Undesigned Coincidences

Hidden in Plain View: Undesigned Coincidences in the Gospels and Acts revives an argument for the historical reliability of the New Testament that has been largely neglected for more than a hundred years. An undesigned coincidence is an apparently casual, yet puzzle-like -fit- between two or more texts, and its best explanation is that the authors knew the truth about the events they describe or allude to. Connections of this kind among passages in the Gospels, as well as between Acts and the Pauline epistles, give us reason to believe that these documents came from honest eyewitness sources, people -in the know- about the events they relate. Supported by careful research yet accessibly written, Hidden in Plain View provides solid evidence that all Christians can use to defend the Scriptures and the truth of Christianity.

In Christian apologetics, the argument from undesigned coincidences aims to support the historical reliability of the Bible. So named by J.J. Blunt, based on previous work by William Paley, an undesigned coincidence is said to have occurred when an account of one event in the Bible omits a piece or pieces of information which is filled in, seemingly coincidentally, by a different recording, which helps to answer inquiries raised by the first. According to this approach, undesigned coincidences often occur when one account forgoes a reason for an action which is given by a different account (which often does not mention that action). In this case, so the argument goes, there was a complex unified story both authors are writing down despite gathering data from different witnesses.

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