The Mirror or the Mask, 5 of 7: Methodological Missteps?

In my recent book, The Mirror or the Mask: Liberating the Gospels from Literary Devices, I argue that the Gospels are historical reportage. This argument involves both positive evidence for literal accuracy and arguments against the views of Michael Licona, Craig Evans, and others that the evangelists felt free to make historical changes due to the literary conventions of their time. Dr. Licona has recently released a video series in which he claims to refute my work in The Mirror or the Mask. In this series, I respond.  If you're interested in more information on these issues, please see the accompanying blog posts and, most importantly, The Mirror or the Mask itself.  In this episode I discuss ways in which the reportage model is supported by undesigned coincidences and other confirmed details in the Gospels and how this means that the compositional device model is disconfirmed by that same evidence.  My deepest thanks to Immanuel Fellowship Church for their studio facilities and hard work in helping me to put together this video series.  This episode was originally published on Jul 20, 2020 on YouTube. 

There are two associated blog posts.   https://lydiaswebpage.blogspot.com/2020/07/new-licona-series-methodological.html   https://lydiaswebpage.blogspot.com/2020/07/new-licona-series-does-origen-support.html  The Mirror or the Mask: https://www.amazon.com/Mirror-Mask-Liberating-Gospels-Literary/dp/1947929070  Michael Licona, Why Are There Differences in the Gospels? https://www.amazon.com/Why-Are-There-Differences-Gospels/dp/0190264268  Lydia McGrew on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lydia.mcgrew.5    Mike Licona's video series on my work: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpPGCP1zKznR06Jxb5RaQYrNIiH7xR7ZR