we believe in him and accept his gift, we are saved. This means that we’ll live with HIm forever in the kingdom of heaven. If we are saved we are born again. This means we are new people, who like to obey God, love our neighbours, and follow him. Jesus preached that he is the pre-existent second person of the Trinity: the Son of God. he proved he is God by raising himself from the dead. With that, he also proved that he can raise us on the last day, as he did to himself.
So the disciples now have two options: lie, disobey God and be eternally punished, or tell the truth and probably be killed by the chief priests, but gain the final eternal reward. Obviously, the second one seems the best. If you believe in Jesus you also believe that your life is not ending with the death of the body, but you have an everlasting soul and your real life is eternal, for good or for bad.
The first churches were born.
In the early church, the members of the congregation practically all lived together… just like me, my wife… and her relatives. But really… imagine if even today, by membering to a church… you should have to live together with them!
On the famous day of Pentecost, the disciples begin to preach. Many listeners are converted, and the early church is formed, representing the third player in our hypothetical telephone game. In the same way that the disciples received the gospel from Jesus, the early church received it from the disciples. If anyone in the congregation didn’t understand something, the others helped him.
A modern example of a self-controlled community.
In online communities, I found solutions to my technological problems. I configured the PC, TV and mobile phone. The only thing I haven’t found is how to configure the phone…. Of the telephone game!
This reminds me of the coding. When a programmer doesn’t know how to solve a code-related problem, he searches online, where he finds millions of people to help him in communities like Stackoverflow. Today, looking online is much faster and more practical than searching inside paper manuals. In these communities, users themselves vote for the best solution among those posted by other users. There is no formal control over responses by a manager. There is, however, informal control by the entire community. This is exactly what happened with churches and the gospel.
Paul “takes to the field” and breaks all the rules.
Paul is like that guy who was late for the closing of a contract, overtook a slow-moving car and insulted the driver. Then arrivex at the meeting, discovered that the client was the driver. But in Paul’s case, that driver was… God!
The gospel spreads among the Jews. Many recognize Jesus as the Messiah promised in the Old Testament. Others see him as an impostor and blasphemer. Jewish leaders have two options: acknowledge that they had killed the Messiah, or persecute Christians as blasphemers. They, predictably, choose the latter. One of them is Saul, a young Pharisee who later will also be known as Paul.
Paul travels to Damascus hunting Christians. During the journey, Jesus appears to him and passes him the gospel. Paul converts and becomes the fourth player. Paul receives the gospel first from Jesus, then from the church, and finally from the disciples Peter and James. As a player he has already broken all the rules, consulting with all the other players, including the first one.
Gentile churches are born.
The apostles controlled the message passed to the new churches. Unfortunately for those of Antinoch, it was now too late to turn back. The pastor had already got them all… circumcised!
Jesus commands Paul to preach the gospel to the “Gentiles,” who are all non-Jewish people. Paul spends the rest of his life travelling throughout the ancient world and preaching the gospel. Through his ministry churches are born everywhere in the ancient world. They represent the fifth and final player in our game.
As new churches arise, Paul and the other apostles make sure the message is passed correctly by visiting them and writing letters. This is definitely against the rules of the telephone game.
Again: Did Paul pass the gospel on secretly? No. Did he only preach once? No. Did he distort the message? No. His letters in the New Testament prove it.
False teachers try to make the game funny.
They thought they would became popular, and get money, power and women. The apostles corrected them. Power? Maybe from the Holy Spirit Money? Ok, but sharing with the brothers and sisters: about 5000 people. Women? Only one, for life. Popular? Maybe yes, but only once… At the Colosseum!
In the New Testament, we see how some preachers twisted the message, using it for their own purposes. Apostles call them: “false teachers”, and warn all the churches several times. In their letters, apostles ask all brothers and sisters to be careful, spot them, isolate them, ignore them, and consider them impostors. In the first century, the church knew how to recognize impostors, and the whole community was able to contest a teaching that contradicted those of Jesus. In any case, the last word always belonged to the apostles, to whom Jesus had given the authority received from the Father. The church believed that, and, therefore, listened to them and obeyed their directions.
This is what they call “apostolic authority“. The apostles had the task of identifying, rebuking, and correcting errors in the teaching of the gospel in the first century’s church. And this is what we see happening in the epistles. It’s like a telephone game in which the second and fourth players correct the fifth player if the fifth player has got the message wrong.
The final punchline.
This party is crazy! In the telephone game The first player made us learn the message by heart. The second one has written it on a post-it. In the end, at the moment of greetings, the first player transformed all the orange juice into wine, opened the window and… flew away!
And now the grand finale! The Gentile churches write the four gospels! Erm… No… It’s the disciples Matthew and John, and Paul and Peter’s trusted collaborators Mark and Luke, to do it. It’s like a game of telephone in which the message is said aloud by the second and third players.
Maybe Mark and Luke, not having heard the message directly from Jesus, had misunderstood it? It may be true that Mark and Luke did not personally know Jesus, but it is also true that they both lived for years. in close contact with Paul and Peter, having the opportunity to interview them and remove any doubts.
In conclusion
The gospel was publicly announced, repeated thousands of times, memorized by the disciples and by the church, supervised by the apostles, controlled by the whole community. And this is how you get a message…. distorted!
Is the oral transmission of the gospels like playing the telephone game? You answer!
Thanks for reading…. I repeat: thanks for reading …. I repeat: thanks for reading … I repeat: thanks for reading… I repeat: thanks for reading… I repeat: thanks for reading. See you in the next post!