El caso de Cristo: Una investigación personal de un periodista de la evidencia de Jesús (Case for ...)

Lee Strobel, fue editor jurídico galardonado del Chicago Tribune, es autor de éxitos de ventas del New York Times con casi veinte millones de copias vendidas en todo el mundo. Lee es Licenciado en periodismo por la Universidad de Misuri y obtuvo una maestría en Derecho en la Facultad de Derecho de Yale. Durante catorce años trabajó como periodista en el Chicago Tribune y otros medios, donde obtuvo los más altos reconocimientos de Illinois por sus reportajes de investigación (que compartió con el equipo que dirigía) y por su periodismo de servicio público de United Press International. Anteriormente ateo, fue pastor docente en tres de las iglesias más grandes de Estados Unidos. Lee y su esposa, Leslie, llevan más de cincuenta años casados y viven en Texas. Su hija, Alison, y su hijo, Kyle, también son autores. Sitio web: www.leestrobel.com

El Caso de Cristo / The Case for Christ

Vida Publishers

Chapter One

Can the Biographies of Jesus Be Trusted?

When I first met shy and soft-spoken Leo Carter, he was aseventeen-year-old veteran of Chicago's grittiest neighborhood. Histestimony had put three killers in prison. And he was still carrying a.38-caliber slug in his skull-a grisly reminder of a horrific saga thatbegan when he witnessed Elijah Baptist gun down a local grocer.

Leo and a friend, Leslie Scott, were playing basketball when theysaw Elijah, then a sixteen-year-old delinquent with thirty arrests onhis rap sheet, slay Sam Blue outside his grocery store.

Leo had known the grocer since childhood. "When we didn't haveany food, he'd give us some," Leo explained to me in a quiet voice."So when I went to the hospital and they said he was dead, I knew I'dhave to testify about what I saw."

Eyewitness testimony is powerful. One of the most dramaticmoments in a trial is when a witness describes in detail the crime thathe or she saw and then points confidently toward the defendant asbeing the perpetrator. Elijah Baptist knew that the only way to avoidprison would be to somehow prevent Leo Carter and Leslie Scott fromdoing just that.

So Elijah and two of his pals went hunting. Soon they trackeddown Leo and Leslie, who were walking down the street with Leo'sbrother Henry, and they dragged all three at gunpoint to a darkenedloading dock nearby.

"I like you," Elijah's cousin said to Leo, "but I've got to do this."With that he pressed a pistol to the bridge of Leo's nose and yankedthe trigger.

The gun roared; the bullet penetrated at a slight angle, blindingLeo in his right eye and embedding in his head. When he crumbledto the ground, another shot was fired, this bullet lodging two inchesfrom his spine.

As Leo watched from his sprawled position, pretending he wasdead, he saw his sobbing brother and friend ruthlessly executed atclose range. When Elijah and his gang fled, Leo crawled to safety.

Somehow, against all odds, Leo Carter lived. The bullet, too pre-cariousto be removed, remained in his skull. Despite searingheadaches that strong medication couldn't dull, he became the soleeyewitness against Elijah Baptist at his trial for killing grocer SamBlue. The jurors believed Leo, and Elijah was sentenced to eightyyears in prison.

Again Leo was the only eyewitness to testify against Elijah andhis two companions in the slayings of his brother and his friend. Andonce more his word was good enough to land the trio in prison for therest of their lives.

Leo Carter is one of my heroes. He made sure justice was served,even though he paid a monumental price for it. When I think of eye-witnesstestimony, even to this day-more than twenty years later-hisface still appears in my mind.

TESTIMONY FROM DISTANT TIME

Yes, eyewitness testimony can be compelling and convincing. Whena witness has had ample opportunity to observe a crime, when there'sno bias or ulterior motives, when the witness is truthful and fair, theclimactic act of pointing out a defendant in a courtroom can beenough to doom that person to prison or worse.

And eyewitness testimony is just as crucial in investigating historicalmatters-even the issue of whether Jesus Christ is the uniqueSon of God.

But what eyewitness accounts do we possess? Do we have the testimonyof anyone who personally interacted with Jesus, who listenedto his teachings, who saw his miracles, who witnessed his death, andwho perhaps even encountered him after his alleged resurrection? Dowe have any records from first-century "journalists" who interviewedeyewitnesses, asked tough questions, and faithfully recorded whatthey scrupulously determined to be true? Equally important, how wellwould these accounts withstand the scrutiny of skeptics?

