William M. Ramsay
1851–1939
Scottish archaeologist of Asia Minor; his fieldwork converted him from scepticism to confidence in the historical accuracy of Acts.
In his own words
The same truth is expressed in historical form by Luke. He is a Greek, and has the historian's instinct. In that most wonderful passage, II. 1-3, where he describes the circumstances that led to the birth of Jesus, he brings into the sweep of his conception some of the greatest forces that move through all ancient and modern history, and shows how they cross one another at one point, acting and reacting, and that point is the birth of the Saviour, the central fact in all history. In Matthew the truth is presented to us in concrete form as a series of acts performed by individuals. There is a certain resemblance here to myth; but it is not a myth, any more than Jesus Himself is a myth. He must come. The whole history of the world leads up to Him, and finds its explanation and justification in Him. That this world with the stored-up wisdom of the past, imperfect as it is, should recognize Him was another event that must be. This is what Paul puts into the form of a 'philosophy of history' in Romans VIII.
Quoted verbatim from the library, as an answer would quote it.
What we hold of him
The Bearing of Recent Discovery
Classic
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