An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists, by the Rules of Evidence Administered in Courts of Justice: With an Account of the Trial of Jesus
An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists, by the Rules of Evidence Administered in Courts of Justice: With an Account of the Trial of Jesus
A Harvard law professor puts the Gospels on trial. Simon Greenleaf, one of the 19th century's most eminent legal minds, applies the same rules of evidence used in American courtrooms to the testimonies of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. What emerges is a startling proposition: what if we treated the most consequential story in Western civilization as a legal case, examining witness credibility, motive, consistency, and corroboration with the same rigor we'd afford any defendant? Greenleaf dissects the backgrounds of the Evangelists, their opportunities to observe the events they record, and the internal coherence of their accounts. The centerpiece is his meticulous reconstruction of Jesus's trial, treated not as theology but as a proceeding that must satisfy the requirements of due process. The result is neither pure apologetics nor skeptical demolition but something rarer: a genuinely impartial legal brief, letting the evidence speak and trusting the rules to deliver a verdict. For legal minds, secular skeptics, and believers willing to have their faith stress-tested, this remains a singular intellectual adventure.
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“In all human transactions, the highest degree of assurance to which we can arrive, short of the evidence of our own senses, is that of probability. The most that can be asserted is, that the narrative is more likely to be true than false; and it may be in the highest degree more likely, but still be short of absolute mathematical certainty. Yet this very probability may be so great as to satisfy the mind of the most cautious, and enforce the assent of the most reluctant and unbelieving. If it is such as usually satisfies reasonable men, in matters of ordinary transaction, it is all which the greatest sceptic has a right to require; for it is by such evidence alone that our rights are determined, in the civil tribunals; and on no other evidence do they proceed, even in capital cases.””
— Simon Greenleaf
“But the Christian writer seems, by the usual course of the argument, to have been deprived of the common presumption of charity in his favor; and reversing the ordinary rule of administering justice in human tribunals, his testimony is unjustly presumed to be false, until it is proved to be true. ...{independent historians} have been treated, in the argument, almost as if the New Testament were the entire production, at once, of a body of men, conspiring by a joint fabrication, to impose a false religion upon the world.””
— Simon Greenleaf
“Every document, apparently ancient, coming from the proper repository or custody, and bearing on its face no evident marks of forgery, the law presumes to be genuine, and devolves on the opposing party the burden of proving it to be otherwise.””
— Simon Greenleaf
“The evidence which we have of the great facts of the Bible history belongs to this class, that is, it is moral evidence; sufficient to satisfy any rational mind, by carrying it to the highest degree of moral certainty. If such evidence well justify the taking away of human life or liberty, in the one case, surely it ought to be deemed sufficient to determine our faith in the other.””
— Simon Greenleaf
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<a href="https://lex-books.com/book/an-examination-of-the-testimony-of-the-four-evangelists-by-the-rules-of-evidence-a2fcac3c-41f0-4ead-b486-abe5ab6c93e5"><img src="https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg" alt="Read An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists, by the Rules of Evidence Administered in Courts of Justice: With an Account of the Trial of Jesus by Simon Greenleaf free on Lex" width="160" height="40"></a>[](https://lex-books.com/book/an-examination-of-the-testimony-of-the-four-evangelists-by-the-rules-of-evidence-a2fcac3c-41f0-4ead-b486-abe5ab6c93e5)[url=https://lex-books.com/book/an-examination-of-the-testimony-of-the-four-evangelists-by-the-rules-of-evidence-a2fcac3c-41f0-4ead-b486-abe5ab6c93e5][img]https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg[/img][/url]Read An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists, by the Rules of Evidence Administered in Courts of Justice: With an Account of the Trial of Jesus by Simon Greenleaf free on Lex: https://lex-books.com/book/an-examination-of-the-testimony-of-the-four-evangelists-by-the-rules-of-evidence-a2fcac3c-41f0-4ead-b486-abe5ab6c93e5Cite this book
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Greenleaf, Simon. An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists, by the Rules of Evidence Administered in Courts of Justice: With an Account of the Trial of Jesus. Lex, lex-books.com/book/an-examination-of-the-testimony-of-the-four-evangelists-by-the-rules-of-evidence-a2fcac3c-41f0-4ead-b486-abe5ab6c93e5.Greenleaf, S. (n.d.). An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists, by the Rules of Evidence Administered in Courts of Justice: With an Account of the Trial of Jesus. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/an-examination-of-the-testimony-of-the-four-evangelists-by-the-rules-of-evidence-a2fcac3c-41f0-4ead-b486-abe5ab6c93e5Greenleaf, Simon. An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists, by the Rules of Evidence Administered in Courts of Justice: With an Account of the Trial of Jesus. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/an-examination-of-the-testimony-of-the-four-evangelists-by-the-rules-of-evidence-a2fcac3c-41f0-4ead-b486-abe5ab6c93e5.