Teach children about Jesus at a young age,

[robvalue]

I've found Christians, on the whole, know jack shit about the historicity of the bible.

You should really steer clear of Matthew. He is plain bonkers, even amongst the already high standard of his peers.

I can understand why they don't know. Asking questions like, "Who wrote this? When? Why? What were their sources? How was this compiled? How reliable is it?" is rather like asking "How does Santa get to every child in one night?". To keep the magic alive, you need as little reliable information as possible.