Of the contributors to the New Testament, which authors knew Jesus?

Even if you accept the traditionally ascribed authorship of the new testament (and it is speculation since the authors did not sign their writings)

At least Paul and Luke (author of Acts and the Gospel of Luke) NEVER even met Jesus.

Think about that...Christians get most of their religion from people who never even met Jesus.

Most Christian New Testament scholars would agree that none of the authors knew him. Many of the writings were written after about 137 c.e. (there, most say after about 75-80 c.e. but not by eyewitnesses). There was still plenty of editing going on upto 400c.e., but most were mainly complete long before then. One of the main church historians, Eusebius, was not trustworthy, so other written sources (Christian, Roman, Syrian, etc) need to be studied. According to Eusebius, one of the 3 main church fathers was Hegisippus (?) who supposedly wrote 5 volumes, but all we have is 2-3 short paragraphs that he "quotes", no real reason given why Christian bishops failed to preserve such important works).

The main problem with the authenticity of gospels (some also apply to Acts or some of Pauls letters) is that on important, memorable events there is little consistency between the gospels. There also is lack of clear understanding or knowledge of the geography, the history, the customs of Jews and priests and temple worship, or certain historical personages and dates. Some of the descriptions and stories depend more upon the written bible, then upon contemporary writings or later histories like Josephus.

None of the authors of the NT could have known Jesus. If the wishful thinking of some religionists were correct the Gospels could still not have been written prior to the destruction of the temple in Israel when all contemporaries would have died.

The facts are obvious; all Gospels are composed from material which came in the fourth century. While some Christians make false claims about material discovered before this time the truth is that none of that material verifies the Gospels of the Bible.

None of the authors who write about Jesus ever claim to have seen or met an earthly Jesus. All of his accounts are hearsay, written in the third person and written in the form of a fiction story.

For example, he is quoted to say things when he was alone. How did anyone know what he said? Jesus has no historical record outside of the Bible except forgeries and the NT books were written 50-100 years after his alleged time on earth.

This is why churches make belief and faith more important than loving action. This is why instead of telling us that Jesus subverted the old Judaic laws for love and that we are incapable of changing our own character, they tell us only God can.

Secondly, if you compare the details to his life in each gospel, there are many, many contradictions and errors. It can't even agree on his bloodline, geneology and many facts of his life.

There are also no details to witnesses, no artifacts, no dwellings or writings by Jesus in the Bible that can lead us to prove his existence.

Matthew, John, Peter and maybe Mark. James and Jude were Jesus' brothers half-brothers.

Paul and Luke didn't know Jesus before his death.

So most of the New Testament writers knew Jesus personally.

None of them knew Him personally, so far as we can tell; if they did, the only two possible explanations for the major differences in their accounts is that either they were liars or they were stupid. If they did NOT know Him, the differences can be explained logically as a consequence of the errors introduced into any story told & retold by different people, which elevates Matthew, Mark, Luke & John out of stupidity, but renders the Gospels fiction.

Good info here:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=200809...

NONE of them. The gospels might be contributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John but they were not written until at least 70 AD which is 40 years after Jesus's death.

Although we do not really know, of those traditionally attiributed and accepted as such from ancient times:

Matthew - one of the apostles

Mark - probably, it's generally thought he was part of Jesus "in crowd" of followers and his mother's house the Last Supper was held in

John - one of the disciples, probably not the Apostle of the same name

James - the brother of Jesus, so obviously knew him

Peter - the main Apostle and right-hand-man of Jesus

John - an Apostle and Peter's brother

Jude - brother of Jesus

Paul's occasional letters demonstrate a familiarity

with many aspects of Jesus' life and ministry. I list many of

these references here:

1. Jesus was divine and pre-existent

• Col. 1:15-16 (John 1:1)

2. Jesus was born in human fashion, as a Jew, and had a ministry to the Jews

• Gal. 4:4, Romans 15:8

3. Jesus was referred to as “Son of God”

• 1 Cor. 1:9 (Mark 1:1)

4. Jesus was a direct descendent of King David

• Romans 1:3 (Matt. 1:1; Luke 1:27)

5. Jesus was a direct descendent of Abraham

• Gal. 3:16 (Matt. 1:1; Luke 1:27)

In short, “the outline of the gospel story as we can trace it in the writings of Paul agrees with the outline which we find elsewhere in the New Testament, and in the four Gospels in particular.

The idea that Paul did not know any facts about a human Jesus -- often used to support the Jesus Myth fantasy -- is

itself a myth.

Matthew, Mark, John and Peter knew Jesus.