Review of R. Bauckham, 'Jesus and the eyewitnesses: the Gospels as eyewitness testimony': Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006, 538 pp, ISBN 9780802831620, USD 58.99

Abstract

In this large and closely argued book Richard Bauckham of the University of St. Andrews contends that eyewitness testimony as a category of historiography is 'an entirely appropriate means of access to the historical reality of Jesus' (5). He sets out to supplement Samuel Byrskog's 'Story as history – history as story: the gospel tradition in the context of ancient oral history (Leiden: Brill, 2000)', which demonstrates that ancient historians considered the best kind of historical evidence to be eyewitness testimony deriving from personal involvement in events – by identifying eyewitnesses and eyewitness testimony in the Gospel tradition.