Historians apply historical methods ("historical criticism") to all ancient texts including Bible.
The historicity of the Bible is the question of the Bible's relationship to history—covering not just the Bible's acceptability as history but also the ability to understand the literary forms of biblical narrative.[1] One can extend biblical historicity to the evaluation of whether or not the Christian New Testament is an accurate record of the historical Jesus and of the Apostolic Age. This tends to vary depending upon the opinion of the scholar.
When studying the books of the Bible, scholars examine the historical context of passages, the importance ascribed to events by the authors, and the contrast between the descriptions of these events and other historical evidence. Being a collaborative work composed and redacted over the course of several centuries,[2] the historicity of the Bible is not consistent throughout the entirety of its contents.
The mainstream scholarly community soon arrived at a consensus, which holds today, that Genesis 1–11 is a highly schematic literary work representing theology/symbolic mythology rather than actual history or science.[33]
The historical reliability of the Gospels is evaluated by experts who have not found a complete consensus. While all four canonical gospels contain some sayings and events which may meet one or more of the five criteria for historical reliability used in biblical studies,[note 1] the assessment and evaluation of these elements is a matter of ongoing debate.[1][note 2]
Virtually all scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus of Nazareth existed in 1st century Judea,[2][3][4] but scholars differ on the historicity of specific episodes described in the biblical accounts of Jesus.[5] The only two events subject to "almost universal assent"[6] are that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and was crucified by the order of the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate.[7] There is no scholarly consensus concerning other elements of Jesus's life including the two accounts of the Nativity of Jesus, the miraculous events such as the resurrection, and certain details about the crucifixion.[8][9]
en.m.wikipedia.org
en.m.wikipedia.org
en.m.wikipedia.org