Recommended Books on Historical Apologetics for The Gospels & Acts

I am often asked which books I recommend for defending the reliability of the Gospels/Acts and Christianity in general, so here is my list. It is not exhaustive, but it will definitely give you a good start.

The categorized as “mandatory” are more basic, while some of those labeled as “recommended” or “supplementary” delve into more profound and scholarly content. Any item marked with a * can be accessed for free online as PDF files. A significant number of these works are downloadable from http://historicalapologetics.org, http://books.google.com, or http://archive.org.

Mandatory Reading:

Author | Book Title
Bennett, Edmund | * The Four Gospels from a Lawyer’s Standpoint
Lewis, CS | Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism (Essay in Christian Reflections)
McGrew, Lydia | Testimonies to the Truth: Why You Can Trust the Gospels
Paley, William | * A View of the Evidences for Christianity
Pitre, Brant | The Case for Jesus: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for Christ
Williams, Peter J. | Can We Trust the Gospels?

Recommended Reading:

Author | Book Title
Bauckham, Richard | Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, 2nd edition
Blomberg, Craig | The Historical Reliability of John’s Gospel
Blomberg, Craig | The Historical Reliability of the New Testament
Boyd, Greg & Eddy, Paul Rhodes | The Jesus Legend: A Case for the Historical Reliability of the Synoptic Jesus Tradition
Hill, Charles E. | Who Chose the Gospels?: Probing the Great Gospel Conspiracy
Kennedy, Titus | Excavating the Evidence for Jesus: The Archaeology and History of Christ and the Gospels
Kruger, Michael J. & Kostenberger, Andreas | The Heresy of Orthodoxy: How Contemporary Culture’s Fascination with Diversity Has Reshaped Our Understanding of Early Christianity
McGrew, Lydia | Hidden in Plain View: Undesigned Coincidences in the Gospels & Acts
McGrew, Lydia | The Eye of the Beholder: The Gospel of John as Historical Reportage
McGrew, Lydia | The Mirror or the Mask: Liberating the Gospels from Literary Devices
Paley, William | * Horae Paulinae, or the Truth of the Scripture History of St. Paul
White, Jefferson | Evidence and Paul’s Journeys: An Historical Investigation into the Travels of the Apostle Paul

Supplemental Reading:

Author | Book Title
Bernier, Jonathan | Rethinking the Dates of the New Testament: The Evidence for Early Composition
Ramsay, William | * St. Paul the Ancient Traveler and Roman Citizen
Smith, James | *The Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul

Reference Reading:

Author | Book Title
Carson, DA and Moo, Douglas | An Introduction to the New Testament
Hemer, Colin | The Book of Acts in the Setting of Hellenistic History
Lardner, Nathaniel | * The Credibility of the Gospel History, 17 volumes
Norton, Andrews | * Internal Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels
Norton, Andrews | * The Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels

Recommended resources related to the topic:

Early Evidence for the Resurrection by Dr. Gary Habermas (DVD), (Mp3) and (Mp4)

Stealing From God by Dr. Frank Turek (Book, 10-Part DVD Set, STUDENT Study Guide, TEACHER Study Guide)

Counter Culture Christian: Is the Bible True? by Frank Turek (Mp3), (Mp4), and (DVD)

When Reason Isn’t the Reason for Unbelief by Dr. Frank Turek DVD and Mp4

Erik Manning is the creative force behind the YouTube channel Testify, which is an educational channel built to help inspire people’s confidence in the text of the New Testament and the truth of the Christian faith.

Originally published at: https://bit.ly/4dG4gyQ