The historical reliability of the gospels refers to the reliability and historic character of the four new testament gospels as historical documents while all four canonical gospels contain some sayings and events which may meet one or more of the five criteria for historical reliability used in biblical studies the assessment and evaluation of these elements is a matter of ongoing debate. Skeptics have criticized the gospels the first four books of the new testament as being legendary in nature rather than historical they point to alleged contradictions between matthew mark luke and john they also maintain the gospels were written centuries after the lifetimes of the eyewitnesses. The historical reliability of the gospels paperback oct 18 2007 by craig l blomberg author 44 out of 5 stars 67 ratings see all formats and editions hide other formats and editions amazon price new from used from kindle edition please retry cdn 1244 paperback please retry cdn 1310 cdn 1310 paperback oct 18 2007 cdn 2818 cdn 2818 cdn 2869 kindle . Historical reliability before the gospels were written in their final form the ones we have now to simplify things how did the earliest christians transmit the traditions to be defined in a future article about jesus that is the subject of much of the entire series