Debate with a Christian

[Jacob(smooth)]

Meanwhile, I've pm'd an admin (rayaan) to set up a debate in the debate forum. Me and discipulus on the topic

"Are the gospels are reliable biographies of the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth."

The only rules I would request are

1. No appeals to authority (eg" most scholars agree") without reference
2. After introductory statements, one point at a time please. I hate those overlong rambling posts with 15 points being argued at a time.

In order to determine where I need to begin my case, I need to ask you your views regarding certain aspects of the gospels.

This question is with regards to your view on the reliability of the textual transmission of the gospels and NT in general. This subject is what is known as bibliography. C. Sanders, in Introduction to Research in English Literary History -https://archive.org/details/introductiontore030300mbp , lists and explains the three basic principles of historiography. They are: the bibliographical test, the internal evidence test, and lastly, the external evidence test.

Is it your view that the gospels as found in the latest edition (Edition 28) Of the Novum Testamentum Graece (Nestle-Aland) are reliable copies of the original gospel autographs?

Yes or no? If not, then our debate needs to be on "Do the N.T. writings pass the bibliographical test used by historians?"

I'm happy to confine our debate to internal consistency and concordance with external evidence. I do have issues with the transmission of the original document to the present day translations but purely for the sake of keeping the debate in the more interesting areas, I'm happy to concede that the gospels we have are verbatim copies of the original texts.