I knew that just as Leo Carter's testimony clinched the convictionsof three brutal murderers, eyewitness accounts from the mistsof distant time could help resolve the most important spiritual issueof all. To get solid answers, I arranged to interview the nationallyrenowned scholar who literally wrote the book on the topic: Dr. CraigBlomberg, author of The Historical Reliability of the Gospels.

I knew Blomberg was smart; in fact, even his appearance fit thestereotype. Tall (six feet two) and lanky, with short, wavy brown hairunceremoniously combed forward, a fuzzy beard, and thick, rimlessglasses, he looked like the type who would have been valedictorianof his high school (he was), a National Merit Scholar (he was), and amagna cum laude graduate from a prestigious seminary (he was, fromTrinity Evangelical Divinity School).

But I wanted someone who was more than just intelligent andeducated. I was searching for an expert who wouldn't gloss overnuances or blithely dismiss challenges to the records of Christianity.I wanted someone with integrity, someone who has grappled with themost potent critiques of the faith and who speaks authoritatively butwithout the kind of sweeping statements that conceal rather than dealwith critical issues.

I was told Blomberg was exactly what I was looking for, and I flewto Denver wondering if he could measure up. Admittedly, I had a fewdoubts, especially when my research yielded one profoundly disturbingfact that he would probably have preferred had remained hidden:Blomberg still holds out hope that his beloved childhood heroes,the Chicago Cubs, will win the World Series in his lifetime.

Frankly, that was enough to make me a bit suspicious of his discernment.

THE FIRST INTERVIEW: CRAIG L. BLOMBERG, PH.D.

Craig Blomberg is widely considered to be one of the country's foremostauthorities on the biographies of Jesus, which are called thefour gospels. He received his doctorate in New Testament fromAberdeen University in Scotland, later serving as a senior researchfellow at Tyndale House at Cambridge University in England, wherehe was part of an elite group of international scholars that produceda series of acclaimed works on Jesus. For the last dozen years he hasbeen a professor of New Testament at the highly respected DenverSeminary.

Blomberg's books include Jesus and the Gospels; Interpreting theParables; How Wide the Divide?; and commentaries on the gospel ofMatthew and 1 Corinthians. He also helped edit volume six of GospelPerspectives, which deals at length with the miracles of Jesus, and hecoauthored Introduction to Biblical Interpretation. He contributedchapters on the historicity of the gospels to the book Reasonable Faithand the award-winning Jesus under Fire. His memberships includethe Society for the Study of the New Testament, Society of BiblicalLiterature, and the Institute for Biblical Research.

As I expected, his office had more than its share of scholarly volumesstacked on the shelves (he was even wearing a tie emblazonedwith drawings of books).

However, I quickly noted that his office walls were dominated notby dusty tomes from ancient historians but by artwork from his youngdaughters. Their whimsical and colorful depictions of llamas, houses,and flowers weren't haphazardly pinned up as a casual afterthought;they had obviously been treated as prizes-painstakingly matted,carefully framed, and personally autographed by Elizabeth andRachel themselves. Clearly, I thought to myself, this man has a heartas well as a brain.

Blomberg speaks with the precision of a mathematician (yes, hetaught mathematics too, earlier in his career), carefully measuringeach word out of an apparent reluctance to tread even one nuancebeyond where the evidence warrants. Exactly what I was looking for.

As he settled into a high-back chair, cup of coffee in hand, I toosipped some coffee to ward off the Colorado chill. Since I sensedBlomberg was a get-to-the-point kind of guy, I decided to start myinterview by cutting to the core of the issue.

EYEWITNESSES TO HISTORY

"Tell me this," I said with an edge of challenge in my voice, "is itreally possible to be an intelligent, critically thinking person and stillbelieve that the four gospels were written by the people whose nameshave been attached to them?"

Blomberg set his cup of coffee on the edge of his desk and lookedintently at me. "The answer is yes," he said with conviction.

Continues...
Excerpted from El Caso de Cristo / The Case for Christby Lee Strobel Copyright © 2000 by Lee Strobel. Excerpted by permission.
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