Eyewitnesses of Jesus

Richard Bauckham in Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (Eerdmans 2006) has done all of us a great service.  He is a respected scholar who cannot be ignored.  In the book he takes on the form critical  "historical Jesus" scholars who come to the Gospels with a presupposition  that our Gospels reflect the views of the early "communities" of believers more than the words and deeds of Jesus.  To the contrary, Bauckham makes a great case that all four Gospels reflect the reliable testimony of eyewitnesses to what Jesus said and did.  What was going on between the time period of the life of  Jesus and the writing of Gospels?

Was it  "anonymous community transmission" that was the main thing happening during these years?  No. Bauckham reminds us that this time period  was spanned "by the continuing presence and testimony of the eyewitnesses, who remained the authoritative sources of their traditions until their deaths ...."   Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, at page 8.  The texts of all four Gospel writers are based on eyewitness testimony.    The Gospel of John was written by an eyewitness. John 21:24.   This time span between the time of Jesus and the writing of the Gospels was only one generation.  During this time the eyewitnesses were available to those seeking information.  Reading the Gospels becomes that much more exciting when you come across names of individuals, like Mary, Lazarus and Peter, and picture them as eyewitnesses who provided information to their believing communities after Jesus returned to the Father.

At Mass last Sunday we had the account of the daughter of Jairus, who  was only 12 years old when Jesus "raised" her.  Mark 5:21-43.   Meditating on this miracle, I thought of the fact that a 12 year old girl could have testified about her encounter with Jesus for another 60 years or more after this happened. She may have still been telling her story in  A.D. 100, a time long  after the synoptics were written and after Gospel of John!