John A. Broussard

How do you assess the reliabiltiy of the Gospels?

Well? What's your explanation? Do you have one?

How can compiling a collection of unreliable documents make them independent wintesses of their reliability?

Please explain.

Orthodox_Freethinker

In finding out who wrote them, why they were written, when they were composed, etc.

What we have is a collection of different books which were written by either witnesses of Christ or those who utilized eye witness testimony.

The star of Bethlehem was a natural phenomenon.

SaintCog

Yeah, about 25 decades or so.

If you are going to make claims that are at the very least disputed among Biblical scholars, you should back up the claim with some evidence. How can you say that the New Testament was compiled decades after the books were written? Do you mean the New Testament in its current form, or do you mean that there was some compilation of some of the books occurring in the early first century? The latter is not disputed. As for the former, I've never heard any scholar make this claim. What is the evidence for it?

Orthodox_Freethinker

I am saying that all the books of the New Testament were written within the first century. Each author is either an independent witness to the life, deeds and person of Jesus Christ or one who utilized eye witness testimony.

The Emergence of the New Testament Canon
Daniel F. Lieuwen
http://www.orthodox.net/faq/canon.htm

SaintCog

I was actually about to compose an answer to this. But since you haven't bothered to respond to my last two posts on this matter, I'm reluctant to spend any more time doing so again. I just don't see any way to carry on a discussion with a person who ignores inconveniently problematic questions and chooses instead merely to restate his dogmatically held position.