Originally Posted by Juststeve

Abe:

I'm not sure what to make of your argument concerning miracles. I have personally heard people give eye witness accounts of miracles. I judge the accounts to be mistaken but they were eyewitness accounts nevertheless. Therefore I don't think the presence of miracle claims says very much about whether or not the gospel writers informants were eyewitnesses or not.

For a biblical example take Paul. He describes a personal encounter with the risen Jesus. I take his experience to have been a hallucination but nevertheless his account is as eyewitness as it gets in ancient history. While I agree that the Gospel writers were not eyewitnesses, I do so for reasons unrelated to your point about miracles.

Steve