Do Oral Cultures Operate the Same as the Telephone Game?
4. Is the NT True?, Apologetics, Bellatori Christi, biblical apologetics, Christianity, Gospel, Inerrancy, Infallibility, inspiration, Liberty University, New Testament, reliability, Sherene Khouri
Secular scholars, especially those who attack the historicity of the New Testament, claim it is difficult to establish historical knowledge that is valid and reliable because of the infallibility of the human memory. People do not recall information accurately, especially if the account is written years after the event. However, historians and archaeologists have been able to make strong cases for their accounts considering several factors, such as the closeness of the written document to the event, multiple attestations to the incident, and so on. In this article, I will discuss the factor of oral tradition communities, how literate people recorded their history, and whether their methodology is reliable or not. Western and advanced societies might not realize that there is a pattern that oral communities usually follow to preserve…