Why the gospels hold up as history (Craig Keener)
Faith Lab
Nate Hanson
4.6 • 583 Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2026
⏱️ 80 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We trust ancient biographies that were written 450 years after the fact. So why do so many Christians get told the gospels can't be trusted as history?
New Testament scholar Craig Keener (author of Christobiography and a four-volume commentary on Acts) is on the show with us. He was a self-described smug atheist before he became one of the most published New Testament scholars alive, and the path he took to find out whether any of this is actually true is worth listening to.
🙏 Faith Lab is a listener-supported show. If these conversations are helping you, you can support the show at https://faithlabshow.com/support
★ Support this podcast ★Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Sometimes when people say, you know, miracles can't happen, so they couldn't have happened back then because we know they don't happen today. And I'm like, there's plenty of witnesses for them today. But I like to give the illustration, you know, you've come across a traffic accident and the officer is interviewing witnesses. And then somebody comes up and says, wait, don't listen to them. That's not what happened. And the officer says, well, tell me what you saw happened. I didn't see anything happened. I wasn't there. That's why I know it didn't happen. We wouldn't take that seriously. But when it comes to miracles, people do that. They say, well, we know that didn't happen unless we see it for ourselves, which is what Thomas also said. Welcome back to Faith Lab. We're here today with Dr. Craig Keener. |
| 0:39.2 | And what's super fascinated about Craig is he went from an atheist who was making fun of Christians to their faces to one of the most published New Testament scholars in the world over 30 books, including a four-volume commentary on Acts and, of course, his prize-winning |
| 0:55.1 | Christobiography. |
| 0:57.3 | And then last year, his book, Suffering, its meaning for the spirit-filled life. |
| 1:04.6 | So super grateful and glad to have you with us today. |
| 1:09.6 | It's great to be with you, Ney. |
| 1:12.3 | Okay, so I got to ask right out of the gate. |
| 1:15.0 | You were a smug atheist, is what I've read. |
| 1:18.8 | You mocked Christians. |
| 1:20.6 | And now you're one of the most respected Bible scholars alive. |
| 1:24.1 | Okay, so take us through that. |
| 1:25.8 | How did, what did that look like? How did that, |
| 1:28.8 | how did that happen for you to go from point A to point B there? |
| 1:33.3 | You've heard of intellectuals. Well, I was, I thought I was an intellectual. I was an intellectual |
| 1:40.3 | snob is what I was. I wasn't very well informed about religion. |
| 1:46.0 | But, you know, I had read about different religions and different philosophies. |
| 1:50.0 | It was actually reading Plato that started turning me around in a little bit, |
| 1:56.0 | because I was a pure naturalist, and I didn't have a religious background at all. But when I was reading Plato, |
| 2:07.2 | it started to raise questions about the immortality of the soul. And I didn't think he argued |
| 2:14.7 | his case really well, like, dependent on the pre-existence of the soul |
| 2:20.7 | and so on. I'm like, I don't remember any pre-existence, but I thought his questions were really good. |
| 2:29.8 | And I started, you know, I was still officially an atheist, but I started saying, |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 5 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Nate Hanson, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Nate Hanson and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.