Lucian and the New Testament: An Evaluation of His Life, Work, and Relationship to New Testament Studies

Abstract

This article commences with a brief introduction to the life and works of Lucian of Samosata and his literary milieu of Atticism and the Second Sophistic movement. In light of this, there is an evaluation of recent scholarship’s utilization of Lucian as literary model and source for the New Testament with particular focus on Richard Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. This article concludes with some cautions and considerations for utilizing Lucian to evaluate the texts of the New Testament.